Kinda loving how translucent this onyx is.
Ok. It’s starting to look like Buddha. At least to me… the hardest parts are yet to come, but now that I can see the general form, I have more confidence in what I’m doing.
For anyone curious, the idea for this came from the many Buddhas carved directly into rock faces around the world. I’ve always admired those undertakings and I thought it would be fun to try it in miniature. I actually want to try to refine this idea some more. There’s a sculptor who creates miniature versions of classical architecture out of marble whose work has been very inspiring. I think as I have time I’m going to try that with carved statues of Buddha… maybe try to replicate the look of mountainsides, incorporate live plants growing on top…
And sometimes this happens…
Orange calcite has a ton of natural fracture points so this was always a possibility. Luckily I’m almost done with the rough shaping and I think I can save it with some epoxy before moving on to the details and polishing…
Lessons learned today:
1) Tibetan is not easy to carve in stone.
2) Carving letters into an uneven surface requires the patience of a Buddhist monk.
In honor of this new banded onyx carving I’ve just started…
What’s your favorite fake Buddha quote?
This is a project I’ve wanted to take on for a while now.
I’d like to get it done in time for Bitcoin Peer to Pier in Santa Monica but that’s happening very soon.
And this is too meaningful to rush. But maybe I can pull it off…
FYI this is a very rough outline done using a projector. Far from what I hope the finished relief carving will look like… 
If you’re in the LA area, hope to see you at Bitcoin Peer to Pier!
You can register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bitcoin-peer-to-pier-tickets-1007649485737
I’ll have a few of my sculptures on display and available for sale if anyone isn’t interested. 
FYI the various stone carvings I’ve recently shared are now available for sale in my Etsy shop.
Would really appreciate you taking a look and following the shop if you have a moment.
Please share with anyone who might be interested!
Thank you. Ya that’s a fun thing to play with when using slate. You can get a bunch of color variations if you’re careful. And thanks for all the zaps!🤝
Done ⚒️🪬
For a small piece, this ended up being a lot more complicated than I had originally intended. But very happy with the results.
Carved in Grayson slate from Virginia and ornamented with 24k gold leaf.
What do you think?
Thank you. I used a combination of hammer and chisel, rotary tools, hand files and then finally sand paper. If you check out my feed there are some Timelapse videos of this and other works of mine..
Nearly done.⚒️🪬
And I was able to achieve the Mona Lisa effect with the eye, although to a more limited degree than my Guy Fawkes mask. I’ll share a video with that later..
Last step is just to add a touch of gold leaf to the iris.. 
Wanna see something cool? ⚒️🪬
I may decide to remove the sealant from either the hand or the background, but I’m going to wait and see what it looks like in daylight before deciding. May just leave it as is in that regard.
Last step will be to remove the flecks of sealant from the eye and add gold leaf to the iris..
Finishing up details on this hamsa 🪬
One of the things I love about Slate is that it’s a foliated stone, meaning it’s comprised of many layers. And when you carve into it and polish it up, those layers can be really beautiful..
Picked up some onyx and travertine yesterday. Some paid for, some free, as they were castoffs from larger blocks.
I obviously love working in stone, but it really is a pain the butt sometimes. These are from a local supplier, but I also just ordered 250 lbs of slate from Vermont. And surprise surprise… the shipping cost is about the same as the cost of the stone itself..
Slate isn’t really found on the west coast so there aren’t any great options unless I want to salvage slate from old pool tables. I’ve done that before and the time it takes to split the large slabs and cut them down to workable sizes is no joke. I figure that ordering it direct will cost more now, but leave me with far more time to actually carve what I want… 
Not quite done yet, but almost.. ⚒️🪬 
Getting close to done with carving this eye. I want to try to deepen the carving more to enhance the Mona Lisa effect where the eye follows you.. But difficult with such a thin piece of stone.
What do you think so far? ⚒️🪬
Hey. Yes I’ve thought about it. Will probably try at some point. Would def create a nice contrast.