I've always wanted to... but never actually got around to it and making the time.... That, and the lack of a ready supply. Well, I should have started years ago.... it's great fun and absolutely wonderful to work with.
For my first piece, I wanted to be as artistic and old-school as I could: I resolved to try and carve a (slightly miniature) classical antefix... and complete it using only a mallet & chisels. I eventually succumbed to also using my bastard rasp (for shaping the back)... but otherwise stayed true to my resolution. I also resolved to complete the carving without measurements... to see if I could replicate the pattern and form through pencil drawing and then execute that into stone carving.
Turns out that it's really not all that hard... and was really good fun. Of course, the lovely sharp tungsten carbide chisels I was using are hardly authentic to historic tools, but, well, I wouldn't go without them... at least not for now.
Classical temples often were decorated with an acroteria at the apex of the roof, and then often had a series of antifixes on the corners and sometimes along the line of the sides of the roof tiles. I've always loved the form of them, and admired the palmate designs often found on them (and also on grave stelae... a future project). I've based mine directly on a sketch from Franz Meyer's Handbook of Ornament (1892) showing an antefix from the Temple of Jupitor Stator in Rome.
At Christmas, I noticed that my partner Libby's mom has a collection of stone eggs... so that's my on-going project... and a future post...
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