Are you passionate about the world of sculpture? Would you like to create your own pieces and produce your own pieces of art just like Michelangelo himself? Great! As you can see, this is an art that we are passionate about and our objective is simple: provide artists with all the best sculpture tools they could possibly need. And it is precisely for this reason that today we would like to give you a step-by-step explanation of how to make a marble sculpture. Shall we get started?
Today’s artists still use the same techniques that were used by one of the world’s most famous sculptors, who we have already mentioned in this post: Michelangelo. It is important to note that, before starting any sculpture, it is essential to have a good visual concept and a plan. Do you have this ready? Perfect, well now we can move onto the next steps. Let’s go!
Step 1: the mould
The first thing an artist should do is make a mould from clay or plaster, which they will use to model the concept or figure they’ve chosen. This material is ideal because it allows you to add all the details you need for your final sculpture. The clay or plaster model actually plays a very similar role to a sketch for painters, because it allows the artist to make or undo changes that wouldn’t be possible when sculpting stone, as once the stone has been carved, it cannot be undone.
Step 2: extracting the material
In this case we want to know how to make sculptures from marble, so that is the material we’ll be focusing on in this post. Marble is extracted from a quarry, where large blocks are cut and cleaned, and a supervisor will indicate how the material should be cut to be prepared for the sculpture. Wow! Sounds interesting, right? It is then cut into the appropriate dimensions so the sculptor can work with it easily.
Step 3: proportions of the marble sculpture
The resulting block of marble is moved to the studio, alongside the clay or plaster version of the sculpture that the artist wants to make. What for? Quite simply so that the artist can measure the proportions and transfer the measurements of the plaster version to the marble block. This will allow them to mark out the main mass of material and the limits of the shape being sculpted.
Step 4: roughing out and sculpting
The fourth step involves removing large areas of material from the block being sculpted, moulding it to end up with the approximate shape and size that the artist wants to work with. For this step, the marks that were made in the previous step to outline the shape will help to avoid removing too much material.
Step 5: the details
Once you have achieved the general form of your sculpture, you can start to add details and perfect your work of art. Once again, you will need to add all the measurements from your previous version to make sure that all the details of your marble sculpture are to the correct scale. For this step you will mostly be using chisels, rifflers and rasps.
Step 6: the finishing touches
Once you have completed the sculpture, you can finish it by rubbing it with oxalic acid to seal it and protect it from possible staining. The oxalic acid will also give it a shiny and transparent finish, adding more visual depth to the sculpture. And that’s it!
We hope that our step-by-step guide to producing a marble sculpture from scratch was useful to you. We would like to give a special thank you to José Luis, who sent us a video from Canal Discovery Max that covers this interesting topic.
Michelangelo believed that each piece of stone contained its own statue and that it was a sculptor’s job to discover it and give it form. What do you think? We could not agree more!
If you are looking for tools to start sculpting and designing your own pieces, we have everything you could need! And if you have any queries, we would be delighted to help you with whatever you need.
For more information Marble vs Granite Headstone, please get in touch with us!