One of the very exciting things about being in college was working with mediums that i would never have considered otherwise. We had an option of stone or wood carving for the 2nd years and i think all of us in class chose stone. We were to have 3 X 3 week sessions to work on one or more pieces to finished stage. I hunted high and low for red sandstone but was unable to find any in Delhi in the size that i wanted. I didnt want to buy a truckload! Finally, one of my classmates, Monica, took pity on me and gave me a trianglar piece of sandstone from her collection. She'd found a ready supply near her home.
We spent the first week looking at the shape of our stone and working on ideas to fit within the shape. With my love for faces, how could i see anything but a face? The teacher tried to dissuade me as he didnt want me to be disappointed with my first effort but finally gave up. We acquired a differently shaped hammer and a range of chisels. The drawing was selected and we gave our stone the first tentative tap with the hammer soon realising that it would need more force and also the angle of the chisel was very important if we didnt want the stone to break off in large chunks. It was nice to have a teacher with a lot of patience. The experience was truly exhilarating and I now know that I could look at working on something basic on my own.
This photograph was taken after the first few weeks of carving. I did do a bit more and when I get my hands on it again I shall put up another picture. I think after this picture was taken I managed to lose quite a bit of his nose with the wrong tap! It is still very incomplete. I missed the 3rd session of stone carving as I opted to attend the Life Drawing classes being taken by the Principal instead.
Maya 