When I am ready to start a new piece the first tool that I use is my angle grinder. I use the angle grinder to get rid of large amounts of stone, slowly and carefully working to see the form as it is revealed. The 4 inch diamond blade is pretty good at making the dust fly so I always work outside at this point in the piece. I take care not to let the curve of the blade define the form of the sculpture. To a greater or lesser extent, the tool that is used necessarily defines the shape that is produced. As a sculptor I am always aware that I lead the tool - it doesn't lead me. By using just the leading edge of the blade I can control more closely how it cuts into the stone. By gently pulling or pushing the grinder it is possible to work in defining shapes but really precise details are left for later.
By the time I am ready to put down the grinder I have a pretty good idea of what is going on with the stone. I may have had to set it aside and shyly observe it, or I may not. I will always have spent time looking at the stone from every angle, moving it to stand in every direction. I may not know which way will be 'up' in the end but I do know that in a 360 degree perspective, the piece makes sense. There are some sculptures that never develop an upside. Most often I can find a preferred way of looking at the form but sometimes I am not willing to sacrifice any of the perspectives by designating one plane as the bottom of the piece. PEBBLES and BUDDHA'S FEET are good examples of this kind of work.
I like this approach because the eye, and the mind, and the soul like variety. By changing the orientation of the sculpture it's easy to rekindle new interest in the form.
Back to the process... At some point, I often use a dremel tool as well. Because of its' range of attachments it can be pretty useful as I get closer and closer to the final form. The huge majority of my time and effort is spent with riffler files and sand paper. I use the files to refine and add detail and the sand paper to make the marks that I have put on the stone fainter and fainter. For a high polished finish I use 6 grades of sandpaper. I have to admit that I don't always look forward to finishing a piece at that point. My finger tips are often raw and my patience with the finishing touches runs thin. Because of this I always have more than one piece on the go at any given time and I move back and forth between a couple of different stages in the process.
I have noticed that there are some advantages to this tedious work though. I become intimately familiar with the nuances of the form that I have created. I notice things that would otherwise have gone unobserved - how one form slides into another for example. Or how a certain curve pulls your eye into the energy at the centre of the piece. I also notice things that I am not completely happy with - an awkward transition or a place where I could have pushed the form a little further. I believe that whether or not I bring these details into consciousness they have an influence on my future work. In this way there is a progression and a continuity to what I am doing that could not otherwise have been achieved.
