Tutorial on carving stone

Please click on the titles of the different chapters in order to have access to the whole text

Introduction

I won’t be dealing with any carving technique in this tutorial as a lot of books cover them in great depths. I would suggest to visit sculptor or stonemason’s workshops to discover how they work. A book can’t teach you everything. Books are good once you have an idea how to work with stones, and it is the easiest way to learn very quickly in a very little time. When I go to Italy to source my materials and machines, I always visit workshops to learn a few tricks of the trade which are never found in any books.

Alternatively, have a look at all my videos published on YouTube.com, hopefully they will help you to start with. My videos are about carving a project from start to finish. Also it will show you how to move your sculpture in the workshop and how to set up the piece. Another video featuring ‘A little man’ made of marble chippings will hopefully make you smile. Have a look at them, search for my name on Youtube.com or go to the Video section of this website for more information.

Also, The Health & Safety section is the first chapter because it is the most critical part of the tutorial I want to share with you, so don’t skip it, just learn from it, thanks.

1. Health and safety (H&S = Hugely Serious)

• Stones

• Noise

• Dust

• Vibrations

• Miscellaneous

• The project

• Mechanical/Manual handling

• Health and safety at work in the Construction Industry and what we can learn from it

• Angle grinders

2. Stones

• Afraid of carving your first project?

• Not even a stone in your shopping bag?

• Choosing stones

• Stone suppliers

3. Manual and mechanical tools

• Choosing hand tools

• Mechanical tools

• Tips on Cuturi hammers

• Choosing mechanical tools

• Diamond coated tools

4. Studio set-up and work

• Access

• Light

• Ventilation

• Storage facility

• Safety

5. Tips on tools

6. A small but useful dictionary: stone and tools in Italian