How To Make Soapstone Carvings
3 Find add another soapstone image or real photograph if you cant find a soapstone example that you will use as inspiration for your larger piece.
How to make soapstone carvings. Made In Canada Gifts curates every piece of Inuit art with care and appreciation of both the piece and the artist. Draw the basic design of the pipe onto the soapstone using a soft pencil and make simple lines to outline the bowl and stem. Begin cutting the pipe shape using carving tools.
It also comes in many colors like grey green and black. If you want a finished soapstone work to shine it must be properly treated and polished using the right kind of oil and the proper techniques. Use a dust mask and safety glasses during the cutting portion.
Not only will our carving and inlay options make your soapstone pop but they will also give you the options to make it your own express your personality or even send a message. Cover the sides of a diamond saw blade with masking tape and install it on a circular saw. Contrary to popular belief most Inuit carvings are not in soapstone but in harder stone such as chrysotile olivine chlorite serpentine or peridotite Swinton 1987.
You can even use your fingernail to carve it. High temperatures will not hurt the stone Soapstone can take temperatures of 1700 º F without any ill effect but the beeswax will evaporate at 300 º F. Make It Your Own.
The stone varies somewhat in the amount of patterning and white veining but overall it is a very consistently colored stone. Soapstone is so soft that you can carve it with harder rocks you find in your backyard. Tung oil or furniture polishing oil.
We will be applying the oil by hand and will use the heat of our hands to help with the absorption process. Like wood soapstone has a tendency to absorb oil. Clean the surface with soap and water.