Stone Carving - Bijapur, Karnataka
The direct method of stone carving usually begins with the selection of a block of stone for carving, keeping in mind the qualities of which will encourage the artist's choices in the design process mainly the Salthekere stone of that region is preferred. Artist using the direct method may sometimes use sketches but avoids the use of a physical model. Female sculptor is divided into five parts whereas Male sculpture is divided into seven parts before carving. The fully dimensional form or figure is shaped for the first time in the stone itself, as the artist removes or scrapes off material, from the block of stone and develops the work along the way. The major stone carving tools needed by the sculptor include the point chisel, tooth chisel (rake), the flat straight chisel and a hammer, all of varying sizes and weights with electric grinder. All are artificially made from high carbon steel and hardened for strength. The point chisels removes the major bulk material and are of three sizes, small, medium and large. All narrowing down to a four-sided point and the width, or size of the point, will be determined by its heaviness. The smaller the size, the better-quality or lighter the point. The tooth chisel or rake, for the second stage of removal, is a flat straight chisel with slightly slanting projections. It is available in four basic sizes, the smallest having four points, the next five points, the next six points, and the largest having eight points. The tooth chisel is principally used in the reduction of a larger piece of stone. The flat straight chisel is the finishing tool used before the final grainy finishing, grating, and sanding. It has a straight edge with a slight bevel available in three sizes. There are also specialty tools which are not normally used in standard carving. They include: the diamond shaped point electric grinder, used for removing stones width-wise, a rounded curved tool used for concave carving; the cutting edge is a round shape. Stone carving hammers come in three weights and are made of soft iron.. Common shapes of the cutting ends of the pneumatic tools are: points, rakes, and straight chisels, and in wood carving are short bent, straight chisels, gouge, fishtail, and parting tool.
The process begins with the selection of a fine stone for carving. Many artisans use the stone itself as an inspiration. Other artists begin with a form already in mind and find a stone to accomplish their vision. The sculptor begins by forming a model, sometimes sketching the form of the statue on paper or drawing a general outline of the statue on the stone itself. Then begins the roughing out stage where the artist usually begins by knocking off large portions of unwanted stone. By selecting a point chisel, which is a long, hefty piece of steel with a point at one end and a broad striking surface at the other. A pitching tool may also be used at this early stage; which is a wedge-shaped chisel with a broad, flat edge used for scraping off the unwanted stone pieces. The pitching tool is useful for splitting the stone and removing large, unwanted chunks. Those two chisels are used in combination with a hammer. Once the general shape of the statue has been determined, the sculptor uses other tools to refine and improve the figure. Toothed chisel or a claw chisel has multiple extracting surfaces which create parallel lines in the stone. These tools are commonly used to add texture to the figure. An artist might mark out specific lines by using callipers to measure an area of stone, and marking the removal area with pencil, charcoal or chalk or red oxide. The stone carver generally uses a thinner stroke at this point in the process, usually in combination with a wooden mallet.
The sculptor eventually changes the block of stone from a rough block into the general shape of the almost finished statue. Carving is done with the grain instead of against them. Several cuts with the power tool are made into the stone to make a series of grooves leaving small slices of stone in between which are easily removed without fear of damaging the rest of the stone. Flat chisel is only used in removing the lines of the toothed chisel. The harder the stone, the steeper the angle has to be with continuous passes to make the line deeper. Once the artisan removes the lines left by the point then they rough out the shape using the scrape or the toothed chisel to remove the lines to give it a fine flow. Tools called rasps and rifflers are then used to enhance and sharpen the shape into its final form. A rasp is a flat, steel tool with a rough surface. Small chips or dust are removed by the sculptor using broad, sweeping strokes. A riffler is a smaller variation of the rasp, which can be used to create details such as folds of clothing or tresses of hair. These are used to smooth out the final chisel marks and to carve out fine details of the design. They are not for removing mass amounts of stone although many carvers often use them. These tools are specially designed to work in one direction. After this the sanding process is followed to remove all scratches left on the sculptor. Lastly the final stage of the carving process is polishing is started. Sandpaper can be used as a first step in the polishing process with sand cloth or a filer. A stone that is harder and rougher than the sculpture, is also sometimes used in the finishing process. This abrading, or wearing away, brings out the colour of the stone, reveals patterns in the surface and adds shine. In modern day many stone sculptors use diamond abrasives to sand in the final finishing processes.
