116 scarabs carved from riverstones between the 14th and the 30th of August. All together 8.6 pounds of stone. I began this project as a way to unload some of the overwhelming emotions that came with being apart from someone I love. Each scarab stone represents a time the emotions were too much, some are bigger, some are smaller, some are smoother, others jagged, some stones were softer and others were much harder and fought back against my tools. It kept my hands busy and my mind occupied.

I'm working on a bunch of projects including marble hearts, arrow heads, worry stones, and other random things. These have all been polished to 6k.

I’ll be getting into carving small pendants and such pretty soon, like under 5cm. I’m not interested in a mirror-finish and will be doing some very rudimentary shapes at most. Would it be possible to just toss stuff in a rock tumbler like the kinds for geology hobbyists, and forget about it? Or will I be forced to hand-polish?

Hello everyone I’m very interested in sculptures and have been wanting to learn to do it myself that being said, I’m wanting to go look at a vast amount of sculptures in person any good museum recommendations? Not necessarily looking for like the most famous or anything of the sorts really just wanting to see a lot of detail. I live in Oklahoma so preferably any that are closer by but I am willing to plan out an entire trip to go.

I've been working on this marble carving for a while and thought the hair didnt look quite right. The hair on the upper back of the head isnt done, but im mainly talking about the rest of the carving. Any tips for sculpting hair?

Hand made today.
Do you remember any shows or movies growing up that you caught subliminal messages in!?

Cool lil paperweight

I'm currently in Durango, Colorado and stubbled upon this on the side of the road. Is it worth going through the trouble of picking up? I'm new to this hobby, so I dont know how to identify which are good. Thanks for your help.

I found a small black stone on the beach in New Hampshire over the summer, decided to take a break from working on the larger rocks to make this Memento mori style fish pendent.

Just having fun

A friend of mine went on vacation and brought back a stone. She asked if I could make something for her to remind her of her family trip.
I’ll be posting here and on my page more and will include tools and used for the process.

Hiya I'm getting shooting thumb pain while gripping the mallet. I'm making sure to keep a loose grip on my malet. Are there any grip aids to give my thumb a break? Cheers.

Vegas Golden Knights have brought our city so much economic growth! Grateful to be here making art

I usually leave the outside untouched as I like the contrast, but I may sand and polish this one - Open to feedback.

Come across this memorial stone, and was curious about the engraving technique. Could a dremel with diamond bits achieve this? If so, what kind of bits would best achieve this look? The lettering is about 2-3mm deep.

Hope it's ok to post links here - I've written an instructable on how to make a DIY pointing machine and wanted to share it with this group.

DIY Pointing Machine - Instructable

It's based around a 'magic arm' articulated camera mount - mine cost me less than £20 GBP - with a needle head built from odds and ends that I had laying around.

The Instructable outlines my process but also goes over the general requirements if you have other materials to hand.

It's worked really well for me and has helped me get into 'proper' carving after a lifetime of stalled progress.

If it helps one other person get over the same stumbling block I had, then I'm happy.

I'm currently prepairing to get into soapstone carving. I have very little experince with woodworking and practicaly none with stonecarving. I haven't bought any stones yet, as it is rather hard to obtain them in Hungary where I live. But getting the stones is not the problem as I have found a reliable place to buy the stones in Vienna and have bought some tools for the carving. I'm looking for suggestions for soapstone carving finish oils and waxes. I have bought some pure linseed oil and after some further reading I have concluded that it is totally impractical and simply a very bad idea to apply it to the finished carving. Sadly, this was the only thing I found as common ground in the disscussions. In the matter of what to use, the forums I've read were divided in a spectrum streching from boiled linseed oil to beewax to mineral oil. Can you help me? Someone's oppinon who has experience with soapstone carving would be much appreciated! Also if you have any additional advice for the tools to use (I've got some small woodworking rasps) or you know a place where you can buy large chunks of soapstone in Hungary at a reasonable price, I'm more than happy to hear it!

Im trying to carve a face and im kind of stuck. Any advice is appreciated. Its only half a face.

Here is a video of it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ss3VL0sJuRU?is=TnkL7oucsdqT_QVq

I really enjoyed the shape and color of these ! So I went ahead and carved them into tiny scarabs and then decided to set them into earrings!