zoom rollover image to zoom
Jewelry: Handcarved Alabaster Pendant
5 kudoz

Handcarved Alabaster Pendant

Alabaster Pendant

Alabaster Pendant

Instructions

One must learn traditional stone carving techniques first. I adapted them to a smaller scale for jewelry. I took large blocks of alabaster and using a band saw cut the stone down into working pieces. I used rasps, drill bits on a flex shaft and wet/dry sandpaper to smooth and polish the pendant. Silk cord is attached with a Larks knot.

Difficulty:

Category: Jewelry

Type of item: Accessory

For: Women

Style: Classic


Materials

Alabaster and silk cord.

What was your inspiration?

Obtaining pure form.

What are you most proud of?

The clean, simple lines of the form.

What advice would you give someone starting this project?

Learn tradional stone carving techniques first.

 

2 comments

Add your comment:

pricelesspearl on craftsy.com
Mar 24, 2012    Flag as inappropriate
So elegant and lovely! Thank you for sharing. How long does a project like this take?? Just curious... Thanks again!
Lisa Wood on craftsy.com
Mar 25, 2012   Flag as inappropriate
Not an easy answer to give.. While studying at Parsons School of Design I took several semesters of tradional stone carving techniques - so a year or 2 of learining. Then because I was working on my degree in Jewelry Design/Metals I had the working knowledge of jewelry techniques (I started with silversmithing classes when I was 13). So I adapted my knowledge of stone to jewelry and worked on designing a line of pendants carved from stone. First I worked on my sketeches then I carved in "floral Oasis" a material that is subtractive like stone, to get an idea of my shapes. When I finally sat down to carve the pendants (considering all the groundwork I had laid) the ones carved in Alabaster and African Wonder stone took about 6 hour each because they are soft stones. The marble pendants took a few days each since the stone is so much harder.