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Step 1
Tools and stone ready to carve.Gather materials for the heart. Choose a piece of soapstone that is about 2 inches or more square or mostly square. If you have one already shaped in general like a heart then go with that. The soapstone needs to be worked wet. I keep a little bowl of water to moisten it while carving and sand polishing at the end.
The best way to make a heart shape is to draw the top of the heart in one corner. See photo in this step. Then cut off the two side corners and leave the point at the bottom for the bottom of the heart. The hacksaw blade with duct tape wrapped around one end for a handle will be the easiest way to cut off the corners. Make sure the teeth of the saw blade point away from the handle.
Soapstone is very easy to carve, some pieces are varied in thickness and you will find thin and thick sections. If you have a thin area use it for the bottom point of the heart. It looks so nice with a tapered thickness. Or you can carve it down to a less dense thickness. -
Step 2
Carving the top edge of the heart.The heart will lose some of the pattern as the water is used in filing the rough cut. Just redraw it as necessary. The final shape will be determined as you shape with the files and scrapers and sandpaper.
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Step 3
Working down the sides and top of the heart.The final shape is not taking place with the scraper. I am using a ceramic cleaning tool for most of this. This is a very soft piece of soapstone.
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Step 4
Ready to sandpaper the heart.Now the heart is just about complete. A final cleaning with an even finer grit sandpaper will make a very smooth surface.
Comments
librarylady said
on 9/1/2008 What a great video presentation. All the pics seem to be up now too. This is great.
librarylady said
on 9/1/2008 What a great video presentation. All the pics seem to be up now too. This is great.
mosaicmom said
on 8/12/2008 I am trying to add pictures for the steps but the program isn't accepting them for some reason. Check back later and hopefully they will be there.