More refined

This side of the piece is nearing completion, but for final refinements and finishing. The other side, which has not been worked at all, will somewhat echo the first side but with less relief since it is much more flat.

As of now, I'm planning to start with the high parts to the outside and go down toward the center.

Starting to shape up

After a couple more short sessions, the piece is starting to acquire some character. There is a weak horizon that runs through this stone near the surface that will cause some problems down the line. I'll have to decide at some point whether to carve out those weak areas, try to minimize them with filler or just let the nature of this piece of alabaster be what it is. I'm inclined to follow the last option.

New piece

Well, it's been many weeks since my last post. I went through a few weeks of yard and home preparation for an event at our studios, and then 3 weeks of an attack of shingles. I'm just now getting back to normal and I found that my enthusiasm for the stone I was previously working has waned. In the interim, I also had an idea for a new piece (series?) that I wanted to test. So, I worked two hours yesterday on the new one and it is shown above. One of the photos shows the stone after 20 minutes of work, the other after two hours. I'll get back to the older stone when the time is right.