Soapstone.

[Fishi3]

As some of you are aware I am a bit of an artist. Been trying to make it pay for the last few years. So far I can claim to be an almost starving artist as I tend to make sure I eat no matter what and haven't had to resort to eating my paints yet.

Lately I've been given a few small pieces of brown soap stone to play with. Being like most artists easily distracted and prone to wander into new mediums at the drop of a hat I've been playing with these. I'll start by saying that I'm not finding I like the brown soapstone much. It's too soft tends to crumble to easy and other minor frustrations. However it is proving to be a good exercise for developing a gentler hand with the carving knife than is my usual practice. So I'm thinking I should get more and larger pieces.

I usually use grey soapstone which is harder and provides a lot of powdered talc as a side benefit. Nothing worth showing you just yet. I'll probably have to laquer the brown soapstone once I finish carving it as I get the impression this stuff is so soft a stiff breeze damages it.