Notebook

Notebook, 1993-

MATERIALS & METHODS - SCULPTURE - Stone

Marble - Granite - Limestone - Soapstone

Soapstone


Soapstone, also called steatite - A variety of talc, a very soft smooth stone superficially like marble in appearance but with a soapy texture. It will take a smooth polish, and is so easily worked that it may even be carved with a knife. Its colour is dull greenish or bluish grey or sometimes brown. It is vulnerable to dampness in the atmosphere and will serve only for indoor sculpture. It has been used, especially for more decorative and less permanent sculpture, in most parts of the world--in Egypt, Europe, China and Japan, in African Tribal art, and by American Indians and Eskimos. Soapstone carvings are sometimes sold to the unwary as jade.

[Oxford Dictionary Of Art. Chilvers, Ian, Harold Osborne, and Dennis Farr, eds. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.]

















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