Fish Lips Aquatic Kiss Sculpture in Green Canadian Marble

"Fish Lips"

    This particular marble from Canada has a blue-green color overall. It is a very hard marble, but as you can see from the way I carved her, she has many, many layers. She is unusual because generally stones that have layers like this have one direction in which the pattern is in straight lines. To get curves, one carves perpendicular to these lines, pushing back into them to make concentric circles. This stone has no such property. She has lovely zig zags from all directions. It simply amazes me.

    So once again, when the stone has a complicated personality, I carve a relatively simple shape. I have been making the "fishlips" expression since I was a child. I do not know why it is so much fun, especially for young children. Since the "Lips Series" tends to be a bit different from my representational style, I wanted to use it to do some exploration. I hope you enjoy this playful stone sculpture.

    Fish Lips has been sealed, like all of my other stones, and is a hard marble. It should be fine to display either indoors or out.  She will be shipped in a crate, included in the price.  However, any customs taxes or fees must be paid by you.

Carving the Original Marble Sculpture:

8 April 2006: Beginning the carving as a stone carving demonstration at the Sculptor's Dominion Invitational exhibit in San Antonio. Here I am set up -- my drawing on the stone is in place and I am soon ready to begin.

8 April 2006: These are some of the sketches of lips that I made earlier from various angles.

8 April 2006: End of the day. This is a very hard marble to carve. Also, demonstrations do not allow me concentrated time to work and think. Progress is slower than even I expected. Photo by Jim Cayton.

13 April 2006: The shape is starting to emerge. I am able to chip off some sections with a large chisel and my hammer. But most of this stone must be ground off. It has a slate-like quality, although it is also a very hard marble. However, I was pleased with the finished work.