Every two years, the International Sculpture Symposium is held in Albalate del Arzobispo, and last November the 13th edition took place. Rock & Tools is very happy to collaborate in this kind of event, providing resources and tools for artists to create their incredible sculptures.

This event has become the international framework where nine selected artists work for two weeks to create a sculpture using the star material of the municipality: alabaster. Nine artists from all over the world participated in the event: Yunmi Lee from South Korea, Lara Steffe and Francesco Paglialunga from Italy, Tanya Preminger from Israel, Yannick Robert from France and Mariano Pastor, Jesús Zafra, Borja Barrajón and Noemí Palacios from Spain.

All participants had to send the project they were going to create during the symposium, together with a dossier of their work and professional experience, so that the committee, who made the final selection, could learn about their style and how they work. The theme of the creation was free, but the aim was for each sculptor to enhance the qualities of the alabaster stone, as the goal is to promote this material through art.

One of the major attractions of this event is that, during the two weeks, everyone had the opportunity to visit the Integral Centre for Alabaster Development and see each artist creating their piece in person.

The organisers are very pleased because "it is clear that this symposium has become more and more prestigious in the world of sculpture. In fact, every year proposals come in from higher calibre artists". This is great news!

Tools for sculpting stone

At Rock&Tools, we have extensive experience in the sale of tools for working with stone, so if you have any questions, we’ll be delighted to help. On our site, you’ll find a comprehensive catalogue of all the best tools for sculpting stone. In fact, our blog offers a host of information if you want to get started in this craft. If you have any questions, get in touch with us for advice. Join our community! Follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

Today, the mystery of Stonehenge continues to fascinate many thousands of people across the world. No one knows exactly how this archaeological artefact came to England, nor what its original use was, yet it is one of the most visited sites, located just north of Salisbury, and one of the greatest tourist attractions in the United Kingdom. Want to learn some interesting facts about Stonehenge?

Its construction lasted centuries

Although it has been exhaustively studied, it is not yet known exactly when constructed started, although what we do know is that it appears to have been built in several phases. It is believed that the first phase began in the Middle Neolithic period (more than 5000 years ago) and that work was carried out intermittently until around 1600 BC, when its construction began again in more depth – which is when the distribution of some rocks was changed, giving way to its current form.

It is made up of almost 100 stones

It is composed of just under a hundred rocks of different sizes, organised in circles. In the inner circle, the rocks have an average size of 4 tonnes, while the outer circle is composed of rocks weighing between 25-30 tonnes.

Its purpose is not known

Although many geologists and historians have tried to work out the purpose of Stonehenge, what’s for sure is that no one has ever come up with a 100%-certain explanation. Some say that it was an astronomical calendar, while others believe it had a religious purpose for the celebration of ceremonies and burials, and there are even some who say it had a medicinal purpose.

It belongs to the British Crown

For a long time, Stonehenge belonged to the Antrobus family, but in 1915, as the last representative of the family line died without an heir, the land was put up for sale in a public auction. It was purchased by Cecil Chubb, but, after three years, he gifted it to the British Crown on the condition that it was preserved and kept open to the public.

A souvenir

This little fact might surprise you: until 1920, visitors were allowed to take home fragments of the rocks, and until 1977, visitors could touch and even climb on the stones. Wow! Today, this is all prohibited as a result of the increasing erosion suffered by the monument.

Tools for sculpting stone

Did you already know these interesting facts about Stonehenge? If you’re interested in sculpture, our blog offers a host of information to help you get started in this world. If you have any questions, get in touch with us for advice. Join our community! Follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media Art Space and on our social media.

Pneumatic tools are those that make use of an air compressor for their operation. Among our wide range of tools for sculpting stone, you’ll find both manual and pneumatic tools. We’ve noted that, at times, our customers can have certain questions about the differences between these, and that’s why, today, we’re going to let you know all about the advantages and disadvantages of pneumatic tools.

Firstly, and in general, pneumatic tools are larger than manual tools. Pneumatic tools are very lightweight and manageable, but – of course – given the simplicity of manual tools, these are even lighter.

On the other hand, and as you might expect, pneumatic tools are more powerful than their manual counterparts. Of course, power is one of the most important aspects to consider when deciding which tool to buy, as well as the cut or shape, size, and quality. Likewise, pneumatic tools are ideal for very repetitive work. If you use a manual tool, you’ll need to exercise pressure by hammering with another tool to sculpt the stone. However, this is not the case with pneumatic tools, which make the work much easier – especially when dealing with large areas for which you want to work quickly and easily.

However, and logically, pneumatic tools are more expensive than manual tools. As a result, pneumatic tools are recommended for professionals and all those who expect to be able to recoup their investment. For beginners, it’s better to get started with manual tools while you learn how to sculpt stone and, over time, you may wish to invest in pneumatic tools.

Tools for sculpting stone

Have you found this post useful? At Rock&Tools we have extensive experience in the sale of tools for working with stone, so if you have any questions, we’ll be delighted to help.  On our site, you’ll find a comprehensive catalogue of all the best tools for sculpting stone. In fact, our blog offers a host of information if you want to get started in this world. If you have any questions, get in touch with us for advice. Join our community! You can follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

The Baroque period was a cultural and artistic era that took place during the 17th century and the start of the 18th century, developed across Europe and the American colonies. This artistic style developed in a time filled with great political and religious tensions between catholic and protestant countries, ultimately becoming a form of propagandistic art for both sides. Want to discover its main characteristics?

1. Baroque sculpture has an expressive, ornamental, and dynamic personality and was mainly used to decorate religious buildings, palaces, and some public spaces.

2. These were hugely important as ornaments in the architectural spaces of the time, particularly in fountains – both indoor and outdoor.

3. While bronze and marble were used as materials, Baroque art was characterised by polychrome wood and stone in outdoor sculptures.

4. These statues were inspired by everyday life and the religious imaginary; however, these were also monumental works – excessively elaborate and lavishly ornate.

5. Through theatricality, these artists sought to demonstrate the power of the elite, the aristocracy, the clergy, and the monarchy.

6. These sculptures realistically reflected the physical features and movements of the human body. They did not seek to idealise, only to offer intensity, vitality, and movement to complex sculptures, in which the characters represented are interlinked.

7. The sculptors avoided symmetry, multiplying the folds of clothes to give a feeling of greater realism and, what’s more, used counterpoint techniques to achieve contrasts of light that enhanced the emotional weight of the sculptures, creating a greater sensation of movement in the figures represented.

Tools for dry stone

At Rock&Tools we have extensive experience in the sale of tools for working with stone. On our website, you’ll find a comprehensive range of all the best tools for sculpting stone, with a huge amount of fascinating information about this technique available on our blog. Need more information about tools? Contact us for advice. Join our community! You can follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

The art of dry-stone walling – or the art of stone construction without the use of any binding mortar – as you know, has been included in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage for a few years now. Would you like to find out where you can see these constructions in the Valencian Community?

Today, a few of these constructions can still be seen in the Valencian Community – in various states of conservation. In the province of Valencia itself, there are two routes on which you’ll be able to spot a few of these constructions.

One of these can be found in Yátova – this route is very accessible for all ages and abilities, and runs along the SL-CV 165 footpath for about nine kilometres. On this path, you’ll see constructions previously used for woodland activities. The other can be found in Enguera, one of the town’s in which we can see the most constructions in this style. Known as the Cucos de la Sierra de Enguera, these are characteristic elements of the agricultural landscape. To reach the latter, a 15-km route is available – setting off from Adene.

However, when it comes to provinces, Castellón stands out above the other two. The northern regions in particular offer up some great examples of this type of architecture. For example, in Vilafranca you’ll find a museum and a selection of routes dedicated to dry-stone walling. However, there are plenty of other municipalities in Castellón featuring dry-stone constructions – like Vinaroz, Tirig, Catí or Albocàsser, among others.

Tools for dry stone

At Rock&Tools we sell various tools for working with stone and for dry-stone construction techniques. On our website, you’ll find a comprehensive range of all the best tools for sculpting stone, with a huge amount of interesting information about this technique available on our blog. Need more information about tools? Contact us for advice. Join our community! You can follow us here, on ourArt Space and on our social media.

Already thinking about your next holiday? Will you be staying close to home or are you lucky enough to be heading off to visit somewhere abroad? If you fall into the second group, you might want to take advantage of the opportunity to admire a few of the most curious works. Today, we’re going to show you a few of the most important sculptures you can visit in Europe simply by strolling the streets and without the need to visit a single museum or exhibition. Take note!

Man Hanging Out (Prague, Czech Republic)

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and – what’s more – while you’re there, you can admire a truly curious sculpture entitled ‘Man Hanging Out’. This piece is a work by the sculptor David Cerný. In it, we see Doctor Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, carved in metal and hanging from a beam with a single arm. The sculpture is so impressive that some have even confused it with a real person. With it, Cerný asks what role intellectuals will play in the future. What do you think?

Čumil (Bratislava, Slovakia)

 Although it’s true that you can find many bronze statues throughout the city of Bratislava, one particularly well-known example is Čumil. Čumil means watchman or observer, and the sculpture features a worker emerging from one of the city’s sewers. If you visit Bratislava, as well as looking for this sculpture, you should also keep an eye out for the many others dotted around the city. See how many you can spot!

The Crocodile (Freiburg, Germany)

In the city of Freiburg, and more specifically in the Gewerbekanal canal, you might just see the head of a crocodile peeking out. The sculpture has been around since 2002 and has become so popular that it can even be seen on the city’s postcards. If you want to catch a glimpse of this piece, you’ll find it near the Augustinerplatz square – it’s truly a must if you’re setting off on a road trip around Germany.

The most famous European sculptures

With this article, we wanted to take a look at some of the most curious sculptures in Europe, which you can admire as you explore its streets, without the need to visit a museum – totally free of charge. If you have any suggestions that you would have liked to have seen in this list, let us know!

And, finally, if we’ve piqued your interest for sculpture and you want to start carving your own, you’ll find all the tools you need to sculpt stone here. Has this article inspired you? If so, you can join our community! You can follow us here, in our Art Space and on social media.

Although we love to remember and praise classical works, it cannot be denied that contemporary artists have also left their mark through their sculptures. Today, we hope to pay tribute to some of these works worthy of admiration and eternal contemplation. Want to discover them with us? Here are a few must-see contemporary sculptures.

Contemporary sculptures: Guardians of Time, United Kingdom

This piece was created by Manfred Kielnhofer, who was always fascinated by the human being as a model and, at the same time, as a source of potential danger to the rest of society. In his sculpture, we can see several figures reminiscent of monks, as well as the reflection of the exploration, consideration and discussion of states of being and the current and historic sensibilities of his social environment. In other words, his work seeks to convey the idea that, in his opinion, there is a higher power always watching over us.

The Appennine Colossus, Italy

This sculpture by Giambologna almost appears to emerge from the rocks that once surrounded it. This piece, which is truly impressive, is half man and half mountain. It depicts a god, holding the head of a monster arising from the fountain. The most striking element of the sculpture is how it blends with its surroundings, with the nature of the park in which it is located (Villa di Pratolino) and how it organically reproduces its forms.

Octopus Attacking a Rook, England

This piece by Leigh Dyer honours the city of Hastings, which has a long history of chess playing and is home to a legendary chess tournament. In it, we see a Kraken – a mythical octopus – capture a black rook, thereby paying tribute to the thrilling and intense games of chess that take place in the town.

Sculpture, by Fabien Mérelle

This sculpture by Mérelle, only 40 years old, presents an elephant on top of a man, offering an image reminiscent of the circus. His works, whether drawings or sculptures, are always inspired by everyday life and human relations, though always with a touch of irony or sarcasm. Beyond this, through his work he also presents sinister spaces and impossible relations – although they almost seem real.

All the tools you need to sculpt stone at Rock&Tools

How many of these sculptures had you heard of? Which would you add to the list for our next post? If you’re a fan of art and sculpture, looking for new tools to let your imagination run wild, we atRock&Tools sell all the tools you need to start working with stone. If you need more information about tools, get in touch with us and we’ll be delighted to offer our advice. Join our community! You can follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

Sculpting stone is the art of creating sculptures, normally with manual tools, from blocks of stone. This practice has been carried out for centuries upon centuries, practically as long as humans have inhabited the earth. If you’re just getting started in this world, would you like to know which are the most commonly used tools for sculpting stone?

Basic tools for working with stone

There are various tools for sculpting stone, but in general, these are the most frequently used by sculptors:

• Pitching Chisel. This is the basic tool for smoothing down rock – in other words, to get rid of the coarser parts of a material that is intended to be polished.
• Point Chisel. These may have different thicknesses and are usually also used in the smoothing-down process.
• Chisel.. The chisel is a basic tool used to cut small surfaces and shape the sculpture.
• Hammer. This is used to break and sculpt the stone by hitting other tools, such as chisels.
• Mallet. A hammer in the form of a club.
• Bell Hammer. A hammer with a bell-shaped end for hitting other tools.
• Tracer. Used to create straight lines on the stone.
• Toothed chisel. This is a tool whose structure is based on a paintbrush, but featuring cuts with separated teeth, key to modelling stone.
• Wedges. Separating wedges are used to split large stones more easily.
• Bush hammer. This tool is used to create rougher-looking surfaces.

Everything you need to know about dry stone at Rock&Tools

Now you know the basic tools for sculpting stone, are you ready to get started? At Rock&Tools we sell various tools for working with stone, providing only the best brands. On our website, you’ll find a wide catalogue of the best tools to cut stone – but if you need more information about our tools, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to offer our advice. Join our community! Follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

When it comes to choosing our stone-cutting tools, efficiency is everything. Since tungsten carbide become widely available in 1930, it has revolutionised the majority of the technology intended to cut hard materials. Today, we’re going to let you know why you should choose tungsten carbide tools, also known as widia. Let’s get started!

What is tungsten carbide?

Tungsten is a hard metallic element that, in combination with carbon, forms a metal alloy known as tungsten carbide. Although in its most basic form, carbon is a very fine powder, it can be compressed in order to be used in industrial machinery, tools and abrasives.

What’s more, it’s a highly versatile material that can be adapted to offer a range of properties. It’s precisely for this reason that more and more people are opting for this material above steel options.

Widia cutting tools

Tools made from this material are highly resistant to abrasion and can withstand much higher temperatures than steel tools. Tungsten carbide surfaces are used for the machining of materials such as stainless steel or in intensive-use situations in which other alloys would have a very short useful life.

Tungsten carbide is the hardest commonly used metal. Only certain precious stones such as silicon carbide (carborundum) are harder and, unlike tungsten carbide, these materials may only be used as abrasives, and not as cutting blades.

Why choose tungsten carbide tools?

Although they’re more expensive than tools made from other materials, they’ll end up being much more economic in the long term, as they last up to one hundred times longer than steel and allow you to work with a greater variety of hard materials. It should also be noted that they are very easy to maintain.

Everything you need to know about stone-cutting tools Rock&Tools

At Rock&Tools we sell various widia (tungsten carbide) tools for working with stone. On our website, you’ll find a wide catalogue of the best tools to cut stone and, if you need more information about tungsten carbide, we recommend taking a look at this blog entry. Need more information about tools? Contact us for advice. Join our community! Follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

As we’ve mentioned before, dry-stone construction techniques use stone as their only construction material, without any kind of jointing mortar. On this blog, we’ve already told you about the tools required for this technique, the type of constructions that can be created, and even the elements used to store water. Today we’re going to tell you a little more about construction and dry-stone construction techniques in particular.

What steps do you need to follow to create a new dry-stone construction?

The first thing to do is that take a good look at the stones before you and order them by size and shape. This is very useful in order to then be able to quickly and easily use each one of them, as you can tell from a glance which is the most appropriate for the needs of the construction, as you need them.

Next, you’ll need to determine which is the most attractive or presentable face of the stone – in other words, which is smoother or has less irregularities. This side of the stone will need to be placed on the outside of the wall, always ensuring that when fitting pieces together, you do so using their most even side. Of course, you won’t find the perfect stone on your first try – it’s a process of trial and error. However, you can also use a tool to create a more polished finish on the visible face of the stones.

Once you’ve found the stone that fits your construction perfectly, it’s time to lay it. It’s essential that these fit together well and that there are few gaps as possible.

To finish fixing the structure, you can fill in any gaps with smaller stones.

Wall-construction techniques

Next, we’re going to briefly explain a few construction techniques for building a wall:

1. Ordinary laying. When stones of different sizes are not laid in any specific order.
2. Rubble-filled When stones or rubble are inserted into mortar joints in order to wedge larger stones together.
3. Laying in courses. When the long sides of the visible side of the wall are level, so as to create the appearance of regular courses.
4. Ordered and slanted laying. As well as ordering stones in rows, pieces are laid on a slant, as these are boulders that are difficult to fit together.

The two most well-known and used construction techniques are those with one or two rows. The latter is the most common – the construction of walls in two parallel rows, each with a visible side facing outwards and between the two an infill of small stones and mud.

On the other hand, for single-row constructions, as the wall is built higher, a parallel layer of gravel or smell pebbles is filled in at the back, which allows for water drainage and avoids stones expanding and causing the wall to crumble.

Everything you need to know about dry stone at Rock&Tools

At Rock&Tools we sell various tools for working with stone and for dry-stone construction techniques. On our website, you’ll find a comprehensive range of all the best tools for sculpting stone, with a huge amount of interesting information about this technique available on our blog. Need for information about tools? Get in touch with us for more advice. Join our community! You can follow us here, on our Art Space and on our social media.

Fuente fotografía: elperdiodicodelazulejo.es