Is the world of sculpture your passion? Would you like to create your own figures and make your own representations as if you were Michelangelo himself? Great! As you can see, this is an art that we are passionate about, and our goal is simple: to provide all artists with the best tools for it. Precisely for this reason, today we want to tell you how to make a marble sculpture step by step. Shall we get started?
How marble is sculpted
The techniques used by one of the world's most famous sculptors, already mentioned in this post, Michelangelo, are still used today. It's worth mentioning that before making any sculpture, a good visual concept and the planning It's essential. Do you have it? Perfect, now we can tell you the rest of the steps. Follow us!
Step 1: The mold
The first thing the artist must do is create a clay or plaster mold in which to model the concept or figure they have chosen. This material is ideal because it allows them to capture all the details they deem necessary in the final sculpture. In reality, clay or plaster plays a very similar role here to that of a sketch for painters, allowing them to make and undo changes that, when carving stone, would not be possible, since once the stone is carved, it cannot be undone.
Step 2: Extracting the material
In this case, we're interested in learning how to make marble sculptures, so that's the material we'll focus on in this post. Marble is extracted from the quarry, where large blocks of this stone are cut, cleaned, and a supervisor indicates how the material should be cut to prepare it for sculpture. Wow! How interesting, right? It's then cut to the appropriate proportions so the sculptor can work with the marble easily.
Step 3: The proportion of in the marble sculpture
The resulting marble block is placed in the studio next to the clay or plaster version of the sculpture we want to make. Why? Very simple! To measure the proportions and measurements of the plaster version and transfer them to the marble block. This will delineate the main mass and the boundaries of the form to be sculpted.
Step 4: Casting and Sculpting
The fourth step involves emptying the block to be sculpted, removing large areas of the block to be molded to achieve the approximate shape and size. In this step, the marks made in the previous step, which outlined the shape, help ensure that no excess is removed.
Step 5: The Details
Once we've achieved the general shape of our sculpture, we can begin adding details and perfecting our work of art. Again, we'll transfer all the measurements we had from our previous version to ensure the marble sculpture has all the details in the correct scale. This step primarily involves chisels, rasps, and files.
Step 6: The final touches
Finally, once finished, the sculpture is rubbed with oxalic acid to seal it and protect it from stains. The oxalic acid also gives it a glossy, translucent finish, giving the sculpture visual depth. And that's it!
How marble sculptures are made
We hope that this step-by-step guide to creating a marble sculpture from scratch has been helpful to you. We would like to make a special mention of José Luis, who shared with us a Discovery Max Channel video that dealt with this very interesting topic.
Michelangelo believed that every stone contained a statue within, and that the sculptor's job was to uncover it and shape it. Do you agree? We couldn't agree more!
If you need tools to start carving and designing your own figures, we have everything you need! And if you have any questions, don't worry, we'll be happy to help you with anything you need.
