So, I took the train from Florence to Carrara to begin my two-week course in marble sculpting. I was met at the train station by Boutros Romhein, sculptor, owner and instructor of Arco Arte, where I would be learning to carve marble. His English, though poor, was much better than my Italian, so conversation was kept simple, but when it came to sculpting, he was able to demonstrate concepts and techniques with no problem.
The class was divided into two groups, those who were learning the traditional, manual method and those who were using power tools. I had chosen to learn the manual way first, thinking that it would be best to start at the beginning and learn to use power tools in the future. Already having used many of the power tools on metal, I expect I will have no trouble adapting their use to stone, but the manual tools I had not used previously.
There were three of us learning manually (Francesco, Henry and I) and two (Dominico and Julia) who were using power tools in the class. In addition, we shared space with two others (Helga and Marcello) who were staying over a few days from the previous course to finish their pieces. This gave us an opportunity to see what the finished product could look like.
The first day we decided what we would sculpt and chose our marble. My plan was to choose something relatively simple and traditional (a torso) and also to make sure it would be small enough to carry on the return flight in my hand luggage. I created a maquette (a small model) from clay to use as a reference and chose a block of marble.
Our first step was to square up the bottom of the piece so it could stand up on the surface of our workstations. This involved learning the use of the Subbie (sue-bee-a) a pointed chisel designed to chip away the stone. Used with a lightly weighted hammer (400 or 500g) a skilled sculptor can remove a lot of stone in a short amount of time. Needless to say, it took pretty much all day for us to square up our stones.
Next we took off the excess marble, still using our Subbie. When we had rough shapes made, we turned to another chisel called a Gradine (grah-dee-na). This chisel has teeth on the end in a zig-zag pattern. This chisel takes off a fair amount of stone without really chipping and allows you to shape the form.
Once the rough form is done, it is a matter of using the Scalpello and the Scalpello Tondo or flat and rounded chisels to carve and smooth the marble. Using these tools we continued to refine our shapes until they were ready to sand. Sanding began with stones from old grinding wheels in 30 and 60 grit. At this stage you can continue to do a bit more shaping, and I occasionally returned to my chisels to define areas that weren’t working.
After rough sanding, we switched to paper and continued sanding with 120, 220, 400, 600 and 800 grit until the surface was smooth and fairly shiny. The final step was to rub a coating of Oxalic Acid on the surface and then wash that off with water after a couple minutes. The Oxalic Acid reacts with the surface of the marble causing it to crystallise and create a shinier shine. Sadly, it can’t make unsanded marble shine, so all those days of sanding remain necessary.
During these two weeks, we had the weekend off and as a group we took one afternoon to visit the quarries in the mountains above Arco Arte. During one of my days off, I walked down the road into Carrara, about 2 km away, and back. It was a nice walk and I was able to see a little bit of Carrara which I found quite charming. In Carrara, they use marble for everything. Walls are marble clad, benches are marble, even the sidewalks are made of marble. If it wasn’t so common around here, it would look like conspicuous consumption. Here in Carrara, though, marble is simply the available building material and its just a bonus that it looks so good.
Our trip to the quarries was fascinating. We went to the Cava Museo, the quarry museum, which is a sculpture garden with pieces created by Boutros 25 years ago, documenting the history of the quarries. The museum was conceived and created by Walter Danesi who researched the history and techniques of the quarrymen. We then went into Fantascritti, an amazing quarry carved directly into the mountain. Save for a lack of rank on rank of carved columns, it reminded me of the Mines of Moria and I expected orcs to come swarming through any minute.
Here are a few more photos showing the quarries of Carrara.