Unwound

Abstract Marble Sculpture
by Dahrl Thomson

French Black Campan marble on Portuguese marble
17″H, 13″W, 7″D

This sculpture is carved from Black Campan, which is a French marble. Most of my carvings, including this one, start out in this way: I see an interestingly beautiful marble and feel that I must try it! I love beautiful rocks, and this one is so bizarre in its make-up. As a challenge to myself, I set about to see if I could make a spiral out of a chunk that I had, so I first split the rock with wedges; then drilled many holes in a spiral pattern. After that, I “rasped” out by hand the rock remaining in-between the holes.   And finally, I spent many hours smoothing the rock with a rasp and sanding, sanding, sanding (by hand). No machine can get into a small curved space like the hand! It was a “knuckle-buster,” as I call it, but what fun to see the shape take place!