The right piece

Even if you only have one piece of stone to use you still have a few questions to consider before beginning to carve your design.  Questions like the following:
 

• Do you have the skill-set to make the proposed piece?
  
• If so, what order of stages will you carve it in?
  
• Does your design do justice to the stone?
• Are there any cultural sensitivities that you need to consider with your design?
• Is the stone the right size for your design?
• Can the stone take your design and is the texture of the rock suitable for what you want to carve?
• Are there any fractures in the rock or weathering around the edges that will affect the placement and orientation of your design?
  
• Will you get the most of any colour and textural variations out of the stone?
• Do you have the tools to make the piece?

 
Once you have more than one piece of stone, you need to ask yourself a few more questions before you decide which to use:
 

• From the drawings and models, can you make the proposed piece?
• What particular stone characteristics do you want to highlight with your piece, such as translucency, colour and texture?
  
• Is the stone hard enough for your design?
  
• Are you getting the best use out of the stone with your design?
• How large do you want to make your piece?
• What will the finished piece cost in terms of the stone, your time and consumables?
• If you plan to sell it, is it economic?

 
You have to decide what the answers are to all of these questions!
 
There is a lot to be said for trial and error though – you learn from making mistakes.
 
Not all stone can be cut in any direction: I suppose everyone has cut a slab and it has broken because they were cutting across the planes of weakness/fractures in the rock?  You hopefully won’t do that again!
 
So answer the questions, plan your piece and get to it!