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home + design

Love Your Environment. Enhance it with Stone

1st Edition I October 2012

THE ART OF CRAFTING STONE. AN 800,000 YEAR OLD TRADITION

hautestone

THE

BEAUTY OF ONYX

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For The Love of Stone Karina Becker’s 2 Decade Love Story With Stone

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Why did you get into the stone business - what inspired you? I have always loved stone and precious stones. Different kinds of stone radiate different energy’s and I think I fell in love with it for the first time when I saw a large piece of bright Onyx – it’s beauty took my breath away. What was one of your favourite projects you've been commissioned for? I love doing any very customised work for clients. Whether that be a piece of artwork they love made into a stone insert in a floor or a one of kind marble sink. My favourite piece I ever created was a very large onyx sink for a kitchen that was just breathtaking. It was literally a piece of art, a sculpture the client could touch and use every day – a piece of art in everyday life.

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What is your favourite natural stone to work with? I love them all for different reasons but as an everyday stone it would be marble. I have always been inspired with all the great sculptor’s of the world that take a block and just bring out the statue that’s waiting to emerge. I treat every slab of stone as a new canvas and I am always mesmerized by the vision coming to life. If you could take a large slab of stone and carve something by hand, what would it be? I love collecting Asian artefacts and pieces from that region of the world. If I could I would carve an oversized Buddha statue for my foyer at the entry of my home – I would carve it from a beautiful piece of yellow and orange onyx. The glowing energy would be amazing.

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+ The Art of Crafting Stone An 800,000-year-old tradition

Carving and sculpting stone is a tradition and art older than civilization itself. Sculptures in prehistoric times were usually human statues.

For most of human history, sculptors used hammer and chisel as their basic tools for carving and sculpting stone. The stone itself was used as inspiration before they started to carve.

In the words of Michelangelo –“Every block of stone has a statue in it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”.

When the stone is ready to carve, the artist usually begins by starting to chisel away large pieces of the stone – this is referred to as the ‘roughing it out’ stage. A point chisel or a pitching tool is used to remove the larger areas of the stone and used alongside a masons driving hammer. Other tools such as the toothed and claw chisel are used to refine and add texture.

Once the general shape of the statue has been determined, the sculptor uses other tools to refine the figure. The final stage is when the sculpture is sandpapered to polish and bring out the color and pattern of the stone.

The oldest known works are stone carvings that have been carved in rock and some of these are believed to be as old as 800,000 years. These were prehistoric Venus figurines carved in limestone and tuff.

Today, the techniques still rely on abrasion to cut away and remove large areas of stone, but with modern methods like water erosion and diamond saw cutting the process is a lot quicker.

Whether it be a sculpture, a stone table, kitchen bench or bathroom vanity that is being carved, the essence of the 800,000 year old art lays deep within every slab of stone just waiting for its purpose, beauty and story to emerge.

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+ OPULENT ORGANIC

Onyx is formed of bands of chalcedony in alternating colors. It is cryptocrystalline, consisting of fine intergrowths of silica minerals, quartz and manganite. Its bands are parallel to one another, as opposed to the more chaotic banding that often occurs in agates.

ONYX MINERALOGY

Chemical Composition & Name

SiO2 Silicon Dioxide

Hardness

7

Specific Gravity

2.65 – 2.667

Optic Sign

Positive

Optical Character

Uniaxial

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