Create & Craft Soapstone Show

I don't believe it... for once I'm prepared, post all ready to go and scheduled to publish first thing Monday morning and what happens.... technology lets me down! This should have automatically published this morning (as I knew I'd be doing an excellent impersonation of a headless chicken - perfected over many years - getting ready for the tv show) and did it?!?.... one word... NO!.....RATS!!!!!!

Well, it's still Monday and having had such a fabulous time with Dean on Create and Craft I've decided not to throw my computer out the window (the thought did fleetingly cross my mind) and instead am manually posting it now...

Woohoo! At last, after several false starts, the Create and Craft Soapstone Show is finally happening at 5pm this afternoon... I can't wait! If you've never sculpted before and fancy trying your hand at it then I suggest you check it out as it is a really easy way to get started. Also, if you are a jewellery maker or beader then you may find it interesting to know that you can sculpt your own beads and pendants from soapstone too!

To give you an idea of what it's all about here's an example of how to sculpt a dolphin from soapstone using one of Efco's soapstone kits available on the show.

You start with the rough shape - with some of the Efco kits this will have been done for you already which is great if you've never done anything like this before.

The rasps are the first tools that you use to refine the shape more to what you want. So, starting with the coarser ends and progressing onto the finer ends remove all the hard edges and create a more streamlined dolphin shape.

You can use the diamond files to add finer detail but with the dolphin they are not really needed, so you can move straight onto sanding. Start with the coarser grade papers and finish with the finer one to remove the worst of the rasp lines.

When you are happy with it you can progress onto the wet sandpapers (again, starting with the coarser ones and progressing onto the finer ones), until your dolphin is smooth all over and any sanding lines have been removed.

At this point, if you have any Soapstone Oil you can paint it on, but otherwise proceed straight to polishing with the Soapstone Polish and polishing cloth. You will find that all the detail in the soapstone is brought out with the polish and you should finish with a beautiful shine.

Soapstone has different qualities and colours depending on what part of the world it comes from, but each region produces soapstone with it's own unique beauty.

Check out the Projects4Crafters facebook page for more soapstone inspiration :)