first time putting a chisel to a piece of granite I pulled out of the ground myself
Quarry let me come pick through their reject pile last month. Brought home a chunk of Barre granite that had a crack running through it, so they'd written it off. Spent three weeks just looking at it, trying to figure out if the crack was a problem or the whole point.
Today I finally started cutting. The crack is still there. I think it stays.
Feels different working stone you had to wrestle into your truck yourself. Like you already owe it something before you even start.
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This is really lovely. I work in a totally different medium but I know exactly what you mean about owing the material something. With watercolour sometimes I'll spend ages staring at a paper trying to decide whether the tooth or the grain should dictate what goes on it, or whether I should fight it. Usually the best ones are when I let the paper win a little.
The crack staying, that's the right call, I think. That's the stone's own story. You're just adding yours to it.
The crack staying, yeah. I work in mosaic and people ask me all the time why I don't just cut around a broken piece of tile or stone. But the break is part of the material's life before you got your hands on it. Why pretend it didn't happen?
Paper's the same way I think. You can fight it or you can work with what it's already doing. The ones where you let it push back a little always have more air in them.
Mosaic's a good example. Every broken piece tells you where it's been. People think perfection's the goal but all you get then is a flat surface with nothing to read.
Paper was never my medium but I know what you mean about air. Too much control and it suffocates.
Watercolour's a different kind of wrestling, but yeah. You can't bully paper into being what it's not. Sounds like you know when to let it push back.
The crack, took me a while to see it wasn't a flaw. Just the stone telling me where it's been.