i wanna sculpt marble. 2 questions 1. how do i find a teacher?

>>1218671
>where get marble?
http://www.sculptor.org/Stone/Marble/CarvingStonesOffered.htm
google "where do i buy stone for sculpting". Also why start with marble if you are a beginner, get the cheapest usuable stone you can find and get cracking.

actual stone mason/sculptor here

marble sculpture is pretty much dead everywhere except a few places in italy (mainly carrara) and of course the mass produced shit you mentioned from india and china.

learning how to sculpt can be self-taught, you don't really need a teacher nowadays, youtube and of course books are your friend.

first things first, you do not learn how to carve stone with marble, you start with softer material. carving marble in general is not really recommended unless you have access to pneumatic power tools. carving marble with traditional tools by hand takes extremely long.

you usually start out with limestone or softer sandstone. i do not know where you live so i can't tell you what to get.as limestone english people use portland, the french use charmot and germans usually thüster. i have no idea what americans use.

a good way to start out to get a feeling for carving (rather than sculpting with clay) would be soapstone or alabaster. these are widely available everywhere on the internet.

if you have any specific questions just ask, i can provide you with all sorts of information regarding that topic. also would be good to know where you're from in order to get you more or less local material.

>>1218692
>>1218692
ill check out the chibese supplier since im not in America

>>1218695
in in Australia so theres no heritage to sculpting i think. im curious about the way you learned. was it part of an apprenticeship or something along those lines? what do you tend to sculpt? is it commissioned or more of your own artistic vision? im interested in the traditional techniques but i guess the modern approach can produce the exact same level of detail?

>>1218698
i took an apprenticeship as a stone mason, and as part of our education we learn to be masons and sculptors both. it takes 3 years over here (germany). as i said sculpting is pretty much dead (not affordable for customers) so as part of my actual every day work there is basically no sculpting involved at all, the sculpting i do is in my own spare time (which is scarce).

i did a quick google search and there's actually a bunch of native australian lime stones and marbles available. also i remember watching a very nice short documentary about australian stone craft which you might find interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSL4_I7-B4

>>1218695
stone mason here
pretty much this. cnc machines are doing 99% of the "carving" today but the final touch will always be reserved for human hand. why? because of small imperfections that robots sucks at reproducing.

also, if you plan to carve for your own satisfaction, dump the pneumatic tools

>>1220157
forgot to add;
onla real pneumatic tools are made by gino cutturi in italy. everything else is shit

>>1218671
You will most likely never be good, but I wish you the best. Its an extremely difficult art, so difficult that there's nobody alive today that can accurately recreate the classics. In ancient times there were people who would dedicate their whole lives to the craft and still suck.

File: modern marble statue.jpg (135KB, 1000x1061px) Image search: [Google]

135KB, 1000x1061px

>>1220162
> so difficult that there's nobody alive today that can accurately recreate the classic

File: 1300044776986.jpg (34KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 600x600px

>>1220166

>comparing some anatomically incorrect emocore contemporary shit to bernini's david