"Cleaning Up The Stone"

I have made friends with the rock. The stone revealed it's weaknesses and strengths and now comes the roughing out stage. My original thought was to do a direct carve, no preconceived concept of the finished sculpture, just going with the stone. It's such a gorgeous rock, it seems a shame not to make the best use of the material and create a maquette that will guarentee no loss of stone and will let the translucency shine. The chips coming off the stone glisten like fresh fallen snow. When I saw that sparkle, I realized I should slow down and on this extraordinary piece of alabaster. Once I have the maquette figured out I'll be ready to rough out the basic shape of the sculpture.