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I won't go into this in too much detail just now but one of my current projects finds me learning how to carve a shaligram replica from a block of Berwickshire sandstone. In my own life I've come to love these sacred objects as well as the cosmogony, the whole pantheon of deities, the spiritual and physical practices associated with yogic philosophy.
Because I didn't want to buy one over the internet or make one from a mould I decided to carve a stone myself so I asked stone carver Natasha Smith to teach me how to make my own replica, intended to function as a sculptural object to be exhibited along with a selection of Rachel Sutherland's field recordings from the Himalayas taken from a valley very close to the source of the original sacred stones. And food, always food.
I've never done this before and it's hard work. You can see the stages from block to oval with the aperture ready to be smoothed down. It's not quite finished - at the moment it resembles a loaf but once I've carved away some of the lower flanks I'm assured it will look less like a massive cob that's been attacked by a mouse. I'm particularly pleased with the carving marks which have some affinity with original shaligram ammonites.
The plan for the next step is to use compressed charcoal to blacken it though there is something interesting in keeping it as is, a shaligram replica made from sandstone sourced from close to where the 'father of geology' lived. I'm referring of course to the Scottish polymath James Hutton. Interesting how objects accrue layers of meaning when you work them. On that point I'm following very closely the ideas of anthropologist Alfred Gell on how to understand shaligrams and similar sacred objects.
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