stone mountain carving is a very old kind of sculpture, almost as old as human beings themselves. An important symbol of human becoming an animal is to make tools, and more importantly, to create images. In fact, stone tools in the Stone Age were already a form of stone mountain carving, and when human beings knew that they could express their thoughts and wishes with solid objects, it led to a great progress from grinding stone axes to stone mountain carving. In the large grottoes, cliffs, mausoleum carvings and architectural carvings in ancient my country, most of them are stone mountain carving. For example, stone whales in the Qin Dynasty, the existing Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes and other carving materials are marble, granite, bluestone, sandstone and so on. Because China's stone reserves are extremely rich and can be preserved for a long time, stone carving has become the main art variety of large-scale monuments, urban sculptures, garden sculptures, and decorative sculptures.
Ancient Chinese traditional stone mountain carving are carved by stone carving artists, inherited the carving skills, designed by themselves, carved and chiseled by themselves, and completed independently. So far, many stone mountain carving artists still use this method, such as carving traditional figures and animals. There are also a few artists who are familiar with Western sculpture methods and can directly carve human bodies on stone.
The common stone mountain carving are processed and produced by the stone carving masters of the factory. The requirements for craftsmanship and carving skills are relatively high. excess. To the stage where the general outline is first formed. The process of further shaping the basic shape of a decent relationship is called "opening up the wasteland". Generally, it is called "opening a small wasteland" when it is processed until it is about 1 cm away from the shape of the plaster model. The three processes are sometimes carried out alternately, and the tools used are large, medium and small chisels. Next is fine-tuning: chiseling away the redundant parts left over from "opening a small wasteland", focusing on depicting the image and finding out the subtle changes such as the ups and downs of the shape. It is an important stage of artistic processing of stone statues. The tools used are tooth chisels, flat chisels, stone files, etc. This is the final stage of stone carving, which requires patience and fine carving. Then polish: On the basis of grinding fine stone carvings, use abrasive materials for grinding. After polishing, the stone material points can be displayed, adding brilliance to the stone carving works and improving the artistic appeal of the works. The tools and materials for grinding include polishing machine, grinding wheel, sand cloth, sand paper, water sand paper, chromium oxide, polishing paste, etc. This process is carried out according to the artistic effect, some of which are completely polished, and some are partially polished.
Stone mountain sculpture has high requirements for craftsmanship, a long time span, and relatively heavy weight, but its long storage time and easy maintenance make it recognized by more sculpture demanders.
