| soapstone etching?

soapstone etching?

Cristina M asked the question:


hello! i’m attempting to learn soapstone sculpture and etching, but i have a question: once the soapstone is polished it becomes black ( or green ), but how do i get the etching to stay white? i know it must seem like a stupid question but i really can’t figure out how. thanks in advance!
great info, thanks! so what do you use to etch? i think i’ll go with a dremel…size 108 - 105 tips

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3 Responses to “soapstone etching?”

  1. tigris on January 3rd, 2009 7:59 pm

    what kind of soapstone do you use? There is colored soap stone, but I don’t know of any soap stone which changes color. If you have a dark soap stone and the “white” lines in your etching are just soapstone powder which looks white because the way the surface reflect the light, then it’s not really white, it just appears this way. As soon as you clean it, remove the powder and polish the surface it will have the color of your soapstone. It’s like an iridescent butterfly wing, it’s not a true color, it is a color generated by the surface property and as soon as you change the surface by polishing or waxing you change the color.
    You could try to use a thin coat of acrylic paint. Paint it into your engraved line, then rub off all raised areas, so only recessed areas are left with white color.

  2. SEAMstressed on January 6th, 2009 3:34 pm

    i actually just learned to work with soapstone and i have found that if the grooves are deep enough just dont polish them and the dust from the stone should stay in there. :)

  3. BRP on January 9th, 2009 4:17 am

    Soapstone is soft enough that a regular scriber or engraver will work fine on it.
    As Seamstressed already said if you don’t clean or polish the scriber marks they will stay white looking.