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Stone Carving Camp

July 14–18, 2025

Have you ever heard of a Greek statue? Or seen a sandstone Hindu figure? Maybe you’ve seen some stone statues at Gilgal Sculpture Garden. All of these are forms of Stone carving. Join Mrs. Niupulusū on an art adventure to learn about subtractive sculpting and make your own stone carving from an alabaster stone of your choosing! In this summer camp we will learn about stone carving and how stone is carved, visit two places that exhibit stone carvings, create a design for your own stone carving, choose a stone from a rock quarry, and carve your own stone sculpture.

OBJECTIVES:

  • Create a stone carving
  • Experience additive and subtractive forms of sculpture
  • Learn about stone harvesting process
  • Learn about stone carving history
  • Learn about stone carving process
  • Learn stone carvings role in Art history

VOCABULARY:

  • Additive Sculpture:
  • Subtractive Sculpture:
  • Maquette:
  • Mohs Hardness Scale:
    • Alabaster:
    • Carrara Marble:
    • Honeycomb Calcite
    • Granite:
    • Basalt:
  • Flat chisel:
  • Point chisel:
  • Toothed chisel:
  • Oil base clay:

ART HISTORY SAMPLES:

  • Olmec colossal heads, basalt, Mexico, 900 BC
  • Monolithic Churches of Lalibela, Basaltic Scoria, Ethiopia, 12th century
  • Ganesha, The Elephant God, South India, Mysore region, 13th century, Chloritic schist
  • Medusa, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Marble, Italy, 1640s (Baroque)
  • The Veiled Virgin, Giovanni Strazza, Carrara marble, Rome, 1800s (Neoclassical)
  • Pierced Hemisphere II, Barbara Hepworth, Stone, 1937 (Modern)
  • Stepwell, Mathew Simmonds, Limestone, 2021 (Contemporary)

WHO: Age 14 and older (incoming students in grades 8–12). There is a limit of 16 people. This can be open to community. All students must commit to live by the AHS Honor Code and bring a signed copy on the first day.

WHAT: Stone carving workshop, create an alabaster stone carving

WHEN: July 14–18, 2025, 9 AM–3:30 PM each day

WHERE: American Heritage SLC Campus in the Art Room, Alpine Gems Mine in Southern Utah, and University of Utah Art Museum.

WHY: To learn a new method of art/sculpting using common Utah rocks and minerals.

COST: Materials and travel are included in the cost of $150 per person

  • Alabaster
  • Hammer
  • Chisel Set
  • Goggles
  • Gloves
  • Masks
  • Base
  • Travel

MONDAY, 7/14, 8am–3pm:

  • Introduction to Stone carving (Art Room)
  • Stone carving in art history (Art Room)
  • Learn about maquettes, stone carving and maquette examples (Art Room)
  • Trip to UMFA (university of utah museum of fine art)
  • Lunch (at University of Utah Food court?)
  • Trip to Gilgal Sculpture Garden
  • Snack break
  • Sketching in park
  • Create maquettes (Art Room)

TUESDAY, 7/15, 7am–5pm:

  • Travel to Alpine gems (7 am)
  • Learn about stone quarry and Mohs hardness scale, learn about different kinds of rocks (Southern Utah) (11 am)
  • Choose stones (Southern Utah)
  • Lunch (Southern Utah) (12 pm)
  • Drive back to campus (arrive by 4 pm)

WEDNESDAY, 7/16, 9am–2pm:

  • What is a silhouette? Creating stencils demo (Art Room)
  • Stone carving methods- taking off a lot or a little. Which chisels do what
  • Side view carving
  • Lunch
  • Front view carving
  • Top carving
  • Quarters carving
  • Rasping and filing technique and demo.

THURSDAY, 7/17, 9am–2pm:

  • Rasping and filing day
  • The goal of this day is to get all of the students to the point where their sculpture is ready to be sanded. This can take 6+ hours, for complicated sculptures it can take months.

FRIDAY, 7/18, 9am–2pm:

  • Sanding and polishing demo
  • Work Time to get carvings ready to the point to be based.
  • Lunch
  • Paint and attach bases
  • Celebration and art show (students will take a break then come back to share their work in a mini art show with food)

RESEARCH: Visit the University of Utah Museum of art, Visit the Gilgal Sculpture Garden. Learn basic carving method and technique, learn stone carving related vocabulary.

REASON: Compare and Contrast ancient stone carving and contemporary stone carving.

RELATE: Brainstorm how the Art you’ve seen could influence your own original design, what obstacles might you encounter? How have other stone carvers ancient and modern addressed these obstacles

RECORD: Design a maquette. Create and bring home a finished stone carving.

  • University of Utah Museum of Arts ○ Website: https://umfa.utah.edu
    • Address: 410 Campus Center Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
    • Phone: 801.581.7332
  • Gilgal Sculpture Garden
    • Phone number:
    • Address: 749 E 500 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
    • Website: https://gilgalgarden.org/
  • Alpine Gems quarry in Southern Utah
    • Phone number: 435-477-3184
    • Address: 701 South Meadowlark Lane, Summit, Utah 84772
    • Email: contact@alpinegems.com
    • https://alpinegems.com
  • Professor Jason Millward, a sculpture professor and professional stone carver from Stephen F. Austin University, will join for 1–2 days of the camp.
  • Please note that a stone carving can take upwards of 15 hours to complete.