Soapstone carving is a skill that I wanted to learn... so I bought some materials, read a brief "book" (more like an instructional manual), and just started carving. Eventually, I began to challenge myself - and so you see that I learned mould-making to replicate originals cast in urethane resin... After that, I thought to start making multiple part carvings from an original single block.
The Sacred Scarab Vessel was created from a single block of soapstone - the rough images show the first step, after using the hacksaw to liberate the lid. The Scorpios Box was made from a single block of Alabaster - a stone a little harder on the mohs scale than soapstone - also much more crystalline.
Additional images follow of abstract temples (soapstone and gold leaf), then the Orca (soapstone), and a bunch of designer art toys I made from resin replicas of the soapstone carving.
Beyond that, a little more resin experimentation.
To date, this is a passion area that I would love to give more time and effort to, with a dream to create replica stone boxes with various metal and corrosion effects.