I've worked with alabaster before. Fun stuff. If you want it to shine get it with the highest grit sand paper and polishing supplies you can find then hand rub it so that your skin oils impart a shine to it. It (well atleast the batch I was working from) doesn't seem to want to get shiney otherwise.
Darth Wong wrote:Apart from the Romans, the Nazis, and the Americans, what other nations are fond of eagle iconography?
Russians, Germans in general (aka not just the Nazis), Austrian, Albanian and others I can't remember now.
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Lord Revan wrote:Russians, Germans in general (aka not just the Nazis), Austrian, Albanian and others I can't remember now.
Various Balkan nations that were once part of the Eastern Roman Empire retain the two-headed eagle, mainly Albania but also a few others I cannot remember now (Romania, perhaps?)
Apart from the Romans, the Nazis, and the Americans, what other nations are fond of eagle iconography?
The doubleheaded eagle was for centuries the symbol of the Byzantium Empire, so it was adopted by Muscovy (the predecessor-state of the Russian Empire) since Moscow was "The Third Rome". Since the Tsar had married a Byzantine princess, and Russia was orthodox Christian, a lot of Byzantine symbols carried over. The double-headed eagle fell out of favor when the communists took over, being a symbol of autocracy.
Both the Napoleonic and the German empires adopted a Romanesque eagle as a symbol of imperial power.
Of course, America uses the bald eagle as a symbol, and not of imperial power, while the European nations use European eagles. I think the Phillipines also uses the Philipine eagle as a national symbol.
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Ford Prefect wrote:
And to actually contribute some, Elheru, was that particularly difficult? What sort of tools did you use?
Alabaster. It wasn't too hard, actually-- band saw to rough out the form (surprisingly easy, actually), and then some chiseling to clean it up and bring the form together. The heads were a pain in the ass, as were the feet, but other than that it wasn't too difficult-- the body and wings are basically just lines, as is the tail. The head and feet are actually the only part that are clearly carved out, matter of fact.