The preferred material for stone carving is known as volcanic tuff that resembles the color of cement when it is newly carved. Many visitors to Bali assume that they are cast, not hand made! To see the truth with your own eyes, go Visit the bend in the road in Batubulan which has long been touted as being the village of stone carvers.
There are several other places where stone carving takes place. You will find traditional Balinese statues albeit often sterile and a host of kreasi baru or new creations catering to the orders of those who came before you, including Balinese versions of angels, to busts of Beethoven.
As large pieces of tuff are becoming difficult to find and expensive, smaller ones are often pounded up and mixed with cement to make blocks this are then carved. If the mixture is wrong, your sculpture might disintegrates when you get it back home. Moss and lichen loves to grow on tuff, so your statue might already be covered with it when you buy it.
Remember that stone is porous and that in especially cold climates could split in freezing weather. One should also know that many of the large statues of Hindu gods and goddesses carved in hard dark pitted stone are actually not from Bali, but from Java. The stone is andesite, the same material of which the Borobudur Temple was carved. It is very durable.
Unfortunately, few of the carvings, despite their size, display the grace or beauty of the originals they seek to replicate. Under no conditions, believe anyone who tells you that they have the original Borobudur head or statue for sale. These simply do not exist and if they did, they would be illegal.
Bali Accommodatin hotels, booking online hotels in bali
There are several other places where stone carving takes place. You will find traditional Balinese statues albeit often sterile and a host of kreasi baru or new creations catering to the orders of those who came before you, including Balinese versions of angels, to busts of Beethoven.
As large pieces of tuff are becoming difficult to find and expensive, smaller ones are often pounded up and mixed with cement to make blocks this are then carved. If the mixture is wrong, your sculpture might disintegrates when you get it back home. Moss and lichen loves to grow on tuff, so your statue might already be covered with it when you buy it.
Remember that stone is porous and that in especially cold climates could split in freezing weather. One should also know that many of the large statues of Hindu gods and goddesses carved in hard dark pitted stone are actually not from Bali, but from Java. The stone is andesite, the same material of which the Borobudur Temple was carved. It is very durable.Unfortunately, few of the carvings, despite their size, display the grace or beauty of the originals they seek to replicate. Under no conditions, believe anyone who tells you that they have the original Borobudur head or statue for sale. These simply do not exist and if they did, they would be illegal.
Bali Accommodatin hotels, booking online hotels in bali