{"product_id":"soft-shell-turtle-grey-marble-statue-80cm","title":"Soft-Shell Turtle Grey Marble Statue - 80cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA soft-shell turtle lies at full stretch, its long neck reaching forward and the snout fine. The carapace is a broad flattened oval with a raised central boss and a wide smooth margin - quite unlike the segmented shell of a tortoise. All four limbs splay as broad webbed paddles with the toes and skin folds finely incised, and the neck carries fine parallel wrinkle lines. No slab and no plinth beneath it - the belly and four paddles rest on the floor. Mid grey marble with a cool cast, smooth and matte, darker mottling drifting through it. The shell margin and the paddles run paler still, close to white where the stone thins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eSkin Folds Along Four Paddles\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything that makes this animal convincing is in a few millimetres of incised line. A soft-shell turtle has no scutes and no armour: its shell is leathery and its limbs are loose folded skin over webbing, so there is no hard geometry anywhere for the carving to lean on. The whole character has to come from the fold lines - along each paddle, round each toe, and in the parallel wrinkles down the neck - and every one of them is cut into a surface that is already at its final shape, because there is nothing to take off afterwards. That means they are struck once. A fold line cut too deep cannot be shallowed and one cut in the wrong place cannot be removed without flattening the whole passage it sits in.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is almost nothing of this animal to see in profile - a broad disc with a neck and four paddles, lying directly on whatever it is set on. At 80cm along its length this lies flat and is met by looking down into it. So the position needs to offer a view from above at close range: a flagged terrace, the edge of a path, the coping round a pond, a broad step, or indoors on a hall floor or a wide hearth. At 299kg four people can carry it, so nothing about the placing is final. It also works half in planting, where the long neck reaching out of low foliage is the whole effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFlat, Low, and Looked Down Into\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwelve to fourteen weeks. Incising the skin folds along four splayed paddles is the whole of the fine work here. A low flat block is dressed and the whole animal drawn on it from above rather than from the side, which is the only way to set out a shape this wide and this shallow. The carapace is domed and its margin thinned, then the neck and head brought forward and the four paddles splayed out. Each paddle is freed late because it stands clear on thin stone with no slab beneath it. The skin folds, toes and neck wrinkles are incised last. One block from snout to paddle tip, unpinned, undowelled and unfilled. Only 299kg lying on its own paddles, which four people bed onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReptiles occupy a corner of \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and low pieces belong in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/indoor-sculptures\"\u003eindoor sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpecification\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable class=\"spec_table\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e80cm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-Carved Natural Marble\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53843255558491,"sku":"MST-ANI-178","price":10081.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-178_1.jpg?v=1787234862","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/soft-shell-turtle-grey-marble-statue-80cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}