“My father and grandfather used to work in granite quarries breaking stones. I too worked in a quarry for several years before I realised that there was an art in breaking stones and that it could be used to create things of beauty. That is when I decided to join Murthy’s training and become a rock carver,” S. Muthuswamy from Eraiyur explains.
For the past three days, he has been with nine of his colleagues at the Gandhi Thidal from morning to evening carving images on stones.
Unlike what one would expect from stone carving, these people are not chiselling figurines from large blocks of stone, rather they are etching designs on smaller pebbles, which can be used as souvenirs or paperweights.
The pebbles come from the Himalayas, and for this workshop the team has imported half a tonne of pebbles and 1600 kg of larger stones and for the period of four days, they are etching designs onto them.
The idea is that during these six days the general public learns about rock carving and in some cases, they can even request certain designs on the pebbles, organiser of the workshop N. Murthy said.
After the pebbles have been carved, there will be a sale of the carvings on Saturday.
The workshop was organised by INTACH along with the Department of Art and Culture and the Auro Progress Stone Crafts.