Indian Marble Artists

Balan has been my greatest friend since the beginning of Lotus Sculpture! He started off living in an old jail cell with one marble artist working for him. Now he is married with 2 sweet girls and a thriving marble and granite statue business employing about 40 workers. He has told me repeatedly how he would not be where he is today without Lotus Sculpture. I am happy to have him in my life and feel blessed to know the impact we have had on his family and the lives of his workers through the years.
More recently we have started working with Sanjay and the white marble artisans of Varanasi. The work is beautiful and I look forward to growing this relationship in the future.



Painting the finishing touches on a 40 inch tall, white marble sculpture of the Hindu Goddess Gayatri in Varanasi
On this trip I reconnected with a marble artist, Ellumalai. He works with grey marble called Durkey Stone. The stone is softer and this enables him to make each sculpture incredibly detailed.
Video of splitting huge blocks of marble. Just watching these huge blocks of white marble be split gives you an appreciation of the huge amount of labor that goes into making one of our marble statues.
Most of my colored red, green, and black marble comes from Balan and his 4 artists. Here he is with his two daughers, Aditiya and Agash.
Working on loading and packing the white marble statues.
Painting Saraswati
The carvers use measuring devices to always check that the proportions are correct.
It is good to understand where these statues start from. One solid block of white marble! Amazing to think the gods are alive within them!
Durgama!
All the painters work together in an open air room.
Painting Rama and Lakshman!
Painting Gopal Krishna!
Me with the owner and the eldest white marble artist who is known as a master in the Varanasi area.
I love the Indian style Buddhas in white marble!