A subsequent visit to her studio in the Midwood section of Brooklyn reveals huge, hard chunks of semi-precious stone, waiting to be carved. She hands over a brightly colored foam pad with rough, sparkling flat dots on the bottom.
“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” she says with a mischievous grin. “This is one of the tools I use to polish my stone, and I don’t share my diamonds with anyone.”
Polishing can be arduous, if not downright boring. One begins with wet sandpaper as rough as 80 grit and sands the entire piece until there are no scratches, anywhere. Then do the same with the next. And the next, moving up to grit as fine as 12,000 — depending on the stone and quality of shine. Try it sometime.
“I’ve reached my goal when the U.S. government writes to tell me I can’t copyright a work of art because it too closely resembles the product that I chose to record in stone,” Antar smiles.
“That’s actually happened to me. The day I received that letter was one of the happiest days of my life.”