Very quietly, the sandstone for my next assignment arrived. And it is a beautiful, very fine piece of stone. I intend to carve a round family crest in relief out of it. It's a lively depiction with two griffins as shield bearers, mantling, a hat as a crest and a fairly simple shield.
I'm told that the simpler the weapon on the shield itself is, 
the older usually the family is.
Fortunately, the stone has a diameter of 120 cms, so all the details are not so puny.
I have asked the quarry for a very firm piece of stone, and that's what they delivered: this is top quality. I like to carve reliefs very much (among other things because that way I don't need to measure as much), and coats of arms happen to be my favorite. And a very good piece of stone as well, What do I want more? A good start for a nice project.