Stone carving process starts with the selection of a piece of suitable marble for carving a specific object. Good sculptors can carry out carving in a direct way through imagination, without creating a modifiable clay model first. This type of stone carving process is often called direct carving, in which an object is carved directly into marble, with imagination as a guideline. Typically the sculpture will make a rough sketch on marble block to start and develop the work along the way.

Another stone carving process is called modeled carving, in which the sculptor precisely copies the forms in predefined models into marble. Common materials for creating the modifiable models include clay, wax and fiberglass. After a model is created and finalized, the sculptor starts carving marble in a coordinate measured with calipers or pointing devices in reference to the model. Comparing to direct carving, the modeled carving process leaves much less chance for error, so more desirable results can be achieved. But this process involves additional costs. In the volume production of one object, the modeled carving must be used to ensure consistency.