Recently I finished a soapstone figure of Princess Celestia; in time for Celestia Day 2017.  
This collage shows several development stages from the raw rock at the top to the completed figure on the left. In the lower left image you can see the effect of treating the stone with a special oil that makes it more “shiny”. While much of the figure is polished with that oil parts of the tail and the right wing were not yet polished when the picture was taken, so you can clearly see the difference. Carving this figure was a bit of a challenge since the stone had many iron inclusions (seen as brown / rusty colored spots on the figure) which were difficult to carve since those figures were much harder than the stone.
 
Thanks and credit for the Celestia cutie mark used in the center of this collage go to blackgryph0n.