Soapstone is really cool stuff, especially the stuff used in the arctic by Eskimos for carving. It truely makes beautiful carvings and the colors allow for great contrast. When polished it can take on a color from light golden brown to black. What Eskimos do is leave the backround and some highlights rough which gives it an almost white color and then polish the main aspect to give it a great contrast to the backround... like I said it makes for beautiful carvings. In reality it is a form of Talc .

another name for it is steatite. Among it's many uses as a stone itself it helps to calm the area it's in making one to give to action and giving peace