This is an earlier stage of making the orrery
I used small ornamental stones to create the texture, and milliput for the edges of the piller. Making the edges join together will make the based of the sculpture look more like stone. The less thin edges there are the better. I might also do something to make the shape of the stone more jagged, as if it has been carved. Having some straight edges and some smooth edges doesn’t look very stone like. It looks more like melted metal at the moment. The concept behind this is that the creators of the orrery carved the base, and then crew the creatures that make up the orbs.