tagua nut carving

[tea lady]

I did click on the link... but what threw me out was your last sentence asking what Ken would do with the second nut. To me it looked like in the first three pictures he was turning the lid from one nut and in the others turning the box from another nut. I am still happy to compliment you for your turning, though.

PS. Why does the "shrug" not appear in my post? Have you got a copyright on it?

I gave him 2 nuts. He turned that whole lidded box from one. I missed the pics of him parting the lid off and hollowing the body of the box. I only turned my back for one minute.

P.S. I see your shrug fine.

[Lyle]

As described previously - drill hole, mix 24 hour araldite colour to suit, drizzle int hole, cap hole, spin in lathe, uncap and check for fill, fill as required, final cap and spin. Then take out of lathe and stand upright with hole uppermost. Allow appropriate time to set then turn/carve away.
This is my way, there will be undoubtably be other ways too.

You'll see that the void hasn't filled properly. Probably rushed the filling process and not spun it for long enough. You need a viscous mix. So I have tried to gently heat the aradlite to make it more viscous, helps sometimes.
But you'll get the idea.

[wheelinround]

I'd love to get a hold of a few and do some ornamental turning with them these look good love the box Ken did TL

[tea lady]

As described previously - drill hole, mix 24 hour araldite colour to suit, drizzle int hole, cap hole, spin in lathe, uncap and check for fill, fill as required, final cap and spin. Then take out of lathe and stand upright with hole uppermost. Allow appropriate time to set then turn/carve away.

Thanks Lyle. I love the use of the centrifugal force. Will try it if I have an in opertune void. too.

[Frank&Earnest]

Just to keep the ball rolling, because there is still a long way to go, here are pics of how I am handling the problem of going from 2d to 3d and using an irregular piece with no reference points.

1) ground off all the brown shell
2) chosen a subject, in this case a koala
3) picked a photo and reduced it to a size where the profile is covered if the nut is positioned appropriately
4) shaped a ball of plasticine to reproduce the shape of the nut

the result is in photo 1.

5) progressively cut off waste from the plasticine nut checking the profile against the photo and then cut off the waste so identified from the real nut.

Photo 2 shows the current stage, with the crack already appearing.

[Iggy]

Man those things are HARD, I found a big typhoon burr gets the brown cover off easily and is not too bad for removing larger areas. Here's my progress to date.

[underfoot]

good one iggy
being an expert now (having spent at least an hour)
I can appreciate the time spent on those nuts,
Hard!!! ...describe them well.
I now own a few ( thanks to Sebastiann) and I intend to place them on my bench and watch them closely..

[Iggy]

Watch them grow perhaps?
Did some more on it this evening, finding it hard to hang onto, tried hotglue on a stick and it just kept falling off

[Old-Biker-UK]

I've been watching these for weeks & they've done nothing.

The odd round ones (with the BIG void) are from Africa, I brought a carrier bag full back a few years ago not knowing they had a big hole in the middle. Handy for making white washers I suppose...

[Frank&Earnest]

Watch them grow perhaps?
Did some more on it this evening, finding it hard to hang onto, tried hotglue on a stick and it just kept falling off

Yes, I have to admit that there was a bit of expediency in my choosing the hollow trunk design... Congratulations Iggy, you are streets in front with your execution

[Frank&Earnest]

I've been watching these for weeks & they've done nothing.

The odd round ones (with the BIG void) are from Africa, I brought a carrier bag full back a few years ago not knowing they had a big hole in the middle. Handy for making white washers I suppose...

...or perfect for turning bowls...

[Iggy]

Done except for a bit of polish, used a pyrography pen to deepen the shadows and provide a bit of contrast. Working on this scale certainly provides a whole new set of challenges (to both skill and eyesight)

[scorpio_oz]

I've been following this thread with interest.

These look interesting. Not wanting to take this off topic, but I've had a bit of a google around and can find lots of finished products but not the nuts themselves for sale.

Does anyone know a source where these can be bought from.

Thanks

-Gavin

[Frank&Earnest]

Gavin, have a look in this forum, there is another thread that tells you how we got them.

Iggy, very nice work. Maybe you could help me with an aesthetic question. Hope nobody takes this as a criticism, it is just to discuss points of view. Both the turned box with the brown patches on the side and your crab with the robust cut lines do not seem to me appropriate for the medium.

The way I see it, this scale of work requires fine detail. And that without even touching historical and cultural issues like the quality of cameos, netsukes etc. What I mean is that IMHO a Moore statue could never look good if carved in a tagua nut. (And also that I probably will never be able to carve a tagua nut to a standard I would be happy with myself, rats! )

Last year I saw a small bronze of a rolled up platypus made by Underfoot, that had that level of fine detail. His large statues, which you have all seen, can support a higher level of abstraction. Does this follow, U? Your opinion would be highly valuable.

BTW, I tried a few scratches with a sharpened steel nail. It works, but again, how many months am I prepared to keep scratching the damn nut?

[Iggy]

Both the turned box with the brown patches on the side and your crab with the robust cut lines do not seem to me appropriate for the medium.

The way I see it, this scale of work requires fine detail. And that without even touching historical and cultural issues like the quality of cameos, netsukes etc. What I mean is that IMHO a Moore statue could never look good if carved in a tagua nut. (And also that I probably will never be able to carve a tagua nut to a standard I would be happy with myself, rats!

Yes this kind of work does need some very fine detail (and good eyesight) but I dont think the robust lines are a major issue. The crab has mostly been done with tools intended for larger work and so is a bit clunky visually, in the hand it looks OK and feels good (I think people forget about the tactile aspect of sculpture). However there is plenty of room for improvement The turned piece I saw as someone taking on challenge.