Thread: Carving Lovespoons article

This is beyond amazing. No wonder you were featured in a magazine! This is most impressive .Excellent work.

excellent

What a wonderful, insightful and very interesting article. I've never heard of water soluble oil paints....what a beautiful effect! I'm definitely going to give them a go. The whole article is very inspiring and a wealth of information. I'm really looking forward to the next instalment.
Thank you David.

Thank you for the kind comments Spiritwolfe, JJF and Featherwood. I think that at the water-soluble oils should work well with Huon pine, Featherwood. Can't wait to see what you will be able to do using them.

Beautiful work!

Claude

Hi David, Nice to see you back on the forum, that is stunning work you have done there and I must read your article because I have a friend getting married next year sometime and I've been thinking of doing a love spoon in Huon Pine as a unique present. I have never attempted anything like that and step by step instruction will be very handy. I agree with you about Facebook, There's loads of pages dedicated to carving and sculpture now.

Thanks Rob, I haven't a lot of experience with Huon pine but if you are thinking of including the chain links you will have to work very carefully as it isn't all that strong when there is short grain. You might
also go straight to wax as a finish rather than the wipe on polyurethane with Huon but I'm only guessing.

Seek some advice, but I can understand you wanting to use Huon pine due to its unique nature and interesting history and it is easy to carve. I used Jelutong as the main example because I thought t would be an easily carved timber for anyone starting out. Jelutong is a bit ordinary looking though.

Another Tasmanian timber that carves well and is strong enough for the chain links is Tasmanian Myrtle, nice colour, holds detail well and finishes easily and nicely, much harder than Huon though. All the best carving your Lovespoon, it will make a great gift to please for generations.

Thanks for the advice David, I Much prefer carving Huon against Jelutong which I usually end up staining due to it's Boring grain, I have a piece of Mahogony left over that I was using for carving animals and it may be the right size for a love spoon, probably a bit stronger than Huon. Tasmanian Myrtle is a wood I never tried so I might look out for a piece as another option, I have plenty time I think the wedding is about 10 months away.
Cheers
Rob.

Hi David,

For many reasons I didn't post for quite a long time either. I should change that...

This just look perfect !
Great work

you said it was Huon Pine, is it ?

Thanks Copeau, no not Huon pine. The dragon and hearts Lovespoon example was Jelutong, as it was for a beginner's project and I thought Jelutong would be easily carved. It was!

I hadn't carved Jelutong before and was surprised at how much detail it would hold considering its ease of cutting. It is a bit bland though so I added some staining with water soluble artist's oils. The second Lovespoon is walnut.

Ok, thanks !
Are the lighter yellow parts stained too ?

I first thought the 2nd one looked like walnut but I don't really know all the timbers you're using in your area, so i thought it could have been something else
These "exotic" woods arouse my curiosity...

I learnt something : i didn't know you could find water soluble oils ! Sounds interesting.

Originally Posted by copeau

Ok, thanks !
Are the lighter yellow parts stained too ?

I first thought the 2nd one looked like walnut but I don't really know all the timbers you're using in your area, so i thought it could have been something else
These "exotic" woods arouse my curiosity...

I learnt something : i didn't know you could find water soluble oils ! Sounds interesting.

The lighter yellow parts are very lightly 'stained' (a wash of pigment really) but the raw Jelutong (last photo ) and the oil-finish-only states are slightly and then a little more yellowish anyway.

I haven't coloured my carving's very much and haven't used these water-solvable oils before but I think they are worth experimenting with along the lines of Fred Zavadil's method mentioned in Mike the Knife's post here.

If I colour my work I want to still see and feel it's woodiness. Fred Zavadil's way seems to achieve everything that I would wish for but every one needs to find the process that suits them personally, easy and repeatable. I am eager to learn from whatever anyone finds by experiment. So I wait with interest to see other people's efforts with subtle colouring.

By the way the water soluble oils are also compatible with regular oil paints and can still be mixed with oil medium. You can also get water mixable Lindseed oil.