Thread: one of my very first carvings

Had to think about these for quite a while.

Pine is a rotten choice of woods, nearly as bad as the western red cedar that I play with.
If you do a lot of it, gradually you will "learn the wood" and it gets a little easier but not by much. I think I finally know a little about WRC.

The faces. You called it Two Faced. I was anticipating more of a difference in facial expression. Or possibly the opposite = identical/mirror images.

The relief: maybe you had no wiggle-room in the wood. I usually do a poor job because I am too timid to make the relief really dramatic. My first carving with enough relief to look good is the Frog Dish. I was so reluctant to dig in that far.

If and when you score more wood, do another. Promise youself you won't fall in love with it. Deep relief, dramatic expression.
Do more.

Robson, Really appreciate your comments and agree the more I look at it I can see where I have gone wrong, it was the first time I have attempted faces. Pine seems to be about the best I can get at the moment, I'd love to get some camphor laurel or huon pine. I got some jelutong but hated it, was told it was good for beginners. My latest carving was a copy of JJ's Medieval Falconer but nowhere near as good as his ( again in pine) I might post a picture for your comments and for JJ to have a giggle. I'm attempting a horse head right now in cedar but finding it tough, still love carving though.
Cheers
Rob

You're welcome. I think I'm getting better at carving (thousands wouldn't). I'm the only wood carver in my village so I can't depend on anyone for advice. But, I've done enough now that I thought I am finally learning the wood.
This place and the WCI Forums have been an encyclopedia of information.
A week ago, I did some shop clean-up, looking for my table saw. I tossed 8 carvings into the skip, ruined beyond repair. Some days, my enthusiasm runs so far ahead of my thoughts. Oh well. I have 10 carvings in one stage or another. I chew on them as I get ideas how to move on.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

I tossed 8 carvings into the skip, ruined beyond repair. I chew on them as I get ideas how to move on.

No wonder you had to throw them out.... all those teeth marks....

HA HA, nice comment Whittling.
I love the fact that people from all over the world are posting on this forum, it gives a wide variety of carving styles, comments, Humor ect ect.
Glad I found it

Rob, my carvings come in two ways = I see something in the wood when I look at it. Those are really straight-forward. Or, I get an idea and have to look in the pile for the wood that "it fits into". It happens. Unnerving at first but now, I just let it go. No mystical crapola. That's what happens.

I know for a fact that I can't get an idea and hammer it into a piece of wood. I wish, I wish.
I had a plan. I looked at thousands of Google Images, loved them all. Had no wood at all (and I keep a lot on hand) to fit. Major Bummer.

The key thing is to keep going. There's a small endurance issue here. The more you do, the more things you try, I suspect the more comfortable you get with the wood and the tools. In the stretch, the results are more to what you have in mind.

Robson, The gift of being able to look at a piece of wood and see a figure or animal or whatever must lead to some very original carvings. Personally I don't have access to wood other than what I can buy from timber yards or hardware stores. I have limited mobility and can't scour the bush or forests for unusual shapes, ( wish I could ). I have many ideas in my head but don't have the ability yet to do them but hopefully that will come the more I carve. I usually start a project and don't do anything else until it's finished, if I had 3 or 4 carvings going at once I'd never finish them, that's just me. Thanks once again for your advice.

A very long time ago, my grandmother told me to expect it to happen. That convinced me that Grannie was 2 bottles short of a case. The first few times, I was really rattled. I have no idea at all what to expect or when it will happen. I can look at a slab of cedar in passing, every day for 6 months, always just a slab of wood. That can change in a minute.

I had the Frog Dish in my mind, as you see it. Next step was to find the wood in the shop that it "went into."
The Humpback Whale is a typical example, also. It was Beer O'clock in the Diamond willow furniture shop down my street. One of the guys plopped the slab of WRC burl on the carpet-covered assembly table. He had started a little carving of a bear in one edge but lost interest. I could see no bear in that wood. But, in less than a minute, I could draw the shape of the whale with my fingertip. What you see is what I saw.

I love those pieces where the wood tells you what it wants to be, saves on all that complicated thinking and means I can get shaping