Thread: Two Faced

Thanks for sharing. Its a daring piece! Is that shellacked? There is a tendency to go for the easy option when starting out by creating forms with little 'tool challenge'. The upside is you get to the finished product quickly, but remember that these things may sit around for years taking up shelf space, you may, as I and many do, have certain parts of the garden that some of these early pieces can melt into as skills increase and product improves. If we look through the history of carving, the most common size for a stand alone indoor carving will be quite small, whilst outdoor wood carvings will be very substantial in that they often utilize whole tree trunks. There seems to be a no-man's land in between large and small for wood carvers, that is reserved for metal and stone only. The two reasons for this are the perishability of wood and its unpredictability in response to atmospheric conditions, so when outdoors it will last for a good while at least if its huge, and when indoors will tend to hold together over years the smaller it is. We don't tend to think of passing our pieces down through generations as, say, Chinese carvers once did, and this is not necessarily the reason why they carved quite small pieces as a whole, but it is part of the reason. The major reason Chinese carving is so good is the fantastic enrichment that intricate detail brings to the wood. A quick google demonstrates this https://www.google.com.au/search?q=c...w=1600&bih=781

What I'm saying with all this is that from the look of your work, if I am correct, you are aching to do BIG! I may be wrong and you like the medium size, but as I say they tend to take up shelf space and get lost in the garden too quickly - there is another option though which is relief work, which can be hung on walls or even incorporated into furniture.

I went off on a tangent there a bit, but hope it helps. I like your work and where its taking you!

Are you trying for these stylised faces or were you shooting for more realistic? I'm just wondering because you mentioned you used your own face as a reference when carving them and despite evidence to the contrary, I don't think you look THAT much like ET.

Thanks for the comments guys, I really was just having a go at carving and had no idea what the final outcome would be, the look I was trying for in the faces was not by choice it was from from 2 seperate efforts on the same piece of wood some weeks apart, I originally carved just one of the faces (the morelonger looking one) and had the back of it as the head shape, I had it sitting on the TV cabinet for a while then thought I could do a little better so back to the shed/leantoo to have a go at the other side and what you see is the end result, using my face was a means of feeling bone structure to guide me in the carving process, where all the bumps and dips were and tried to follow that, as with the ocean family piece it was just coated in sickens cetol as that what was at hand, I am very new to this woodworking caper being a boilermaker by trade but find I really enjoy the time I spend in the shed being creative, I hope in the future to find enough time to get a bit serious and attempt to do some work with more detail and use products that enhance this work, thanks again for looking and your tips,
Cheers Glenn

I think it flows like the Ocean Family piece. The finish certainly does justice to the form.
In process, how do you hang onto the piece?
Looks about as slippery as a buttered watermelon.

All by hand Robson and yes it was a task to keep it in a easy working spot mostly, I had it in my lap, in a headlock, wedged between blocks, infact it looked like a wrestling match down ther somedaysas I said above, I am new to this and will eventually build a good workbench with vice to make the job easier, I just put the piece on small blocks to coat it if that was what you were refering to.
Cheers Glenn

Janus in Sheoak!! great piece of work!!