Thread: A fast death

A fine job , mate. Brilliant; I mean. Can't help but ask but what goes in the forehead.

My, but you have been busy! Orthdontist's nightmare = nothing to do!
I like your selection of grain direction.
Roughly, what's the size?

I'm not so sure than a red stripe of WRC would have been quite as effective
as the "look" that it has now.

You can expect the boss to try to fit a round peg in the square hole as
another really bright business decision. Or, you do it allegorically,

..Nice one raav ... love it.....reminds me of Ricky Swallow's earlier stuff

Absolutely brilliant! Your control over the detail is incredible. Did you have to detach the lower jaw to work on the teeth or is it all still one piece?

Top job !

Thanks everyone - very kind words!


Tim: the hole in the forehead is pure aerodynamics!
You could also store a pen in there if used as a desk tidy. However, my original concern was a sort of anticipation of future athletes…when drugs aren't a viable option anymore. Sort of skeletal augmentation type of thing.


RV: Trust me the teeth aren't that good, however flossing is a breeze now that I've put a few hundred grits through them. they probably added a few weeks of toil and only when finished did I realise I could have forgone the wisdom teeth. They were the hardest to reach, naturally.


Wanting the strip also added more toil than it was worth given my lack of machinery, so I suppose it's a failure to a certain degree, however- no one else knows that!


Undy: Yes - his shadow will loom large for a while I expect (hence the gaps but…oh well).


Whittles: I blush! I have this conflicting discussion with myself because everything is laminated - yet I treat it as a solid block. Though on bigger stuff I assemble through practicality.
It would have been easier to separate them ( and oh lordy didn't I think about it). Yet somehow the illusion of separation is nicer. The bit where the jaw runs up behind the cheekbone was…ahem…fun.


These may help:
flipside.jpginner-jaw-thingy.jpgjaw.jpg

raav, that piece is gallery grade. Never, ever, get defensive about doing a glue-up.
I'm convinced that the public understands that big pieces of perfect wood are an economic impossibility to achieve in this day and time.


Case in point:
Google UBC/MOA and look at the carving called "Raven and the First Men." The Canadian architect, Arthur Erikson, commissioned a company to do a glue-up of more than 140 pieces of Yellow Cedar for that carving. Finished, the piece must be 2m across and 3m tall. They took the roof off the building for the install.
Go there. Next, turn your back on that opus and look into one of the little glass wall cabinets. The original carving is no larger than a grapefruit and in the very same exquisite detail.

Thanks RV,

I'm not apologising for gluing - it's a main component of the work. But I have these silly ethical conversations with myself (with an imaginary antagonist) that ponders how people would relate to the work if I had (in this case) separated the jaw, and glued that back on later. It's silly because all of the pieces are initially separate so why should it matter?
However I feel compelled to treat the stata of glued pieces as one solid whole.

I do enjoy the absurdity of scale in your example. Paul McCarthy has done something recently with walnut that dwarfs that again. Pitty the fools....
This morning, we previewed a pair of Paul McCarthy... | Art21 on Tumblr

Fantastic job Raav, I'm even more impressed that you achieved something this detailed in Jelutong, did you hit many little hollow pockets?
I always seem to with that stuff. The teeth.. wow, how did you do those with out breaking them? sure it's not a set of old dentures you stuck in there ?. I must admit it looks like the scull of an olympic cyclist who has come to grief. Seriously though, great work

Would you have some more "in progress" pictures ?

As remarkable as this and your other carvings are, the thing that really fascinates me is the gluing process. Exactly how do you prepare timber to be glued, how do you decide the sizes, what glue do you use and what is the step by step process for putting it all together. I would deeply appreciate a tutorial on this foundational process. I feel it would help take me to the next level with my own work.

I've only tried to glue up once, a scale model of a vintage auto... a commission for the owner. It was years ago and near the beginning of my experience and the job did not leave a pleasant memory behind it.

raav, Whittling brings up a point best presented in a new thread = the wood prep and glue-up process for wood carving. I struggle with that, trying to keep pieces from moving past each other with the wet glue as a lubricant. I just opened up a 3-piece glue-up that's the best that I've done. I can explain all the advice that I was able to get to make it happen.

Originally Posted by Robthechisel

Fantastic job Raav, I'm even more impressed that you achieved something this detailed in Jelutong, did you hit many little hollow pockets?
I always seem to with that stuff. The teeth.. wow, how did you do those with out breaking them? sure it's not a set of old dentures you stuck in there ?. I must admit it looks like the scull of an olympic cyclist who has come to grief. Seriously though, great work

Thanks Rob
I imagine good huon is better than good jelutong??? However, it's the softest and fastest not frustratingest stuff I've used in a while.
I'm not the most gentle wood handler and I never felt in danger of breaking anything on this.
Those pockets with the long stringy thing do pop up but I don't mind those faults coming through. I make them a feature if it suits the work.

cheers

Originally Posted by copeau

Would you have some more "in progress" pictures ?

yes.
The last one Is going on my application for medical school.

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