Thread: Little Huon Pine Seashell

That is an excellent fine detail carving. Congratulations, roll on the next one.

Nice fine work TasSculptor
Are you aware of the bloke,sculptor,artist here in Tassie who lives at Nubeena (don't want to use his real name,tho he probably wouldn't mind)?.
He has made some large scale works along very similar lines as yours but has made them into bench seating items and grandiose sculptures.

Excellent work there, it looks like a small object of desire sitting in your hand there ! closely observed miniature work such as this is right up my street .

Your usual gallery-grade work. I'll never get there.
But, 2 questions:

1. How do you hold something such as this in the carving process?

2. Why is that magnificent shell not hand grime dirty?
I can have a 45cm frog crapped up before I know it.
I have to wear gloves, hand dirt seemed inescapable.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

2. Why is that magnificent shell not hand grime dirty?
I can have a 45cm frog crapped up before I know it.
I have to wear gloves, hand dirt seemed inescapable.

Now that is a very good question, I hope we get a very good answer

Philip.

Hi. Guys thanks for the responses. This is the second piece for this set, a sand crab carapace. Im not sure about the hand dirt question but maybe as i do a lot of the details and final shape using burrs in a rotary tool it may help to keep my hands cool and dry. idk. Carving small fine things in a soft wood such as Huon is tricky with chisels etc so i like to use rotary burrs.

Jason.

nice work
your piece has making me think that i should change the unicorns horn i am carving
keep the pics coming

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

2 questions:

1. How do you hold something such as this in the carving process?

2. Why is that magnificent shell not hand grime dirty?
I can have a 45cm frog crapped up before I know it.
I have to wear gloves, hand dirt seemed inescapable.

Yep it's amazing how much natural oils are in our hands ! as a hand holding whittler it is a constant concern.
I'm actually just in he process of carving a small 17mm bead & as you can see, leaving it attached to the stick will both keep it clean & offer a firm grip whilst keeping my fingers out of harms way when carving this very hard wood . I will apply the 99% of the finish before cutting it of entirely.
An extension of this way of working for those who prefer to work with gouges would be of course, to leave an extra "tennon" of wood on the piece to allow it to be held in a vice & later remove it as the carving approaches completion.

Often though on larger pieces it is not practical to leave a bit of wood on & after roughing out , I will wear a glove on my left (holding hand) , the type made for production workers have tiny rubber pimples on them & offer a surprisingly sensitive & secure grip.

I have sometimes used a jewellers hand vice in the past , there are many different models deigns available depending on the work in hand.

Nothing takes off the "hand grime" entirely but a artists plastic eraser goes some of the way to removing it , you wont have wasted your money if you try one though as it is the very best way of removing those graphite pencil marks off wood anyway.

Thanks for the answers.
My strategy is to wear gloves (3pr/$10). My shop and tools are cold so many reasons and safety is not on the list. Guess that I'll stick with it.

Finished the set of three today. The plinth block is burl Sassafras.

So carefully observed & worked , exquisite work.

Amazing, they look so realistic