Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
Adding carvings
lostarrow:
So I started on the shells on the back today , as I needed a little break from the detailed stuff and didn't feel up to power tools, however small they might be.( I'm a little stoned on painkillers from a wisdom tooth surgery that went south).
The process is generally the same with all carving. Layout, incise , remove waste and rough shape, detail and sand. I started by roughing in some steps with a rasp to speed things along. Always use the easiest method for bulk waste reduction , wether it's a rasp, large gouge, belt sander ,handsaw or even bandsaw or table saw in some cases. Save your hands and time for the important work.
From there I incised the edge of the shells by letting the sizes of gouge dictate the spacing. I varied the treatment of the edge of the shells from one to the next to break the monotony .By changing the direction you put the gouge it will make a slightly different looking shell.
I then use the V tool to start defining the lines of the shell.
lostarrow:
Then I might use a gouge to create a grooved portion of the shell , or a straight chisel to create a rounded portion.Clean up the edges with a straight chisel . This chisel that you see me using in the last pics has become a favorite go to chisel .I made it from a small triangular file blank. Ground the back flat and carefully ground the edges down to a parallel profile. Polished it up and put a handle on it. Takes a razor edge and keeps it all day long .It's also the perfect shape for cutting English dovetails (the real skinny ones)
Sorry, back on track!
lostarrow:
Simply repeat for the other shells, ofsetting each slightly to add interrest to the composition. Thigs still are pretty rough at this stage. Once eveything is roughed in I go back and tidy lies up to straighten them and make them uniform. Sand and/or use small rifler files or needle files to clean things up. Once again I spent less than $10 on the needle files.
lostarrow:
On to the leaves, which bore a striking resemblance to the seamonsters depicted on old maps once i was finished. Ordinarily I would have modified them but in this case I thought it was a fitting theme. I can visualise how things will look in 3D pretty well from a 2 D sketch , but sometimes (More with the help of prescription drugs ) you can be surprised like that ;)
Rough the center stem with the V tool .Create the scroll at the bottom of the leaf using an appropriate gouge and incise the rest of the leaves. I only used 2 sizes of gouge to do all of the incising. You'll find this is often the case ,as one to three curves is all it takes to make the graceful curves you've been drawing out freehand , thinking they were so complex ;)
Relieve the carving from the field with a small straight chisel and define the leaf veins and edges with the V tool
lostarrow:
Shape the leaves , adding depth by varying upturned leaves and those that curl under. The upturned ones are made by using the gouge to scoop it out and leaving the tip of the leaf pointed up. The curled over ones can be made by usig a very flat gouge to round over the leaf.
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