Post #293864 by Tabu on Thu, Mar 22, 2007 6:01 PM

This is the first posting of my wood carving projects. Thanks to all the other carvers who share their work and advice to inspire and aid us new kids. I don't get a great deal of time to devout to carving with this darn winter thing and my job and all. So to start here are a couple of the main pieces I've done over the past year.

Here is the first large carving I have ever attempted. This pole is carved from a nice ash log donated by my neighbor. I only used chisels and mallet. Ash is very, very hard and as a result this pole took a long time to carve. You can see in the
first shot that I had intended it to be a cannibal theme. I screwed up the victim so he became a tongue.

The finished pole. After sanding I used a blow torch to darken the grain. I stained it with a waterbased rosewood and finished him in tung oil.

The next up was this panel carved from alder. I saw an exhibition of west coast native masks and was impressed with how glassy smooth sanded alder looked. I luckily found this plank at a specialty wood shop in my area.
I wanted this one to be a goof on the melanesian style.
Here it is sanded and stained. I used a black stain in the creases which worked much better than the micro torch on the thin detail.

And the final carving again finished with tung oil. For the eyes I sanded the outer layer off a clam shell and cut two semi circles from the mother of pearl. A dremel was needed to grind the eyes to fit. If you try this be prepared for a great burning hair smell.

Thanks for having a look. I also have two paintings posted in the" other crafts" section.