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Creating a Carving 2 |
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Later the same day a great deal of hard work has been done. The shapes of the leaves are now more defined, the body and head of the redstart is recognisable. Note the tab of wood left on the end of the branch in the top right hand corner, this is where the two parts of the carving will ultimately be joined. |
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The wings are now separated and the beak begins to take shape. Care has to be taken to keep checking the appearance from all angles. One wrong cut removing too much wood could ruin the whole piece. Note the wood left under the tail, this will become the trailing legs and claws. |
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April 9th:- The essence of the carving has now emerged, what remains now is to carve in all the fine detail, very time consuming in itself. Here you can see the fine leaf stalks at the back have been carved already, but the stalk in the foreground remains quite thick. This will be left untouched until later so that tools can be worked around it without any risk of snapping. |
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April 10th:- After another days work the carving does not appear to have changed much. But, the feathers have now been almost completely carved and the fine shape of the birds head is now visible. So much wood has been removed the carving is now very light and delicate and must be handled with care whilst further work is carried out. |
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Here you can see just how fine the detail is beginning to get, particularly on the wings and around the head of the redstart. Yet again many different sizes of gouge are being used, each gouge has a different shaped cut, which gives a different emphasis to the form of the carving |
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April 11th:- Even the insides of the wing feathers are carved. Andrew has to find a way to carve in the most inaccessible of places. Here a sharp craft knife is being used to define the edges of the feathers. |
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This half of the carving is now nearly finished. The last jobs to be done are the texturing of the feathers, using a fine dentists drill and the addition of some final shape and smoothness with a very sharp gouge to enhance the feeling of movement in the leaves. |
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The first element of the carving is now cleaned up and finished to Andrew's satisfaction. Now onto the second piece...... |
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