Author Topic: Hare woodcarving  (Read 22524 times)

Offline micktoon

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Hare woodcarving
« on: October 06, 2013, 07:04:36 PM »
Hi all , well I have been starting to do some more woodcarvings, I hate the laying out and band sawing part so have done a few bits at the same time once the gear for doing that stage was out, then I will have enough to last me a while.

 My first subject is a sitting hare, the design is from the woodcarver magazine. First the drawing is expanded to fit the wood on the computer then the print taped on with carbon paper under it and traced onto the wood, The wood I am using is Lime wood.



This is done for both the front view and side view, this is then cut around with the bandsaw, once the first direction is cut the scrap wood is tapped back so the wood becomes a block again so the other direction can also be cut while remaining stable on the saw table.



I am also cutting out a pointer dog and two wrens, these were laid out in the same manner but I do not have decent views from the above so will have to carve away rather than bandsaw for these items.





This is the hare and all the bits of scrap from cutting it out in the two planes , you end up with some weird shapes, I also managed to cut it out in such a way that it left a decent size and shape bit of scrap that will do for two walking stick handles once split down the middle, I intend doing a ducks head and a pheasants head with these. You can see this at the back of the table.



This shot shows all the blanks cut out.



This is the hare staring to be carved out, its tricky getting your head around what is safe to remove at this stage as it still does not look much like the finished thing and with the wood unlike clay or metal , once its taken off, thats it , its gone !!



Then its just more of the same , keep refering to the drawings and slowly carving away , then checking again and carving more. This Lime wood I am using for the hare is slightly spalted which gives the interesting markings ( lime is normally very bland and no visible grain ) You can see this in the photo of the hare front on here. Spalting is caused by a fungus in the wood, it can make patches of the wood soft but does not seem to bad so far.







Once it starts to take shape it gets easier to know what is really safe to take off but still tricky to know how far you dare go in some areas and there is less of a safety margin for error the closer to size it gets too.



I decided to do some sanding and dremel work to smooth the shape out as I was having a hard time deciding what was right and what was not.

 











This is the stage I have reached so far, I can already tell it will not end up exact to the drawing, which wont really matter as long as I think it still looks nice or not wrong, sometimes its best to leave it a day or two then look at it with 'fresh eyes' and it can seem easier to work out which bits need work and what areas are safe to take more wood off.
  So watch this space............More to come soon.
  Cheers Mick

Offline vtsteam

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2013, 07:27:52 PM »
This is great!  :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline RossJarvis

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2013, 05:10:23 AM »
looking good to me too :thumbup:

I thought carbon paper had died out long ago!  Interesting to see Smith's still stock it.
Procrastination; now is that an art or a craft skill?

Offline micktoon

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2013, 05:48:00 AM »
Thanks for comments lads  :thumbup: , Ross I have had this carbon paper for a few years but I think you can still get it at WHSmiths , if not art shops do still sell it , its still realy handy stuff.
  Cheers Mick

Offline vtsteam

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2013, 08:38:56 AM »
Mick, I'm not sure, but I think lime wood is also called basswood? And I might have it here actually growing in the woods as "big leaf linden". Not sure. But I have cut some up into 4" x 4" and some thin stock. It's light in weight, close grained and carves well. It looks like yours might be spalted -- is that true? If so my hat's off to you (further) for carving.
I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline doubleboost

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2013, 02:15:46 PM »
Hi
Mick
The wood butchering is coming along very nicely  :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
Its ear is a good shape  very impressed
John

Offline micktoon

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2013, 03:06:57 PM »
Hi VT , yes I believe what we know in the UK as Lime , is either Linden wood or Basswood in the USA, I dont really know if its exactly the same tree but its as close as you can get if its not the same, some carving books refer to it as the same thing but I suspect a proper tree buff would say they might be from the same family of trees but variants ? The bit I am using is slightly spalted, which I hope will bring more character and not problems, up to now the spalted bits seem nice and firm, the pattern loked better when it was in a block to be honest but I think it will look better with some finish on the wood.

 John I am still shaping the ears so hopefully they will look better later on  :thumbup:

 Cheers Mick.

Offline krv3000

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2013, 04:07:43 PM »
well dun mick

Offline micktoon

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2013, 06:25:49 PM »
 I have got a bit more done to the Hare carving and also started the wren, I have been loaned three seperate carvings of a wren at different stages from a friend who is an expert at bird carving to use as a guide to doing mine, good job too as they have been a great help so far, I am very greatful to have them to compare to.

This is the hare , I am not sure how different it will look in photos but quite a bit of work has been done since the last shots.





The wren along side the stage 1 pattern, up to the stage I have reached , in the first shot mine is the one nearer my wrist and in the second shot mine is the one at the bottom. I have carved it with gouges to this basic shape then used a dremel type tool with sanding drums to refine the shape , it still needs lots more work, I will post photos of the sample carvings I am aiming to copy next time .





Cheers Mick

Offline awemawson

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2013, 03:27:04 AM »
Mick, either you have VERY small hands, or the wren is at least double if not treble size  :lol:

We regularly have wrens here and they are minute.

Very nice work by the way  :thumbup:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline mattinker

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2013, 05:40:03 AM »
Mick,

my parents were both artists, painters and sculptors. As kids we grew up making things, drawing and carving. One of the things that I learnt was that if I wasn't sure what was wrong with something I was carving, drawing or modelling , look at it in a mirror. You see it with new eyes.

Might help, regards, Matthew.

Offline Pete W.

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2013, 07:36:17 AM »
Mick, either you have VERY small hands, or the wren is at least double if not treble size  :lol:

We regularly have wrens here and they are minute.

Very nice work by the way  :thumbup:

One of my treasured memories, a few years ago: walking the dog along a local footpath edged with tall oak trees on one side and very bushy hedges on the other.  I was suddenly aware of a very loud ticking noise, two mature wrens.  They were out of sight but their brood was in-sight and taking its maiden flight - the young wrens looked about the size of large bumble bees.  I can't think of a suitable adjective to describe the flight of the young wrens but it was certainly not the straight line darting of their parents.
Best regards,

Pete W.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you haven't seen the latest design change-note!

Offline TLGriff

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2013, 06:34:22 PM »
Looking good Mick, you definitely have the knack for sculpting. Have you thought about carving a chess set? Alice in Wonderland characters would make an excellent theme.

Tom

Offline micktoon

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2013, 07:18:39 PM »
 Hi all thanks for the comments  :thumbup: , That is good advice about the mirror Matthew , I do already do that and it does work well.
   Pete  I saw some wrens that nested in the garden leave the nest this summer , as you say they are stuttering a bit at first , these chicks had hardly any tails , tat wont have helped them lol.
   awemawson, These still have to have a hell of a lot taken off so they will end up 100mm from tip of beak to tip of tail which is the adult wren size, I am trying to copy the part carved patterns I have so this is still stage one really hence the massive wren stage, even though there is much to spare I think IO may already have took too much off one area  :palm: .... it might be able to be saved yet .....or I have learnt for wren 2 !
  Tom, thanks for the kind comments , to be honest the thought of many more similar items to carve is not a nice thought lol , although I agree Alice in Wonderland would be a good theme  :thumbup:

 Cheers Mick.

Offline micktoon

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2013, 06:43:20 PM »
 After a good few distractions I have got some more of the hare carved. I have refined the shape and sanded it quite a bit , there is still more to do but its getting there, I have strayed from the drawings but think my version looks better in some areas so will be leaving them as they are.
 Here are some photos at this stage .









There was then the small matter of the eyes to carve in, I have never tried doing eyes before and the project could have still ended up as fire wood if these went badly wrong ! I was going by an article in a woodcarving magazine which was not as good as it first appeared once you started really needing detail, also I really needed a few carving tools slightly smaller and other shapes than the ones I had but just plodded on for hours and hours but they ended up not bad so now thats out the way I just have to keep refining the shape and then put some finish on it and make a base .









Cheers Mick

Offline awemawson

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #15 on: November 08, 2013, 04:09:49 AM »
Looking very good Mick. Is that that clampy thing in use?

Andrew
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline doubleboost

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #16 on: November 08, 2013, 04:06:22 PM »
Superb Mick
The eyes are amazing :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:
Nice work lamp :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
John

Offline jb3cx

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2013, 05:13:17 PM »
First class micky,looking good. :ddb:

Offline RossJarvis

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #18 on: November 15, 2013, 05:00:23 PM »
Yep, big thumbs up from me :thumbup:, particularly as it seems you're doing some stuff for the first time :headbang:.
Procrastination; now is that an art or a craft skill?

Offline svk

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2013, 05:18:04 PM »
Amazing :thumbup:

Offline Meldonmech

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #20 on: November 22, 2013, 04:24:14 AM »
Hi Mick

              Great hare, I had a large white haired Lop Rabbit just like that, we called him Thumper.  He fathered lots more rabbits and when he was feeling randy he would thump the floor, and that's how he got his name.

                                                                             Cheers David

Offline micktoon

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #21 on: November 25, 2013, 07:33:48 PM »
Thanks for the comments lads , well the hare is almost done, the hare carving is done just a base to do for it now, the main reason for this is the grain in the wood runs up and down so the feet sticking out are likely to get snapped off if knocked at any point in the future.

 This is it after final sanding and the other detail carved in , like the feet.



It then was waxed using beeswax mixed with turpentine scrubbed in with an old toothbrush, and warmed over with an electric heat gun so it soaks in.





Then buffed off with a soft brissle brush then buffed wit a soft cotton cloth and the jobs a good un !













Cheers Mick.

Offline Doc

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #22 on: November 25, 2013, 08:12:24 PM »
Wow!
I'm always amazed with carvings like that. Wish I was able to do that but I wouldn't know where to start and just don't have that kind of talent.
Nice!

Offline TLGriff

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #23 on: November 25, 2013, 08:14:57 PM »
A first rate job Mick. I like how the grain of the wood looks like hair (hare hair?).

Tom

Offline krv3000

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Re: Hare woodcarving
« Reply #24 on: November 26, 2013, 06:16:47 PM »
brill job  :ddb: