So I've Taken Up Wood Carving....

I have two projects on the go at the moment. Both half way through one of them I won't post until it's finished but the other is a cake stand I have been asked to make for the tea room I volunteer at. As the tea room is part of the nature park I was asked to come up with a design to hold 3 large 12" diameter cakes in a small area.

I came up with a design of three tree trunks and the domes of the cakes would then act like the top growth of the canopy. This drawing I did should make it a bit clearer.



So while I was struck down with Man Flu I began work on the first tree, which was also the largest one to do.

The trunk was constructed by a length of 3x3 softwood and then branches were cut out of 6x2 softwood. These were then fixed into place with the plywood platter holding it altogether. I added offcuts at the bottom to act as roots and also make the tree slightly less top heavy. I would have preferred to have used a different wood but the charity don't have much money to spend and so had to scrounge around for most of the the parts.



This was then carved, using axes, chisels and rasps.



More sanding and rasping the next day and this is how its turned out before painting.


Have now started work on the next two and this is how they currently look.

 

They are so desirable JJ and will fit in beautifully with the spirit of the tea shop.
Clever you for a well thought out design. Looking forward to seeing them all spit spot and ready to get to work,
Jenny

 

Amazing work, JJ

Hope you are fully recovered from your Man Flu

 

My god it looks fantastic!!!!

 

That's lovely Jane, I'm looking forward to seeing the three finished.

 

All finished but unfortunately its too large for the tea room. Also after one of the volunteers bashed their heads on it I was handed it back.

Not sure what to do with it now tbh.

 

Flog it to another tea room?

 

I put it up on the local facebook page (which is heaving with people) said I could rent it out but it seems people are more interested in buying it. Asked for £45, which in hindsight maybe too much for it, but just want it to go to a good home. Have three or four people interested so far.

 

A couple of weeks ago I received a text message from a very good friend of mine who was fitting a new kitchen sink into his worktop. It was solid oak and "was as hard as steel" and was asked if I wanted it otherwise it would be taken to the dump.

This is the picture I received with the message.



I said I would take it, although at the time had no idea what to do with it. While I awaited it's arrival I came up with the idea of using the worktop to help me create the hull of a small noah's ark. This is a project I have been wanting to do since I first took up carving and was in fact one of the reasons I did after seeing one in a shop window for several hundred pounds.

The plan was to lamiate the worktop together, using the lamiations from front to back (I'm not seaman so I'm sure someone will correct me with the proper term) to imitate the planking on the ark's hull.

When I received the top I had a bit of chipboard and screws to remove and then cut some excess bits off. You can see where I had started drawing on the wood to make sure my template for the hull fitted the worktop.



I then had to plane off 10 years worth of Danish oil using a woody jack plane, which proved to be easier than I thought.



The side profile template was then drawn onto the worktop



Then cut into it's sections. You can see that one of the laminations is running vertical, rather than horizontal. This wasn't a problem as I would hold this piece in the middle and wouldn't really be affected by the carving process as much as the others.



These were then glued together and left over night to dry.





After 24 hours the clamps came off and the top profile was ready to cut out. You can just make out the brown pencil marks on the deck and sides.



To do this on such a curved surface in a big bandsaw would be too dangerous and so mounted the ark to a piece of scrap plywood to hold the ark at a good and safer position.



Once roughed out, the f clamp I use to hold the work so my hands are well clear of the bandsaw blade.



I then used the two screw holes I had used to mount the plywood to then mount a mounting block to. (Although this proved pretty useless in the long run as the sides of the ark were pretty flat for my vice jaws to hold.)



The hull was then carved (Sorry I lost the picture of this) and then rasped to a more even finish.

Next I worked on the deck. A 1cm line was marked all the way around the deck and then this was carved out. I decided to leave part of the middle section with the end grain face to create a sort of tenon for the housing for the cabin.





The whole hull and deck were then sanded and cleaned up before work began on building the cabin. After much fettling on the deck the cabin was finally glued into place over the tenon.



Windows drilled in place.



More to come....

 

That is almost a walkthru on how to make one!

 

Yeah I posted it on another forum which is full of woodworkers. Eventually it will go on my blog when it's finished.

Have just started carving the animals for it too.

 

Absolutely marvellous JJ..

 

Just made my first sale on etsy

 

Well done Jane! Onwards and upwards!