Re-starting Blog

It hasn't Been my intention to discontinue this blog but here it is dormant for a long time now. So I will throw a few recent and not so recent projects on here just to prime things up a bit in my own mind and see if I can provide something useful. 

I have a few projects that I can post about in the near future where I can show incremental stages of their development, my internal thoughts about the why and how of doing them and their varying successes and failures along the way. I have also just published a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/whimsicalwoodart but I have no idea how it all works yet.

Welsh lovespoons will probably remain the main subject on this blog but I will be working through a number of diverse projects; other carvings, small decorative clocks, automata and some graphic works.

First a double sided carving of a dragon set on an oak mirror stand enabling the viewing of both sides. The dragon carving sits loosely on a peg enabling it to be picked up and turned. It is titled: The Desolation of Smug with an Ozymandias/Hobbit reference. The Dragon is carved from pittosporum, an Australian native timber and finished with polyurethane and wax.

The Dragon is perched on a gold hoard.

The dragon is a fossil and the gold has been taken.

 The carving began as a smug looking dragon.

And the desolation side was drawn directly on the block and then carved.

The polyurethane and wax finish has proved to be an economical one in every sense except physical effort. Just one very thinned down coat of polyurethane then the waxing, often in a one sitting process. It seems durable enough for the purpose and enhances the timber with no visible coating.

I will outline the whole process in detail when I reach that stage in the next full described carving project.

Here is the latest Welsh lovespoon carving. It is a panel style lovespoon showing elements of the James family crest, a celtic knot heart, a kentia palm leaf and a daffodil. This lovespoon is carved from rock maple and finished with polyurethane and wax.

And one from last year, a more complex lovespoon carved from New South Wales Rosewood and finished with polyurethane and wax.

Finally a coloured pencil drawing on grey mount board from the same image earlier used for a pyrography work. I am planning on more coloured pencil drawing in the future but I'm still experimenting with this medium.