Mary Day 6

I got a couple hours in this afternoon on the carving. This time the changes are somewhat subtle, refinements to the face and shoulders, as well as roughing on the back. You can follow where I've been working by the white where the weathered wood has been cut away.  The piece is starting to come together, though I still need to bring the basic indication of a robe down the front and do a fair amount of refinement on the face arms and hands you can definitely see the outline of what it will look like when completed.

Carving Mary, Day Five

After spending a week on an artist's retreat at St Mary's on the Lake (more about that later) I was excited to get back to carving this piece. Day five was a short one, only 3 or so hours in the 90 degree heat reshaping the head and shoulders. Next time think I will finally start to articulate the hands, as well as continuing to refine the head and arms...

Carving Mary Day Four

 

After another two week hiatus while in LA for work over last weekend, I got back to the carving for a half day the 4th of July. In a typical brilliant move I forgot my big chisels and so refined the face and neck rather than finishing the re-shaping of the head which I wanted to do with a 2 inch flat. Next time I hope to get to clean up the head shape, and start to take the refinement a bit further down the body, putting a little more detail into the hands and drapery over the arms.

A Belated Rabbit

A couple of months ago I finished a carving of a rabbit in a large section of storm toppled locust trunk at the Teaneck Creek Conservancy in Teaneck NJ. It was a fun, but physically tough process. Locust is a very hard wood and I’d mistakenly loaned my brother the sharp gas chainsaw. I wound up doing a bit more work by hand than I originally intended, splitting the head of my large mallet while unwisely using it as a driving hammer…  Relief cuts were made with the chainsaw, sections spit off, and the remainder of the work done with hand chisels as part of Teaneck Creek’s Earth Day craft festival. The piece is currently installed by a pond at the creek. Below is a work in progress shot at the end of day one, and a slightly unflattering shot of the final rabbit after around 3 days of work.