my Wood Carvings
In 2016 a local woodcarver started a wood carving club in the local community centre and a friend suggested we join. I had never carved before but had always admired carved pieces so I joined. Club $168 sets of Flexicut palm carving tools were available for use and the first piece of limewood was provided.
I didn't like the Flexcut chisels because they flexed! So because I didn't know what sort of chisels I would like using I bought a cheap, £18, Woodpecker set of palm chisels from China - fantastic steel which hardly ever needs even stropping. Also my father had bought some old woodworking tools in the 1950s one of which after I had cleaned off the rust and sharpened is my favorite carving chisel, the steel is excellent and keeps its edge.
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2023
Offering
Bearer
| 2022
Gryphon
| 2019
Scroll Shield
| 2018
Girl in red
| 2017
Lamassu
| 2016
Egyptian
woman
| 2016
Freestyle
foliage
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2023 - Offering Bearer
Inspired by two thirds wooden sculptures found in a group of 25 in the Tomb of Meketre (TT280) Deir El Bahri 11th Dynasty 2134-1991.
wood from a 100 year old piano - figure 8" high, waxed
| Meketre tomb figures |
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2022 - 2023 - Winged Lion
A friend at Carving had started a winged lion but then he had to stay home to look after his wife and asked me if I would finish it for him as he had promised it to a relative. Unfortunately it was very rough and the head looked like a poodle - even he said so. I had to cut off the whole face and recarve the head shoulders and front paws further back and then carve the wings.
Lime - 8" long, waxed
2019 - 2022 - Gryphon
I started a Gryphon in late 2019 but the club closed for Covid and only opened again in August 2021.
Lime - 10" high
2022-03-09 A work in progress
Lime
2019 - Scroll Shield
It was going to be a shield on a scroll with foliage behind but the foliage on the right turned out too heavy so I carved a bunch of grapes to the left.
Lime - 12" long
2018 - Girl in red
I liked the colour of the wood but some parts like that at the left were very soft but where the face is it was very very hard and was beyond me to make a proper face.
So now a question - how did the early Egyptians carve diorite? Photographic proof of theories only, please.
wood offcut got from a guitar maker - 6"x8"
February 2017 - Lamassu - Bull Of Heaven
wood from a new, treated, door-lintel - 9"x10", waxed
August 2016 - Egyptian woman
I saw a picture of a 6 inches high wooden statuette of a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, with a baby on her back, which was taken out of the tomb of Useri at Beni Hasan, 12th Dynasty and is in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. That makes the statuette about three thousand years old.
I thought I would carve something similar then gesso and paint it as was the Egyptian carving. That part is still waiting to be done.
Egyptian statuette
wood from a 100 year old piano - figure 7" high
May 2016 - Freestyle foliage
Lime - 6"x5"
March 2016 - You have to start somewhere
Lime