Reconstruction of Fish Sculpture
Today I am going
to go over reconstruction of a fish sculpture I had previously been exhibiting
at home till the tail piece fell off. This was one of my earliest works and in
this case I took advantage of a natural feature which is the knot or burl on
the side of a tree. I carved this after
seeing the piece laying in the woods. All of my wood carving wood is usually
reclaimed or salvaged wood. I really don’t like the idea of cutting a tree down
to carve something out of it. If you already had plans to take the tree down
for other purposes then it would be fair game. In this case mom and dad had
timbered the area and this was one the pieces left by the logger.
What made it
unusual for me is that it had this huge burl or knot on the side of the log.
And it looked just like a set of fish lips much like a carp or a koi. Anyhow I
had to really look at the log to make sure I could carve the fish out of the
log and soon I saw what I was looking for. I wanted to make it look like it was
jumping out of the water. I also painted it a green with a yellow undertone
then sealed it with a glossy finish. This high gloss finish gave the original
piece a translucent effervescence that brought out the colors and made the fish
appear wet. This is the finish I will try and achieve again.
The first step in
restoring the carving is trying to figure out how to reattach the tail to the
fish. An overall look at the quality of the carving reveals that the wood for
the most part is holding up well. The cracking that occurred when the tail was
cracked off was the result of natural cracking procedure. Cutting the wood in a
different direction or possibly leaving more material or a more upright tail
leaving a straighter fish would result in
tail that may last longer but would not have aesthetic effect this tail
does as this carving exhibits motion while standing still.
This carving was
a favorite of mom and I , and was eventually going to be restored. Having a
blog and teaching people to properly care for their carving has led me to begin
with this project first. So the wood for the most part is solid and in the area
of the break is rather quite hard. I believe this is an ash carving and was a
little on the hard side to carve when I originally carved it out. This carving
was all carved out of one piece of wood the base is representative of the heart
of the log and its optimal carving size. Meaning I would never have been able
to make it any larger. Now I can carve it smaller if needed or glue and attach
pieces if needed then recarve the piece. . None of this necessary but I will
get into this with other pieces as I go along. Next I had to figure out how to strengthen
the repair to prevent It from happening again and I do that with dowels as I drill
and insert a round piece of stock dowel to approximately a straight through position
in the thickest part of the tail sculpture. One dowel may be all that is needed
but two will add even more strength to the original sculpture.
At this point I would
like to say there is an easy way to accomplish drilling and aligning the dowels
but when the piece is odd shaped as it is clamping or drilling straight holes
is hard to do and should be done by sighting along the length of the piece. Trial
and error and a slight over boring of the drill holes by cocking the drill and
wobbling out the hole may give you enough room to secure the two pieces in
approximate position to begin gluing. Wet both pieces and apply the gorilla
glue after the piece is thoroughly dampened. This is important. Gorilla glue is
an excellent adhesive when used for exterior conditions, but must be applied to
a dampened surface. After applying a stream of glue to thoroughly coat both surfaces
and dowel holes then piece together and hold in place if clamping isn’t possible.
After about ten minutes the glue will begin to set and eventually you will be
able to let the piece stand on its own after about a half hour. Allow the glue
to dry overnight to assure proper bonding. Some other prep work is being
accomplished at the same time as I go along here , and will show you details
and offer an explanation as I go along.
Tomorrow I will
be grinding down the excess glue bubbles, and doing some more prep work on the
carving prior to painting and sealing.
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