it isnt what you think.

You Can Take it off, but You Can’t Put It On Again

 

my supervisor ms. pia  

    No, much to your dismay I am not talking about sex again. Although there may be wood in the subject, it still has to do with carving, instead of first sex between willing partners. And what I am referring to is carving in wood and the process of wood removal as opposed to sex as it becomes, well you get it. . It is different than say clay modeling as you build up the clay till you have what you are looking for. With wood you are doing the opposite and removing until you have what you are looking for. If you take too much most times you are screwed and you can change the sculpture into something else like a matchstick or say firewood as a last result. And maybe that is what is good about wood sculpting is that you never have a mistake just firewood. 

 

the log in its original form laying on ground closet to carving table . another reason it was selected was because i didnt want to trip over anything , and soner or later i would have to deal with it. you can see the knot giving me trouble. plus a lot dead i had to trim off back side to get to solid wood. 

 

     Still you would think for the effort you put into a sculpture, and be surprised when you find the hidden Pandora box of troubles. These may include worm holes , knots that are hollow , rotten spots that are punky (soft, yielding) , and of course the slip of the chainsaw, or the eye of the beholder. What I am writing about today is how to deal with those troubles for the most part. This is a result of me picking up a piece of wood and carving on it and finding such a place. I will attempt to glue in a piece and re-carve it today. You can take it off, but you can’t put it on again, is true in a sense but then again to most carvers, not always true. We would like to think we will never have a problem and that all carvings will be the subject of pure expertise with no cheating. Still nature isn’t perfect and chainsaw carvers know that better than most. 

 

after the first tank of gas i could see the knot was going to be aproblem as i went deeper. it was punky as we call it. with a ring of dead material circling it . you can see it on the bear's right arm.

 

      A knot hole on the side of the wild cherry log I selected should have given me pause to stop at that point and just cut it up for firewood. But there are times I have started into logs similar to this and have found the defect to be only a surface blemish. This wasn’t the case with this log and after considerable carving has the knot gouged out and considering the damage, it will call for drastic measures to make it right for sale. 

 

  

a small spot also appeared below the left arm but will be of no consequence. this is after the third tank of gas or approximately 1 hrs. of carving. 

    So today I am going to show you exactly where the damage is, and will show you pictures of the bear in general. I had planned on finishing this bear today and starting a new one . But will see how things go after today. Anyhow I will post pics of the repair work and finishing of the bear over the next couple days. So if interested in how to repair almost any wood sculpture or furniture then please check back, this process will be drastic, but will result in a repair that is almost identical to the rest of the carving. 

 

 this is after the 2nd tank of gas and is out of sequence as i avoided taking pics of damage in last picture taking session . you can see the holes and what appears to be a rotten limb that left the knothole and the damage you see . the limb broke off and the tree tried to repair itself.  i will do a stair step 1-2 inch cut almost flush with the body and then reinsert a piece and glue it back in and then re-carve to my original lines. the repair will be almost seamless s most of it will be in the fur area and will blend right in. 

     The process will require me to take a section of bad wood out where I will be doing the repair with a chainsaw , being careful to cut it deep enough to allow enough replacement wood cut off  from the original carving to be glued back in place and then re- trimmed to the original lines . This will make an almost seamless repair that will be hard to tell with the naked eye. Tomorrow I will have pictures of the process as I am in a real time mode of writing in my blog. What I work on today will be posted tomorrow. I will have this carving available for sale after finishing it and sealing it. If interested please call 2345213984 for information on how e can make arrangements to allow you to purchase. The price will be 100 dollars. I am not taking any orders at this time presently.  Thanks for viewing.

he has a nice profile