The Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity was commissioned as a gift. Carved from beef bone with the beak of a Manaia at each end and in a figure 8  to represent the life cycle in its continuance as is the father,son and holy ghost.
Privately owned.
I can reproduce this carving if you wish.

Rangi and Papa

Depicts the separation of Rangi (sky father) and Papa (earth mother) by Tane (God of the forest), in Maori legend. Colouring is tea stain.
NFS

I can reproduce this piece if you wish.

One of the 3 baskets of knowledge in Maori legend this was carved for a friend. Kete-tuauri- held the knowledge of ritual, memory and prayer. I can reproduce this piece should you be interested in purchasing this particular design.
NFS

This is a piece carved from beef bone. It is in the shape of a feather and has a Manaia on left and right side of the front of the feather. The colouring comes from staining in tea. 
FOR SALE:
NZD $80.00

The Tale of a Whale

 Depicting Jonah telling the story of his journey inside the whale(represented by pulling the whale from his mouth). 
FOR SALE: NZD $200.00.
Contact me at darrengosling@hotmail.com.

Tools used for New Beginnings

I'm not sure if these images can be enlarged on here but the four files are what I used on my bone carving. The top 3 are very fine rifler files 00 or 000 cut I think.
The bottom one is a jewellers file. Tapered round.

The 2 gravers are for cleaning up your lines and getting into the corners to make sharp clean edges. They are home made.








A cheap set of Stanley needle files are good for removing bone as they are coarser than the jewellers and rifler files






Of course the bastard file. I use a half round and a flat. Good for removing larger quantities of bone. Especially shaping the bone.

I'm still not sure about the ring of shell. I still need to clean up in between the ring and the greenstone and clean up around the outside of the greenstone on the back too.

I have titled this bone carving 'New Beginnings' and find this fits in with my first vision of the Manaia with the child in the womb. Also the greenstone represents a mirror that reflects the Manaias image back at itself to reveal ones true self. The shell in it's circular form represents the continuance of life now and in the afterlife.

Once this carving is completed it will be for sale.

NZD $175.00.

You can contact me at darrengosling@hotmail.com

With the image on the left being the back and the image on the right being the front the bone is now taking it's journey to becoming a completed bone carving.. The center hole will have a piece of Pounamu (greenstone) placed in it. On the right you can see the hole also has a larger surround where I hope to place a ring of white shell that was given to me.
To get the bone to this state I used 100,220,280,320,400,and 600 grit sandpaper. It is best to wear gloves as the oils in our body give it a yellowish tinge. I find surgical type gloves comfortable to wear! 
I use Brasso to polish my carving. 
I also do the lashings and binding from black waxed nylon cord, the braiding and also make the toggles from bone as well.

Let the clean up begin

The top image is the back and the image under this is the front. I used my trusty jewellers files and rifler files to do most of the work here. It doesn't hurt to give it a bit of a sand either! This will help you see the imperfections clearer and earlier, may I add. What I can see in the top image looks like a deformity. Nothing wrong with that. This gives me some insight as to where I need to make changes if necessary. I won't fully know until I complete the other side.

As I begin to shape the section above I started to notice things within the bone carving. Resembling a Manaia (Guardian spirit) I could see the features of the birdlike beak and the Koru, (resembling a fern frond uncoiling) I took what I could see as a Manaia with a child in the womb (the koru). Naming something you create takes time and patience!

Once again, the work done was with the same  jewellers files.

Working with the tools I have available makes it a slow process but I go by the philosophy that its not the journey that matters, but the end result". 
As you can see we start to see results now. I like what is in front of me now. I still have the 2-3mm gap between the design and the bone, everything looks in proportion and the shape stands out a lot clearer. 

 I used jewellers'  files and very fine rifler files for jewellery. It was a long arduous day.

The top image has been prepared for the next stage. I used my dremel and a high speed drill bit. The bottom image shows the early stage of beginning to remove what will be negative space. I leave the back rough until I develop the front. I do this as I work intuitively when creating two sides giving me options to create a story-line that follows it's way around the carving.  

Well, now that  I have cleaned up around the outside of the bone carving you can see what a difference it makes. At the time I had no title for this piece. I generally work on the design and write down thoughts as I see them. Sometimes this can be a slow process but rewarding too when you finally decide on a title.

New Beginnings

New to blogging I thought it might be a great opportunity, not only for me but for you also to watch the progress of my original bone carving designs. I've been working on this bone carving, which I decided to photograph as I progressed.  I am a pure amateur and I'm sure there are plenty of tools that would make my job easier but I buy what I can afford at the time.

 As you can see the 1st image shows the design cut from the bone. This particular bone is beef bone. I have left a 3mm gap between the sketch and the bone. This allows me room to shape my work without loosing the original sizing. 
 I used a dremel, with a diamond blade to cut roughly around the bone. (In NZ a diamond wheel costs NZD $25.00 and the dremel NZD $150.00 including the flexi-shaft). I will include photo's of the tools I used to create this piece later.