Progress on fish hook carving

Although my progress is slow I am getting there. As you can see from the comparison there has been a reasonable amount of progress. I think the name of this particular piece of greenstone is Kakotea. Forgive me if I am wrong. I am trying to teach myself the differences of greenstone in New Zealand. The photo background on the right shows the carving sitting on a Brisbane river nodule.

Solo Exhibition

I'm happy to announce I'm having my first solo exhibition at the end of Feb running through to the 26th Mar.  I began creating artwork for the exhibition around Dec 2013 so have been pretty busy over the last two months.

New Carving

This is my latest carving. It took approx 10 hours to complete. It is deer antler that is very old and was buried for several years. The colour gives the illusion that it has been stained but I can say it has not. There could be something very special happening with this particular carving and I am waiting for a reply before I reveal anything on here. The leaf-side of the carving is the back and carving itself is titled Únity'. I hope you like my newest piece of art.

Pounamu(Greenstone)

It has been a long time since I have worked on this piece of Pounamu. I've spent the last few days shaping it. I believe I am not far off of going through the sanding process. Exciting stuff!!! This will also be my first Pounamu carving.

 I've included the early stage (right),which I have placed on here before to refresh your memory. As you can see I have made some changes above.

Two carvings

These are my latest jewelry pieces. The pendant is from wood, I'm unsure what type but will hazard a guess and say limewood based on that it smelled like limes when I was working on it.  The pendant on the top right is the feminine side with it's soft curves and the pendant bottom left is the masculine side with it's crisp lines which means it is suited for both sexes.

The other is beef bone and the back side is greenstone. I will include a photo of the back at a later date. The etching of the Kowhai flower is called scrimshaw.

 I plait my own cord which is black waxed nylon cord

Deer Antler carving

Well, I have nearly finished working on the deer antler. I still need to drill another hole in the greenstone to secure both pieces together. I think I will place it on a piece of black granite. The ends of the carving have been capped with a native timber, Totara and an oil stain applied.

Carving nearing completion

Finally I'm nearing the completion of my deer antler carving. The greenstone has been attached along with the wooden caps. I just need to shape them closer to the actual carving and remove marks and stain part of the carving for some contrast then join the two pieces together.

The Temptations of John the Baptist

Finally I have found the time to make the base for this deer antler carving. I certainly add to my own stress level by working on too many projects at once. I'm hoping to have learned my lesson. It's a lovely grain running along the edge of the base.  Forgive me for the background. Carving measures 24cm L and has been stained in a tea blend. The base is made from Totora.

Old Art

I think for the next week or so I will place some of my older artwork up. Mostly paintings,pastels and stone sculpture. I hope there's something there to inspire you. Maybe I will place some of my signwriting adventures on here. I don't enjoy this sort of work but do do it every now and then.

Maori Carving

Although progress is slow you can begin to see the carving come to life. Still a long way to go I want to be patient and focus on  craftsmanship. I'm still a bit unsure where I want to take this but I'm sure it will come to me.

$200.00NZD

The Storyteller:

Depicts Jonah telling his journey inside the Whale.

Comes in a gift bag along with it's meaning on a nicely presented card

Abstract Flower

Sorry for the delay in posting the progress of the abstract flower. I've been preoccupied stripping wallpaper for the last 3 days. You may or may not have recognised that I have decided that this is going to be an abstract flower. As I am focused on producing souvenir artwork for international visitors to NZ the design will also reflect that in it's title once completed. (The timber is also native to NZ, Totara).

Due to not have done the scalloped effect I am trying to create here, you can see that I still have quite a bit of work to do just on these two. The top scallop needs to have more curvature, which, once I started the 2nd one began to become clearer as to how to accomplish this, I can now work with more confidence in reproducing each segment.

Deer antler progress

I don't know if anyone can see the difference from the previous images of this bone carving but I hope you can. Today I began carving Pounamu (greenstone) which will be incorporated into the carving. I'm also pretty sure this won't polish up as nice as I would like.