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.

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.

Final touches on baby elephant

I hope to complete the baby elephant carving on the weekend. The last bit to do is cut a amethyst crystal to place in the center of the elephants head. (It's third eye) The difficulty carving with few features makes it hard to see the contours, especially in the head and top part of the thighs.

Gecko Series

I'm working on a Gecko theme at present. A possible total of 5 pieces to show the battle from beginning to end in a fight for superiority. The 'red' is to represent war and power.

 

Torso

I bought this mannequin torso a few years ago for displaying my T-shirt designs and Jewelry but the other day decided to transform it into it's own piece of art. Covered in Maori design to fit my other works I've been working on to form a collection of artwork I'm left wondering whether I need to add to the design. I'm going to leave it for a while and see what I come up with. I do have an idea of what to do but am unsure at present.

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

Elephant carving update

As you can see, the head is still oversized and I'm being careful to not lose the playful baby elephant look making it a bit nerve racking to take off too much at once.  All'n All coming together quite well. I'm sure my friend will appreciate it once completed.

Elephant carving

Today I spent it shaping the elephant more. I've placed some more plugs into holes and will cut and sand them back tomorrow. I can still see things that need changing but am being careful not to loose the sense of a playful baby elephant. I also need to make a foot for the front leg in the 1st image and toes on the back leg in the same image 
Feedback would be greatly appreciated

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Elephant wood carving

Today I began a carving of an Elephant. Surprisingly it has turned out pretty good. It even has character. A playful baby elephant is what it reminds me of. I think the wood is Black Maire. Very hard to carve! Its been clamped as it split while it was in the vice. I still need to shape the trunk and work on the body and head before sanding but I'm looking forward to the end result.
I've got a day in town tomorrow so will hopefully complete the elephant on Sat 2nd Nov.

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.

new wood carving

The piece of driftwood I purchased from the arts recycling center the other day is now beginning to take shape. It is a very hard wood. I'm guessing it is Jarra but have my fingers crossed that it's Black Maire. Even my files are working hard to remove the wood. I've spent most of today thinking about the back of the carving and as you can see by the image I have begun work on it. As far as a story for this piece, I still am working on that too. The top image is day two where I have started to add more detailing to the hands etc. The bottom image was from yesterday.

Bird

I love this tiny bird. I did this along with 5 other small canvas' with varying images for a friend. I've included the Pukeko as well.

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

Logo design

So, it goes like this. I decided to create my own logo for my wordpress site. I hadn't considered size and as the site/theme header was rectangular (beats me why I didn't check this out first) I was stuck with a design that will need some reworking. I am so disappointed. Anyway, you can view my designs at http://www.darrengartist.wordpress.com. At present I only have free designs on my site. I will be uploading images of new paintings I have completed in the last few days along with bone carvings.

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.

Manaia day 3

The slowest process has begun. I've started carving the pattern design. It's still early days but as you can see from my previous posts it's starting to progress nicely.

 A day off tomorrow and hopefully I'll be back into it on Tuesday.