Walnut carving update

Well I hate to say it but I was wrong. After a 10 days of looking for my camera and deciding it had been stolen, I found it. So here is a photo update of my walnut carving. There isn't too much more to do to the carving itself but I still need a rod and a piece of granite for the base. Having more of a Celtic feel to it I need to build a title around that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Walnut progress

After a lengthy bout of lack of self motivation, today I picked up my walnut carving and began working on it again. Forgive the lighting. I left it a bit late to photograph. 
The hole in the front of the carving will hopefully have a piece of Jade/Nephrite inserted. The hole in the back is for natural light to shine through to enhance the variations in the greenstone, I hope. I still need to shape the semi-circles and add a v-groove design before I focus on sanding and staining.
The hole below looks off-center but I think that's more to do with the illusion created by the smaller hole along with the angle I took the photograph.

BACK

FRONT

Walnut carving

Here are a couple of photo's of my newest carving I'm working on. I'm unsure of a title yet but am aiming somewhere in the region of 'Hazardous Waste', Radioactive.....?. You get the general idea. 
I have found that this piece of wood (walnut) has a lovely grain to it. I think this is due to me previously using driftwood which doesn't show the grain as well due to being submerged in water for long periods.  I'm only about half way to finishing this piece so still a bit of work to do. The back (top below) was a challenge to add a curve to it but it's either beginners luck, which probably means i'll never be able to do it again, or I might be a natural (lol).

Water fowl carving

I thought I would share this carving of a local waterfowl, in abstract form. This particular waterfowl would use his colouring and extension of it's head pointing upwards to blend in with the reeds. I carved it from Tasmanian Blackwood. The base is a native timber Totara. I donated this carving to the community for them to raffle off.

The Devil wears Prada

I'm glad to say that this carving has reached it's completion. Although it ha been on g+ for a few days I have only just found time to place it on my blog. I took a tongue 'n'cheek approach to it's title. The Devil with his imperfections is shown with the imperfection in the carving, although I think it enhances it.

 

Driftwood face

Today I started working on this carving again. I'm terrible at working on one carving at a time which makes it seem like it takes forever to finish one. This has been a struggle. As I am teaching myself I keep making mistakes and it takes hours upon hours to bring everything back into some sort of perspective. I hope to work on this tomorrow so hope to be closer to completing this difficult, learn by your mistakes, carving.

New Wood carving

True to form I'm working on more than one project at a time. I seriously think I enjoy putting myself through this. A bit of a sucker for punishment so to speak, as it drains me. This is an early stage of what looks like an abstract shoe of some sorts.

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.

Elephant progress update

I'm nearly at the sanding stage. I had to fill a small area today and as I'm out of town during the day for the next two days I will have to wait until the weekend to tidy up the filled area and begin sanding from there.

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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