Follow My Carving - Step 10

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.

Now that the bark carving is finished, it’s time to put on the first coat of oil. But first, a suspension frame must be built to allow the carving to be oiled on all sides simultaneously. Since the carving is 11x11 inches, the frame is sized to allow about ½ inch clearance on all sides. The interior of this frame is 12x12 inches and is made from 1x3 pine stock. Drywall screws are placed on the topside, but not screwed all the way in. This will allow the carving to be strung across the frame in suspension.

Next, the carving is prepared.
A staple gun is loaded with 3/8 inch staples and the wire guide is set in the active position. This will allow the staples to be firmly secured and leave enough room to insert wires for attaching the carving to the suspension frame.


Since so much material has been removed from the carving, it is far too weak to insert the staples while standing upright. The carving must be laid flat, with one side near the edge of the bench and held in place by pressing down firmly from the top. Great care must be taken to exert enough pressure with the gun to secure the staple, but not so much as to crack the carving.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 9

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.


More bark carving. When you look closely, you will find subtle details such as the illusion of a knot (in the bottom right corner) and the directional flow of the bark wherever there is a split in the branch. The same undercut technique that was employed on the roots is also used to help shape these splits. It contributes to the illusion of depth, making one branch seems to go farther back than another.

The ability to cast these subtle shadows is the real trick of relief carving. The brain interprets shadows as a recess and will accept the illusion of more depth where none really exists.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 8

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.


Bark carving detail is added to the smaller branches. Great care must be taken to keep the bark flowing with the lay of the branch while angling the gouge to make a smooth cut that doesn’t go across the grain any more than necessary. It is important to make some of the strokes go over the edge. This significantly contributes to the illusions of depth and roundness of the branch.

These small branches are the weakest part of the piece, especially those that are not fully anchored, such as the one in the lower right. To avoid applying too much pressure to these areas, the gouge must be kept razor sharp. It is honed on the leather strop every five strokes.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 7

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.

Before fully carving a limb, detail is added to the know area. This can be done with micro carving gouges, but is generally more precise using a rotary tool with a very small, round bit. The edges of the hole part of the know will be feathered out to make it look weathered. A stop-cut is made around the outside of the knot. This shallow, single-line cut helps prevent a gouge from carving through the knot when cutting toward it during bark carving.

On the lower limb, you can see the effect of cutting across the grain or cutting into section that has loose grain. The wood tears slightly. After the bark carving is finished, areas like these will need to be smoothed with the rotary tool on very low speed using a needle shaped bit. It will basically act as a precision micro-sander. This tool is also used to smooth the area around the stop-cut and blend it with the rest of the limb.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 6

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.



Time to begin the bark carving. This requires the use of micro carving gouges. You may have noticed a few splinters at the edge of a carving stroke. The gouges must be kept razor sharp to keep this type of tear-out to a minimum. A leather strop is kept handy at all times during this phase and the gouges are honed about every twenty strokes. This makes a world of difference in whether the tool is cutting through the wood or just ripping it apart.

Here’s a picture of the micro carving tools I use. The pencil will give you an idea of the small size.



The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 5

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.



Before the detail carving is done on the tree itself, the areas outside the circle are sanded smooth. The tree itself cannot be sanded, else it would loose all detail. Having smooth and rough surfaces on the same piece will help give the sections definition. During the finishing process, the oil will penetrate further into the rough surfaces than on the smooth surfaces. Because of this, each section will be a slightly different color, which will help distinguish the main part of the carving from its surroundings.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 4

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.



The same detail treatment is given to the roots as was used on the wood spirit portal. A special undercutting technique helps cast shadows that differentiate one root from another without causing a wide gap between them. This results in three distinct layers emerging from only a 1/4 inch thick piece of wood. When the final oil is applied, more if it will gather in the crevices between each root. This will result in making the shadows even more pronounced and contributing to the illusion of depth.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 3

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.



Before carving the bark, more fine detail is given to the knot in the trunk, which also serves as the wood spirit portal. Because it lies on the outer surface of the trunk, the cuts cannot be too deep. Special undercutting techniques are used to create the shadows and give an illusion of depth well beyond the actual depth of the cut. This requires precision use of micro carving tools and extraordinary patience. Many shallow strokes are necessary to carve the shape and deepen the lines.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 2

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step.

The first detail carving I add is to the outer circle that provides the illusion of an ornate frame or border and enhances the shape of the tree. This area is carved first because it requires turning the piece in different directions to work with the grain of the wood. Sometimes this requires the cut to be made toward the tree. Any nicks to the tree can easily be dealt with once the bark carving begins.

This photo also allows you to see more of the underlying structural carving on the limbs, which gives them shape. Very little wood is removed from the smaller branches because doing so would make them weak. Near the edges, the majority of the wood will be removed during the bark carving phase.

You might also notice there are only a few crossing limbs. They are very difficult to cut and even more difficult to carve. Where they are placed has as much to do with structural integrity and ability to cut as with aesthetics. It’s a keen balance between function and fashion.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.

Follow My Carving - Step 1

To celebrate Heartwood Art carvings being featured in the winter issues of Woodcarving Illustrated and Scroll Saw magazines, a new series is being added to the blog and site titled "Follow My Carving". The prototype of this piece will be shown in one of the magazines. Now you can follow along as it is finished, step-by-step. Below is the first installment.



This blank started as a 1/4 inch piece of birch measuring 11 x 11 inches. It was hand-selected for this project by my favorite old-world craftsman, Del Craft, who owns Del’s Woodcraft, located in Colorado. He supplies all the thin wood for Heartwood Art carvings.

It took over a month to draw the pattern. It must be as architecturally sound as it is aesthetically pleasing. As you know, wood comes from a round source. As long as it is in a solid plank, it remains fairly straight. But, when big sections are removed it tends to bow. The design must hold the structure of the wood or it could explode. This is also why the blank must be hand-selected. Del can read the grain and picks a piece that will aid the design.

After the pattern is cut on a scroll saw, the limbs must be shaped on both the front and back. Shaping on the backside simply involves removing the squared edges so that, when viewed from the front, the limb seems to be truly round. Shaping on the front and sides is much more involved. It gives the tree its underlying form. If done well, it also infers the effect of motion and deeper dimensionality by casting slight shadows.

At this stage, the piece has its basic form and is ready for detail carving.

The next installment is coming soon.

To see more carvings, please visit the Heartwood Art site.