Hand Carving a Simple Reindeer
Carve this rustic deer as a stand-alone project or size the pattern to create the perfect complement to your favorite carved Santa. Use twigs for the antlers to add to the rustic charm and simplify the carving process.
This pattern has been designed for the novice wood carver. Basswood would be my choice for this project, however, if you have chosen to use Pine, be certain to seal it with Jo Sonja's Tannin Blocking Sealer prior to painting. Pine will eventually yellow the whites if not properly sealed.
Trace the side profile pattern to the wood block. The wood grain direction should run with the length of the fish. Use a square and draw a perpendicular line at the nose and at the tail junction.
This mouse sprang to life some 12 years ago as a sketch by my partner, Sue, a compulsive doodler of critters, cute and otherwise! At the time I had just begun to carve, so a curly tail was added and he became my second try at in-the-round carving. The original mouse was carved 'diagonally' from a 50mm (2in) turner's blank of walnut. I guess this was to make full use of the meager dimensions, his nose and tail tucked into the corners. Whatever the reason, the old fellow is still distinctly diamond-shaped when viewed from above.
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Carve a Stylized Jack RussellPlywood has the advantage that a carving of a good size can be made by gluing up as many layers that are needed to make the required block, and the lamination not only gives strength to sections of the carving that would normally be short grained and possibly easily broken, but also give the finished piece an added interest. Carve this Amazing GeckoDuring a recent reference-gathering trip to South Africa, as well as the more obvious sightings of the larger indigenous wildlife - elephants, lions, hyena, hippo etc - it was some of the smaller inhabitants that captured my imagination as potential subjects for sculpture. One such denizen of the veldt that failed to escape the sharp eye and the sharper Opticron binoculars of my wife was the gravity-defying gecko. Due to their ability to cling with ease to a vertical surface, I thought that a gecko would make an ideal, wall mounted carving, which could be easily produced as a carving project.
Enliven your polar bear carving
It is very easy when planning a carving to fall into the trap of searching for a suitable photograph in a magazine and trying to copy what you see. Many carvers are so set on getting all the anatomy somewhere near correct that they lose the essence of the subject.