Making of The Rose
Total time twelve and a half hours including a break for lunch.
This is a piece of Basswood so this demonstration will go a bit faster. It has been rounded off to an aproximate dowel shape with the grain running as straight up the shaft as possible.
Begin to round the end off...
More...
Mark a height about the width of the stick...
This one is about 2”...
Cut it off...
Place a mark on opposite sides for reference...
From that mark draw a long arc along the side of the rose ending at the bottom...
On both sides...
Cut straight in along this line andthen cut back to it...
Like this...
This is the begining of your petal...
Whatever you do on ONE side, do as much on the other...
Here I have begun to cut back down the petals to narrow the whole thing...
It did look a bit dumpy before, didn't it...
BTW, you want to avoid doing this...
Cleaning, Neosporin, and a BandAid later...
Here, I have worked one petal up to the top, and now need to do the other to match before doing anything else...
When the sides match and you have formed most of the profile view of the rose...
Extend your line in an arc to complete the petal...
And cut it away in the same fashion as you did with the first cuts...
Little by little...
Step by step...
The center grows smaller as a grove is deepended around it...
Here are both sides -
of the rose as it begins to take shape...
A couple more -
views...
When you are satisfied that you have the basic shape of the outside petals, draw an arc as you did for the first two petals, begining in the center of each of the two previously carved petals...
And then begin to carve away along the line as you did in the beginning
Slowly...
A tiny bit at a time...
Then go to work on the other side - Two drawn lines here as I adjusted the location of the opposite petal...
I usually work top down on the inside petals along the drawn line...
Continue this process going deeper and repeating it on both sides...
Draw in your line completing the petal...
On both sides...
And cut it away as done before...
Shape a cone from the center, and thin out the petals as needed to make them look a bit less impressionistic...
The center petals are under-cut from the outside to thin them out...
The outside petals are thinned down and the edges are cleaned up to come to a clean edge...
Be careful at this point, the edges of the petals are easily broken and are very unforgiving of mistakes...
Using as long a stroke as you can, shave a thin layer off to clean up the short divots left all over the surface from your carving...
And you are left with as smooth a surface as possible that you can sand later if you so wish...
You are finished! Post a picture of your results please and send me a link to it!
Notice the shavings on the container. They are thin and tiny. Thousands of cuts, a tiny bit at a time.
Accipe Spiritum Sanctum (receive the spirit)
Page last updated August 17th, 2009