It is all about carving - tips and techniques, works in progress, completed projects, how to instructions, and future plans.
Please visit www.StickStaffCane.etsy.com and www.youwoodlikethis.etsy.com
When I start a new project, it takes a while before I start carving. If it is a custom project, I always try to gather as many wants and needs from the customer as possible. I ask questions like, "Who is it for? How old are they? Do you have a theme in mind? How tall is the person? Is there something special to commemorate? What is the budget? How active is the person? If they were a flea, what kind of dog would they like?" (NO, not really, just checking to see if you are reading along.) I encourage them to look on Etsy to get some ideas about what they want and need. If it is my own creation, I still write down what I want to do.
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| Sketch of custom dragon |
I make some sketches. I am not an artist so the sketches are pretty raw, but they help me solidify my design and get proportions. If possible, I take an image off the internet and measure distances between important points. For example, I measure the distance between the eyes and how big the eyes are in relation to the face. The human face has some rules of thumb about facial proportions. Dragons not so much.
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| Dragon Parts: tail, spikes, wings |
The first carving is to remove the bark from the stick. Sometimes, I carefully carve away only a portion of the bark in order to use the contrast in the final carving.
I make a rough transfer of my sketch on paper to the wood. I tend to work in layers. I will make several passes up and down the shaft of a cane rather than concentrating on one spot at a time. Sometimes it seems I just sketch a feature on the wood and then carve it off. Then, I sketch and carve the same place later.
On the left is the raw stick. Sweetgum has a corky outer bark. For this project, I simply started to carve away everything that didn't look like a dragon. On the right below, the outer bark is quite thick in places so that it is easy to create a sizeable bark pile.
Contact me:
Timeline: facebook.com/hal.papan
Email: hal.papan@facebook.com
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