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Thread: Carved Flower Tutorial

  1. #1
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    Carved Flower Tutorial

    Let me make a few preliminary comments before starting the tutorial. When you carve an object, you're not trying to make a photographic reproduction of it - you're trying to "represent" the object, which means that you need to decide what the important aspects of the object are and make sure those are included in the carving.

    People see objects in clouds. The shape of clouds is just random, so why do people see objects in clouds? The human mind is a wonderful shape matching device - so if the clouds have a shape that is even close to some object that you've seen before, the mind matches to that object and you see the resemblance.

    When we carve, we take advantage of that aspect of the human mind - we don't try to carve every aspect of an object, but only the "important" aspects of that object. If we select well, other people will see the object in our carving.

    So with our flower. The "flower" we're going to carve probably doesn't exist in nature, but someone looking at it will say that it's a flower.

    The other point I'd like to make is that your carving can vary quite a bit and it'll still look good. I'm going to give you some tools and dimensions but you should feel free to adapt my recommendations to your tools, needs, and taste.

    ++++++ Tutorial ++++++

    I'm going to use a piece of basswood. I have a piece here that has some defects in it, so I'm going to use half of it for this project. The piece is 12" by 5 1/2" so I'm going to work with a 6" by 5 1/2" work area.

    CLAMP YOUR WORK!!! I don't show the clamp in these pictures but the work is always clamped, as yours should be. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, work on a loose piece of wood - you'll eventually wind up in the ER with a gouge through your hand.
    Flower-carving-01.jpg

    What I did was draw two circles that I though would look good for a flower. The outer circle has a radius of 1 7/8" and the inner has a radius of 3/8". I just drew these without measuring. Then I measured the radius and adjusted it to an even fraction - that's why you see two circles in the picture.

    For your flower, you may want to go larger or smaller, especially to match the gouges you have. I'll talk more about that later.
    Flower-carving-02.jpg

    I now need to find a gouge that matches the inner circle. With my tools, the best match was a #7/14 gouge. Note, however that this gouge is a Henry Taylor and not a Pfeil, and I've marked the Henry Taylor (which normally is a Sheffield system gouge) with the Swiss system equivalent. What you need to do is find a gouge that matches your inner circle. You can adjust the circle to fit your gouge.
    Flower-carving-03.jpg

    Cut downward around the inner circle. Do not use a mallet at this time - just use hand pressure. Then use your #2/5 gouge to cut inward to your circular cut, as shown in the picture.
    Flower-carving-04.jpg

    You can use your #7/14 to make those inward cuts, but it's easier with the small gouge. But once you get the initial trim made, switch to the #7/14 and cut downward and inward until the center circle is sticking up about 1/4".
    Flower-carving-05.jpg
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 10-29-2008 at 2:23 AM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  2. #2
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    Now we need to find a gouge that matches the curvature of the outside circle. With my tools, that was a #3/20. You can adjust the size of that circle to match your tools - just don't make it too large or too small. The #3/12 I recommended earlier was close - with a small adjustment to the outer circle, that gouge would have worked.
    Flower-carving-06.jpg

    Outline the outer circle with your #3/20. Here, you can use a mallet on the gouge - just don't go crazy with it. Once you've made the downward cut, use the #7/14 to cut inward. When you cut inward, make your cuts towards the center of the circles. You're going to leave those tool marks so you want them to look good. Also, space the cuts so they show up well.
    Flower-carving-07.jpg

    Keep cutting downward and inward until you've cut downward about 1/4". There's nothing magic about 1/4" and if you cut more or less you're going to be okay.
    Flower-carving-08.jpg

    Now, use your #7/14 to cut between the two circles, tapering the cut between them. So on the outside circle, the height should be the original height. Next to the inner circle, the height should be down about 1/4"
    Flower-carving-09.jpg

    This step is optional, but if you want to, you can use the #3/20 to smooth out the marks from your previous cuts.
    Flower-carving-10.jpg
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  3. #3
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    Our next step is to layout the flower petals. The first question is "How many petals should we put in?" For a small number of repeated elements, an odd number looks better than an even number. I'm going to use five because it's odd and it's not so many that the carving gets tedious. You can use seven if you want.

    Next question: "How should the petals be laid out?" Since we're using an odd number, I use a full petal at the top. So I put a mark at the bottom of my flower, on the outer circle. Then I use a set of dividers to find five even divisions of the outer circle. When I find the divisions, I put a mark at each landing site of the dividers.
    Flower-carving-11.jpg

    Then draw a line from each of those marks towards the center. Don't take your line all the way to the center. Sometimes it's hard to get rid of the marks where they meet the inner circle so just don't mark that.
    Flower-carving-12.jpg

    Using your V-tool, cut along the lines. Don't dry to make the cut all in one pass. Make a light cut and come back to deepen the cut.
    Flower-carving-13.jpg

    After that, we'll round the ends of the petals with the #7/14. Align the edges of the gouge with the side and ends of the petals and push downward hard. This will give you the cuts shown in the picture.
    Flower-carving-14.jpg

    Use your #2/5 to clean up the cuts.
    Flower-carving-15.jpg
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 10-28-2008 at 9:13 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  4. #4
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    Once you trim all the ends of the petals, your flower should look like this.
    Flower-carving-16.jpg

    Now we want to dome over the center circle. It's important you make the cuts correctly or you'll split the wood. Since the grain runs horizontally, you need to make your cuts as shown by the arrows in the picture below. If you get confused and make a cut opposite the arrows, you'll know it.
    Flower-carving-17.jpg

    Use your #3/20 to make the cuts. I use the gouge reversed, with the curve of the gouge downward. This picture shows half the dome cut.
    Flower-carving-18.jpg

    When you finish doming the center, it should look something like this.
    Flower-carving-19.jpg

    Next we're going to crosshatch the center dome. You can do it in any direction but I find that it's easier if all the cuts are about the same referenced to the grain. So I make the cuts at 45* to the grain direction.

    Also, it's hard to make the cut all the way across the dome in one cut, so I start in the center and cut downwards to one side, as shown in the picture.
    Flower-carving-20.jpg
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  5. #5
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    To complete the cut, go back to the center and cut down the other side.
    Flower-carving-21.jpg

    Do the same with cuts spaced evenly across the dome.
    Flower-carving-22.jpg

    Then do exactly the same cuts perpendicular to the first set of cuts. This gives you the crosshatching in the center.
    Flower-carving-23.jpg

    I don't have a picture of the next step but what you want to do is slightly "hollow" each petal just a little bit. I actually did that earlier, before I domed the center, but it's better to do it here. If you slip while doming the center and mark a petal, you get a chance to remove that mark with this step. Even though I have pretty good tool control, it would have been safer for me to do the "hollowing" step here than where I did it.

    Once you have the petals hollow a bit, you can sand them - I use P150 grit sandpaper. If you like tool marks, you can skip this step, but for beginners I always recommend sanding because it removes some of the roughness that always creeps in. Try it both ways and see what you like.
    Flower-carving-24.jpg

    After sanding this is what it should look like.
    Flower-carving-25.jpg
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 10-28-2008 at 9:17 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  6. #6
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    The final step is to put the decorative lines on the petals with the V-tool. Try to do them in one cut - that is, don't restart your cut because it'll show. Also, try to space the ends of the cuts evenly as they meet the center circle. You do not want them to all come together in a point.
    Flower-carving-26.jpg

    That's all there is to it. Let's see your flower.

    If there's something I didn't explain clearly, please post a question and I'll try to expand on it.

    Good luck and good carving!

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  7. #7
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    That is a great tutorial. I am just starting to learn about carving, and this helped immensely. Thanks a lot.

  8. #8
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    Crosshatching

    You said, "It's important you make the cuts correctly or you'll split the wood. Since the grain runs horizontally, you need to make your cuts as shown by the arrows in the picture below. If you get confused and make a cut opposite the arrows, you'll know it."

    How do you know which way to draw the arrows?

    Julian

    - Art is long, life is short...

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Julian Barr View Post
    You said, "It's important you make the cuts correctly or you'll split the wood. Since the grain runs horizontally, you need to make your cuts as shown by the arrows in the picture below. If you get confused and make a cut opposite the arrows, you'll know it."

    How do you know which way to draw the arrows?

    Julian

    - Art is long, life is short...
    The best way to understand it is to make a button like the one in the flower in scrap and try cutting both ways.

    The grain is running horizontal and you're going to cut downward. If you cut opposite to the arrows, your gouge will be going into the grain of the wood and it will try to follow the grain. The wood will split and the side of the button will break off if you're making a heavy cut. You can glue it back on with white glue. I use white glue because it doesn't dry hard. If you use CA glue, it dries pretty hard and you can damage the edge of the gouge when you go to cut it again.

    The way you learn that stuff is to do it wrong a couple of times. After you break the button a couple of times, you start to get a feeling for the direction of the grain of the wood and what it feels like to cut the wrong way. When you don't know what's the correct direction, you should make a light cut. If you're going the wrong way, you'll break off a piece of wood but it won't be enough to cause problems. Then reverse your cut and see how it cuts that way. Continue cutting in the direction that "works".

    You'll run into this same problem on some other projects that I may offer if there's interest. You need to learn how to read your cuts and when you're cutting the wrong way. Experience is the best teacher. Try it both ways and you'll learn more.

    Mike

    [You always want to cut "down grain" and never "up grain". You'll see what those terms mean when you make a few cuts. Sorry I can't explain it better - I could show you easily on some scrap.]
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 10-29-2008 at 2:06 AM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  10. #10
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    Clamps?

    I had plans and built a bracing table. Do you recommend using a clamp instead of the table? I am not a particular fan of the bracing table, but I want to do things right.

    At some point do you cut the flower free for mounting on an object?

  11. #11
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    As a follow-on to Phillip's second question, what is the recommended thickness of the blank? I guess for practice, it doesn't matter, but if you were going to mount it on something, how thin a blank would you start with?

  12. #12
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    Excellent Mike, thanks!

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phillip Bogle View Post
    I had plans and built a bracing table. Do you recommend using a clamp instead of the table? I am not a particular fan of the bracing table, but I want to do things right.

    At some point do you cut the flower free for mounting on an object?
    I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a "bracing table". I've seen carvers use two boards at right angles and always carve into that corner. I don't like that because you have to keep moving your work to keep your cuts into that corner.

    I've also seen benches where a wedge is used to "jam" the work. Those work fine. I'd consider the work "clamped". Anything that will hold the work securely.

    The carving, as I've done it, is not intended to be applied - it's intended that you would do this carving directly on the furniture. I have some other projects that are intended to be applied so I'll discuss the issues there. But basically, you don't carve "in the solid" if you want to apply the carving.

    For now, since this is a learning project, assume that this flower is going to be carved directly on to your furniture project. I'll discuss applied carving later.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charlie Schultz View Post
    As a follow-on to Phillip's second question, what is the recommended thickness of the blank? I guess for practice, it doesn't matter, but if you were going to mount it on something, how thin a blank would you start with?
    I'll discuss those considerations in a later tutorial, Charlie. For now, assume your flower is carved directly onto your furniture.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  15. #15
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    We had four people who signed up to carve the flower and show their work. But if anyone else decides to carve it, please post a picture of your work. I think it will encourage others to see people doing the carving.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

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