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Vic Castello
10-11-2008, 8:55 AM
This started out as a "green man" and ended up as a fruit ring. The "green man" project just wasn't pushing my buttons, so I cut his nose out of the center, and I transformed it into this, which took me almost two years to finish on and off. I used a mixture of Bartley's clear gel finish, and pure turpentine to finish it. Apply, wipe off excess...done! I am happy that it did well in a local competition. I have some pics of it "in the making" if anybody is interested:

Dewey Torres
10-11-2008, 8:58 AM
Congrats! Looks like the long wait and hard work paid off.

Vic Castello
10-11-2008, 12:33 PM
Thanks.

I laid it aside for a while, and I almost didn't finish it. I didn't think it was going to lead to a good end result because I "winged" most of it. The center was bothering me because it wasn't coming out as round (uniform) as I thought it should be. A mentor of mine said "so what", and he encouraged me to resume working on it, and I began to see that the center wasn't turning out as bad as I thought it was. I had no other piece to enter into this particular show, so I said what the hell, and it ended up doing well.

Ya never know! I guess the moral of the story is to not give up too easy!

Mike Henderson
10-11-2008, 1:40 PM
That looks great - a lot of work went into that. You should be proud of your accomplishment.

Mike

Vic Castello
10-11-2008, 2:01 PM
Thank you....Mike,

I am looking forward to seeing more of your fine work as well! As for me, after that...I'm taking a little break from mahogany for a while!

:eek:

Bill Bolen
10-13-2008, 5:38 PM
I really like this piece! Beautiful work...Bill..

Chris Padilla
10-13-2008, 5:51 PM
Wow! That is awesome! Yes, please...more pics!!! :)

John Schreiber
10-13-2008, 6:14 PM
Very nice. It shows the hours and hours which went into it. Congratulations.

Michael Hammers
10-14-2008, 9:36 AM
That looks awesome! :eek: I would love to see more pics.
I know what it is to walk away from a piece and come back to it later....it can surprise you, no?
I hope you keep up the great work!
Mike

Zahid Naqvi
10-14-2008, 12:30 PM
very detailed and fine work indeed.

Vic Castello
10-14-2008, 5:11 PM
Thank you all for you kind comments about my carving. Here are some selected pictures of the work in progress. As I said, it was going to be a "green man", but I just wasn't getting into that project:

Khalid Khattak
10-15-2008, 9:40 AM
Thank you all for you kind comments about my carving. Here are some selected pictures of the work in progress. As I said, it was going to be a "green man", but I just wasn't getting into that project:

wow...wow..and wow....great piece of artwork.. How long it took to complete the carving job:D

Gord Pat
10-15-2008, 10:44 AM
Vic, that has to be the most spectacular recovery I've ever seen in all the years I've been carving.
Well done, you da man!:)

Vic Castello
10-15-2008, 12:51 PM
Thank you...Khalid

That's the first time anybody has ever commented on my work from half way around the world! I guess it took about two years, on and off. I put it aside every time it got me aggravated for some reason... until I was finally encouraged to finish it once and for all.

And, thank you as well Gord Pat. Why waste a good piece of Mahogony! I'd like to see both of you work as well sometime!

Clara Koss
10-15-2008, 1:40 PM
such beautiful work.... you can see the sweat that went into that piece.... what a great art masterpiece.... where will you display????;)

Khalid Khattak
10-16-2008, 4:33 AM
Thank you all for you kind comments about my carving. Here are some selected pictures of the work in progress. As I said, it was going to be a "green man", but I just wasn't getting into that project:

thats really great artistic work:)
Thanks for sharing

Vic Castello
10-20-2008, 9:14 AM
Thank you Clara.

Right now, it's just sitting on an easle here in my home where it will stay most of the time. I may show it here and there in local exhibits, libraries in the area which are sometimes looking for pieces by local people.

We'll see.

Thanks again!