The instructions provided said "keep carving the flower and leaves until someone asks you how you got the flower to stick to that egg. Then you will know you have it right." At first glance that would sound like the difficult part!
A lady (Sally Butler) at the last carving club meeting provided a rectangular piece of wood, some brief instructions, and a carved example of a wooden egg with a flower on it, for us to duplicate. At first glance, it seemed simple and easy enough project, but as I carved and carved and carved, making an impressive pile of chips, I discovered that making a nice wooden egg without a lathe requires a lot of work! I can be stubborn and I was determined to get an egg shape no matter how long it took! I'm a carver, dammit!
I was so proud when I finally got some thing that didn't look like a football. I"ve spent quite a few hours over the past month,in between projects, working on that simple shape with just knives. When I had it really close, I used a small sanding drum on my flex tool to smooth it out. (The instructions and example left more knife marks showing, but I like my eggs smooth!) The dogwood blossom took a lot less time, but I took the instructions to heart and took extra time to try and achieve more realism in the carving. I used a pyrographic pen to shade and add details to the flowers and leaves. I paint a lot of my carvings, which hides some of the cool effects that you can get with burning, so I decided to leave this unpainted and just finish it with a boiled linseed oil mixture. Thank's for looking.
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