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first attempt at wood carving

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post #1 of 9

1/20/12 at 3:08pm

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MrGoodBytes

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been around woodshops my whole life but was never very hands on.

made myself a totoro.

for reference

made some butcherblock out of antique sugar pine.
wiskers and claws are bocote
eyes and nose are madagascar ebony
the base is a banksia nut

no fancy tools used to make this (excluding the butcher block), just a dremel and a dozen sander drums.

in retrospect, this was not easy to make

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post #2 of 9

1/20/12 at 3:24pm

imageWIS

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Very well done, especially for a first effort. My first effort would have looked like:

post #3 of 9

1/20/12 at 6:44pm

impolyt_one

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the beer and cigarettes win back 'man factor' from the Totoro

post #4 of 9

1/20/12 at 6:56pm

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MrGoodBytes

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It was a gift, not a subject of my personal interests.

post #5 of 9

1/20/12 at 7:04pm

dhaller

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I think it's fantastic, especially for a first effort; with continued practice, I think you'll do some great work (you already seem to have a good sense of proportion and composition, if that's the right word).

My father has worked wood for about 40 years now (he used to make me toys when I was little, which of course I under-appreciated at the time); definitely a lifelong hobby!

DH

post #6 of 9

1/20/12 at 7:13pm

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MrGoodBytes

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the making of, if anyone is curious Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

making the butcher block. I did this ~6 years ago as a feasibility study for a dashboard insert replacement for my project car. Once again its old growth sugar pine which mimics the characteristics of the wood that will be used for that project (soft and brittle). Its been sitting outside since it was made so I'm pretty certain that its stable. I had no idea what I was doing, this was just a guess on how I thought butcher block was made... I guess I was on the right track

make a frame and glue up the rows, clamp them down, and come back in a few hours

now glue the rows together

remove

and sand to shape, going with the grain.

this is what it looked like when first put together (note the water stains and why it was used for practice work)

this is what it looked like a month ago

and a closeup, I love the continuity of the rings

first step was getting him to sit flush and balanced in the banksia nut... wow that was quite the challenge

got the rough shape and now it was all about getting the right shape of the feet and reproportionating the rest of the figure to fit

more work on proportioning

got some personality.

but the whole challenge was getting it to fit and stance well on the nut. super snug all around.

getting the ears squared away

I realized I dont own a saw and I'm too lazy to drive over to my dads workshop so I'm using the dremel to cut out my wood chunks (this is only going to end in a trip to the hospital :P )