Today was the day I tried some wood carving. Jonathon set me up with some tools and informed me of health and safety rules etc before letting me have a play around. He gave me jeluton wood to work on first as it is a softer wood and better for beginners. Wood such as ash, maple and walnut can be used but they are harder woods to carve into so its best to start on a softer wood to get a feel for it. There are so many different tools and shapes of chisels and things to choose from I started off by just mark making into the wood with various different tools.
Mark making.
Then I thought I might try and make a mountain shape in the wood. I discovered that it is much easier to carve along the grain rather than across it, the wood kept splitting! It is quite strenuous work, quite tiring! I was getting quite hot and bothered doing it but I carried on.
I then thought I might try and make some sort of face in the side of the wood. I was going for a hedgehog face. But as I started to chisel away I was getting quite tired and didn't make the hedgehog face fully. I think you can still tell what its meant to be though!
Mark making the hedgehog.
Finished face!
Today made me realise just how physical wood work and carving is, it is quite demanding and you have to have a lot of patience. I also asked Jonathon about the pyrography pen and what wood is best to use it on. He said any light wood really, and gave me a few off cuts to take and and try it with this week. I also asked about carving into found wood and he said that its fine as long as the wood is dry and doesn't have anything in it such as nails etc.
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