Woodcarving – Page 8

Spoon, Fork, and Ladle Styles for Wood Carving

Styles of Wood Carved Spoons

How to Trace Your Pattern on to Wood

Preparation – Begin by cleaning, and sanding your wood to create a smooth surface on to which you can transfer your pattern. Remove all sanding dust using a dusting brush and clean, dry cloth.

Chose Your Tracing Media – There are three primary tracing products which are graphite paper, carbon paper, newspaper, and a soft #4 to #8 artist pencil.

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Graphite Paper – Graphite paper can be purchased through both office supply and craft stores. It comes in several colors, including gray, white, and blue for easy tracing onto different colors of wood. Graphite leaves a very fine line on the wood and can be erased with a white artist eraser after you have completed your project.

Carbon Paper – Carbon paper comes in 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets and has a very dark, heavy layer of tracing media on the back surface. It is available in deep blue and black colors. Carbon paper lines do not erase easily and should be carved or scraped away as your work your project. Use this media on projects that will receive excessive handling or for long-term projects as it holds up very well. Because carbon paper was primarily used with typewriter to create multiple copies, you may need to do a little searching to find it.

Pencil Rubbing – My favorite way to trace my pattern to the wood is to rub the back of the pattern paper with a #4 to #8 artist pencil. This creates a layer of graphite that will easily transfer to the wood surface as your copy the pattern lines with an ink pen. Pencil rubbings work extremely well for wood, gourds, and even leather. Woodless pencils work wonderfully for tracing.

Newspaper – Heavily printed sheets of newspaper works wonderfully as a tracing media. As you trace along the pattern lines the printer’s ink from the newspaper will leave a dotted line on the wood. This process is especially good for extra large projects as out door signs or long, wide mantel boards. The ink is easily erased with a white artist’s eraser.

1. Adjust your digital pattern as necessary to fit your project piece. Print several copies of your pattern – one for the main tracing, one for cutting and tracing small areas of the pattern, and one for a reference to the detail lines of the design.

You will need a ruler, a small t-square or right angled triangle, a pencil, painters or masking tape, scissors, and several colors of ink pen. Of note, my ruler is cork-backed to grip the wood surface and keep the ruler from sliding.

2. With a right angle triangle or small t-square mark the center vertical line of your project’s surface.

3. Use your ruler to find and mark the center point of your vertical line.

4. With the t-square or right angle triangle, draw a horizontal line across the project surface at the center point of the vertical line.

5. Fold your printed pattern into quarters, matching the outer pattern lines on the sides of the pattern. Place the folded pattern on to the wood, aligning the paper folds to the marked lines on the wood.

If you will using a pencil rubbing for your tracing media, open the folded pattern and rub the back of the pattern to completely cover it with pencil graphite. Refold your pattern and begin the positioning steps.

6. Unfold your pattern, continuing to match folds in the pattern paper with your guidelines. Cut several small strips of painters tape. Use the tape to secure two sides of the pattern paper to the wood surface.

7. Use a colored ink pen to mark any changes you want to make in the pattern, so that you will follow your changes during the tracing process.

8. Slide your tracing media – graphite paper, carbon paper, newspaper – under the printed pattern with the tracing surface against the wood. Trace along the pattern lines with a colored ink pen. Use a light pressure, just enough to transfer the pattern line without leaving an indented score line from the ink pen’s point. When your tracing is complete lift the pattern paper at one of the un-taped corners. Check your work before you remove the pattern paper and tape.

9. Trace only those lines that you really need for your initial working steps. For my Beta Fish relief carving I needed only the outlines of each area of the fish and the outlines of the grass to work the rough out carving steps.

10. When your project work is done, remove any remaining tracing lines using a white artist’s eraser. Avoid colored erasers that can leave dye streaks on your carving or pyrography work.

11. Click on the small image on the right for your free full-sized, printable Beta Fish pattern – a design from Relief Carving Workshop, by Lora Irish.

12. This second example is from the Wood Spirit Carving project posted on the Wood Carving Illustrated Forum. The pattern was transferred to the wood using typewriter carbon paper because the project would require intense handling.

Relief Carving Wood Spirit Grape Man WIP – Over 250 detailed, close-up photos with step-by-step instructions of relief carving the wood spirit, green man face. This thread has had over 69,000 views!

13. After the levels where established in the carving I cut my paper pattern into small sections that could be easily re-traced to the project.

14. Click on the small image to the right for a free full-sized printable pattern.

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Carving a Wooden Spoon

Leave a Comment / Pyrography, Scroll Saw, Woodcarving, Woodworking / irish

The classic wooden spoon may be the easier beginner’s wood carving project there is. During this session of our free, summer cross-crafting seminar we will work through the wood carving steps to shape the handle and bowl of a wooden fork.

Cross-Crafting Seminar Introduction
Cross-Crafting Seminar Supply List
Cross-Crafting Seminar Free Patterns
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Scroll Saw Basics
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Setting Up Your Scroll Saw
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Scroll Sawing the Wood Spirit Face
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Wood Burning the Wood Spirit Face
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Colored Pencils for the Wood Spirit Face
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Cutting a Wooden Spoon
Cross-Crafting Seminar, Carving a Wooden Spoon

Supplies:

1 – scroll saw cut wooden spoon, slotted spoon, or fork blank
wide sweep round gouge
narrow, half-circle, bent round gouge
bench knife or chip carving knife
carving gloves, thumb guard, or heavy terry cloth towel
150-, 220-grit sandpaper
6″ or large square of brown paper bag

Note: Working with the wood grain

As you work through the carving steps for this wooden fork you will need to pay close attention to the wood grain direction in each area of your work. Both the handle and bowl of your wooden spoon are curve-shaped. This means that at the widest point in the curve the direction of your cutting strokes must be reversed to work the knife or gouge blade with the grain. The grain direction of your wooden spoon blank determines the directions of your bench knife and gouge strokes. You want to move the knife so that it runs with the open fiber ends of the wood grain, not into those open fibers.

Step 1: Rough-cut the edges of the handle along the back of the spoon.

Begin with your bench knife and using a paring stroke, pulling the knife blade towards you, round over the back edge of the lower section of the spoon bowl. I am using carving gloves in these photos. Gloves are cut resistant not cut proof! So, please, watch carefully how you are holding your knife and where the knife blade will go if the knife slips out of the cut. Often, I carve using thumb guards instead of gloves as they give me more movement in my hands. If you have neither, use a thick terry-cloth towel in your holding hand as protection.

Step 2: Rolling small cut strokes along the edge of the handle.

The sides are round by making many, small paring strokes, worked from the inside area of the handle, moving each new cut slowly towards the edge of the handle. This first series of rounding paring cuts is worked from the center point of the handle towards the top edge of the handle.

You can see the progression of small cuts in this photo. Using a series of small cuts, worked from the center back towards the spoon’s edge creates a true curved edge instead of a lightly rounded sharp corner.

Step 3: Round over the second lower edge of the back of the handle.

Continue working the lower edge of the back of the handle by moving your cutting strokes to the second side of the spoon. The smaller your cutting strokes the smoother the finished edge will be.

Step 4: Work the back handle edge towards the fork’s bowl area with your bench knife.

This rounding process is moved to the front portion of the back of the handle. To work with the grain line of the wood, these cuts are made using a push stroke – pushing the knife blade away from you.

Step 5: Change the direction of your bench knife cuts to match the change in grain direction at the narrow joint between the handle and bowl.

Use a series of short, small bench knife cuts, worked from the center area of the handle towards its outer edge to round over the handle. Stop your cuts where the handle narrows into the fork’s bowl area, as your wood grain direction will change at this point in the blank.

Step 6: Free the cutting strokes at the narrow joint.

Flip your spoon blank in your hand so that you are working the knife from the fork’s bowl area into the narrow joint with the handle. This will bring the cuts from step 6 to meet the cuts you are making now, and free those cuts from the narrow area.

Step 7: Finish rounding over the edge of the back by working the fork’s bowl area.

Continue rounding over the back edge of the fork by working the bowl area with your bench knife.

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Cutting a Wooden Spoon

Leave a Comment / Pyrography, Scroll Saw, Woodcarving, Woodworking / irish

For this section of our summer, free, online cross-crafting seminar we will be cutting out a wooden spoon blank on the scroll saw. Please refer to Cross-Crafting Seminar Free Patterns for a copy of the spoon patterns that we will be using.

Supplies:

Scroll Saw with a 15 tooth, regular cutting blade
1 – 3″ x 12″ x 3/8″ piece of basswood for each spoon
220-grit sandpaper, tack cloth
graphite tracing paper
safety glasses

Step 1: Choosing how to rough-cut your spoon blank

There are many ways to remove the waste wood from any wood carving blank. For our seminar I am using my Ryobi Scroll Saw and a 15 tooth per inch, regular cutting blade.

The most simple option is to use your bench knife in either a push or paring stroke to slowly cut away long slivers of wood from the blank. A coping saw or hand-held, u-shaped framed saw and a vise or clamps can also be used. If you plan to make a series of wooden spoons you might want to purchase a small 5″ curved-blade draw knife or 3″ straight-blade draw knife will make the rough-put work quick and easy, especially on thicker blanks.

Step 2: Preparations

Lightly sand your basswood board, both front and back side, using 220-grit sandpaper, remove any sanding dust with a dry, clean cloth. A smooth surface on the wood allows your blank to move easily through the scroll saw cuts. Trace your pattern to the basswood using graphite paper.

Note: If you will be making more than one spoon, trace the pattern to the inside surface of an empty cereal box. Cut the spoon pattern out with scissor and use the cardboard cut-out as a template, tracing along the edges of the cardboard. Save the cardboard template, it can be used over and over again.

Release the Drop Foot and slide your basswood blank under the foot. Reset the Drop Foot knob.

Step 3: Cutting the basic outline

Begin by cutting along the basic outline of your spoon pattern.

Work one side of the spoon at a time, fully releasing and freeing that side of waste wood.

Step 4: Cut the second side of your spoon

Continue your scroll saw cutting to completely remove the waste wood on the second side of your spoon blank.

Step 5: Cutting the fork tines

The fork tines are cut in two strokes, each worked from the end of the fork into the opening between the tines. Stop the first cut when you reach the center point of the opening.

Back the saw blade out of the wood and cut the second side of the opening. This two-cut step will free the waste wood between the tines.

Step 6: The completed scroll saw cut spoon blank

This wooden fork blank took about 15 minutes to cut out on the scroll saw – quick, easy, and super fast!

Step 7: Drilling the holes for a slotted spoon

Using a 1/4″ or 3/8″ drill bit drill the holes into your slotted spoon before you do the scroll saw steps. I prefer to drill from the back of the spoon towards the spoon’s front face. Because I will be carving the front face of the spoon into a bowl shape, if I chip-out any of the holes during the drilling process, those chip-outs will be carved away later in the work.

Basswood chips easily because it is a soft wood. To avoid excessive chip-outs use a new, sharp drill bit and an even medium speed with your drill. Clamp your spoon blank to a piece of scrap wood. This clamps and secures the back grain fibers and reduces chipping. You can also use masking tape on the bottom of your spoon to help hold the grain fibers in place.

Step 8: Sand the drilled holes before you do the scroll saw cutting

Remove any loose or chipped-out wood from your drilled holes, on both sides of the wood blank, before you move onto the scroll saw with sand paper. Those chip-outs can cause your blank to drag, or hang-up on the scroll saw cutting table.

Step 9: Cutting a slotted spoon blank

The slotted spoon is now ready for scroll sawing.

Step 10: Finished wooden spoon blanks

Now that the three wooden spoon blanks have cut out we are ready to move into the wood carving steps of our project. See ya’ there!

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Colored Pencils in Pyrography

Leave a Comment / Colored Pencils, Pyrography Basics, Scroll Saw, Woodcarving, Woodworking / irish

Since this seminar is all about how to incorporate multiple hobbies into one project, during this posting we will be using colored pencils to create skin coloring for our scroll saw cut, wood burned Wood Spirit face.

You might like to visit another one of our colored pencil – pyrography project, Coloring your Wood Burning Projects.

Supplies:

There are several excellent brands of colored pencils that we can use in pyrography. I strongly suggest that you invest in an artist quality or artist grade set. Student grade or school grade colored pencils, as those that come with the new Adult Coloring Books are often chalk-based and do not apply to wood in a smooth, easy to blend layer. Artist quality pencils are wax-based or watercolor-based, apply easily and evenly across your wood, paper, and even fabric.

The following are a few of my favorites, available at Amazon.com and I do mix and match manufacture brands in any project!

Prismacolors are my favorite for watercolor paper, vellum, and chip board colored pencil work. These have a soft wax core, blend easily, and will leave a nice, rich coloring with light strokes.

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, Soft Core, 48 Pack

Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils

I use my Derwents for adding coloring to wood burnings on wood. Derwents have a harder core than Prismacolor and are perfect for getting into the tight wood grain and deeply scored pyrography detailing that some of our wood burnings have.

Derwent Colorsoft Pencils, 4mm Core, Metal Tin, 24 Count

Derwent Drawing Pencils, Inktense, Watercolor, 24 Per Pack

Lyra is a must-have for anyone who does a lot of skin tone work. This pack has twelve extra-large pencils in the most common skin colors. No mix, no mess, just chose the shade for your shadows, highlights, and general skin tones.

Click on any image for a large photograph.

Lyra Color Giants Skin Tone Colored Pencils

Step 1 Since my wood spirit will become the end caps to a small, outdoor bird feeder I have chosen basic, strong colors for my project’s skin tones. As we work through these steps you will be able see how working one color of pencil over another creates new color hues in your project.

You do not need a large set of pencils. A set between 12 to 24 is enough colors to create a wide range of hues by working one color over another.

Note: Colored pencils apply best when laid down in light-pressure, thin layers, not heavy-pressure one-step coloring. Thin layers allow the wood burning shading to clearly show through the hues and can be developed with additional layers to create deep, rich color tones.

Keep your pencil points sharp so that the point can easily reach into the fine crevices of the burned strokes and wood grain.

New colors can be created by working thin layers of one color over another color. For best results apply the darker toned color first then lay the paler color tone on top.

Step 2 We may refer to skin colors as white, yellow, red, brown, or black, but all skin colors are simply shades of orange. All humans have orange colored skin! Some of us may have pale white-orange skin, and others a red-orange tone, and some such a deep coloring of orange that it appears almost black … but everyone of us is orange!

To learn how to get that perfect skin color every time. please read Adding Skin Colors to Wood Burnings. It is an in-depth look at the mixing color hues to get just the right shade of orange for your portrait.

The base shadow color for my wood spirit is black cherry – a rich, deep red-purple. Work several light layers of black cherry over the areas of shading in the face that you created with your wood burning steps.

Since all skin tones are shades of orange, we are using a purple-toned colored pencil for a our base shading step. Purple is the compliment to orange and when the orange pencil is worked over this purple shading the finished coloring will be a rich shade of brown.

Let your pencil lines show, let them go in random directions, and keep the pressure on the pencil tip light. The random lines add to the wild look of the wood spirit.

Step 3 Since I want my wood spirit wild and woolly I am adding more shading over my base of black cherry using a deep ultramarien blue colored pencil. Work several light layers of ultramarine blue in the same general areas as the pyrography shading on the face, but do not cover up all of your black cherry work.

Skin is transparent, while it does have pigment you can see through the skin to the vein and bones in the body. Blood veins often have a bluish cast under the skin, so in our wood spirit we can use the ultramarine blue to pick up that effect.

Just as we allowed the wood burning shading of the face to move into the hair strand area, take some of this colored pencil shading into those same areas.

Step 4 A couple of light layers of forest green shading blends the shadow areas of the face. Note in the photo that no area of the shading now has one individual strong coloring, but instead has a speckled, blended effect. Green works just as tones of blue in portrait coloring, implying the under-structure of bone and veins.

Step 5 Now that you have the shadows well established in the face it is time to overlay the general skin tone. I used a medium rust-brown pencil for this general overlay. Apply several light layers of coloring to the face. Allow some areas of the original wood uncolored to create your highlights – the center of the forehead, the outer corners of the upper eye lids, the center of the eye wrinkles below the eyes, the center line of the nose, the center of the cheeks, and the center of the mouth.

As with all of the other colors, work these layers of skin tone directly over your previous colors, and expand your coloring area towards the areas that you will leave as highlights.

Two light coats of this general skin tone is also applied to the mustache and beard area of the face to give it just a touch of color toning.

Step 6 Several light coats of orange is applied to the entire face – over the shaded areas and the highlights. This orange is what gives the skin its warmth, makes it feel alive.

Step 7 I decided that I wanted my wood spirit to have a darker base coloring to his skin tone. So I have added a few layers of a darker brown skin colored pencil.

Step 8 My highlights in the face as of Step 7 are in bright orange. To add those bright reflective spots on the high areas of the face I use Titanium white. Again, use freely moving strokes and let your pencil lines show.

In this photo you can note that my pencil is two-toned. When a colored pencil becomes to short to place in the pencil sharpener or too short to hold comfortably, simply super glue the blunt end to the end of another pencil!

Step 9 I want my wood spirit to have grey-white hair, so I will be using the coloring of the birch wood as my base color for all of his hair and beard.

To create individual strands of hair I used the Titanium white pencil, and worked long, curving lines of white from his face towards the outer edge of the hair area.

This white is worked in those hair strands that are closest to you, on top of other strands. Click on the image for a close-up.

Step 10 Using a medium grey or french grey colored pencil I have added more hair lines into the mid-ground and background hair strands. Again, let your pencil lines show.

Step 11 My last step is to intensify the white throughout the wood spirit’s face and hair. As this is the last layer of colored pencil work I can add extra pressure to the pencil to create thicker line work.

Once the coloring is completed I give my wood burned colored pencil projects a light coating or Reworkable Spray Fixative. This is a matte toned finish that protects the work you have already accomplished but that also allows you to add more colored pencil work over your piece.

This protects the work I have done while I decide what final finish I may want for the project. Since this scroll saw wood spirit and its matched gang-cut piece will become the end pieces for my small bird feeder, it will eventually be finished with polyurethane after it is attached to the feeder.

Thanks for reading ….. tomorrow we will be working on scroll saw cutting our wooden spoon and the wood carving steps for that project. See ya’ there!

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