Introducing Two New Free Online Series of Free Carving, Pyrography, and Craft Projects ….. Great Book of Free Carving Projects & Patterns by Lora S. Irish Great Book of Free Pyrography Projects & Patterns by Lora S. Irish …..
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Stop by often at our carving, pyrography, and craft pattern site, ArtDesignsStudio.com to see what Great New Books you can have for free for Carving Patterns, Pyrography Projects, and Craft Designs by Lora Irish!
Great Book of Free Carving Projects and Patterns by Lora S. Irish Online Series
The first release in my new, free online series is an in-depth tutorial on how to carve the wood spirit face using the planes of the human face as our guidelines. Join me as we work through the detailed steps and 199 photographs to learn how easy the Wood Spirit is to carve.
So, Gang, pull up your chair to your computer screen seat at my class table, and let’s have some FREE FREE FREE wood carving, and pyrography fun.
Lora S. Irish, June 01, 2015
Copyright, Lora S. Irish, 1997 – 2015 Art Designs Studio.com, 1997 – 2015 All International Rights Reserved Use of any information, images, or text in digital or printed format or in any magazine, book, or booklet is strictly prohibited without the written, hardcopy permission of the author, Lora Irish.
This is new work, created after May 2013, by Lora S. Irish. Use in part or whole by any publishing company is strictly prohibited without a written, signed, and dated contract for this new work with the author. June 01, 2015
As a new wood carver you would think that the classic wood spirit face would be difficult to create. Yet, it is one of the simplest, method-technique topics that wood carvers and whittlers can work.
Face carvings, as the wood spirit, or as shown above as a Mushroom Wood Spirit, begins with a series of simple angled cuts to establish the planes in the face. These planes create the depth, width, and feature areas as the rise of the eyebrow ridge, the deep set of the nose bridge, and the angle and slant of the mouth.
Where you create the planes and angles determines the finished look of the face. In this sample the nose plane is exaggerated and the eye depth plane is minimized. When the shaping steps are done, this Mushroom spirit has an extra long nose that fills up the needed space to create the mushroom stem.
To learn more about Wood Spirit Facial Plane carvings, check out our E-Project – Wood Spirit Mushroom Carving E-Project – which takes you through all of the steps to create the facial planes, plus gives you eight full sized 3D patterns. If you want to focus on the Wood Spirit face, check out Wood Spirit Carving E-Project, which takes you through the face carving as well as how to paint your wood spirit walking stick.
And, if you stop by our new Facebook page you will discover a discount code for ArtDesignsStudio.com for $5 off that can be used for each of the Pattern Packs or E-Projects above. Save up to $20 on your next wood spirit carving project!
The complete Mule Deer Wood Carving Relief Project, with the step by step instructions, free patterns, and painting steps is now posted here on LSIrish.com. Please drop me an email if you have any questions, or feedback on this in-depth free project by clicking of the Contact Us link in the top right ofthe nav bar.
This quick, easy, and fun Celtic Dragon pattern is perfect for your first endeavor into relief wood carving. It uses a very basic set of carving tools, a bench knife, and a pre-routed basswood plaque. Your dragon carving can be completed in just one weekend.
Over the next several days I will be posting all of the step you need to create your own Celtic knot relief carving project. Please bookmark our blog so that you don’t miss any of the fun. I hope that you will share this link on your favorite wood carving forum or message board.
Please take a moment and download our free PDF e-book, Your First Carving. This is an in-depth look at the woods, tools, terminology, and techniques used in relief wood carving, written and shared by Lora S Irish.
8” x 10” x 3/4” (203 x 254 x 19mm) router-edged basswood plaque Bench knife Large and small round gouges Wide sweep round gouge V-gouge Straight chisel U-gouge Sharpening tools and strop 220-grit sandpaper Graphite tracing paper Painter’s tape Pencil Ruler and/or compass Soft, clean cloth Stiff toothbrush or brass wire brush Thick terry cloth towel or non-slip mat Depth Gauge
Preparation of the carving board
1. Most of the supplies used in this project can be obtained online at your favorite wood carving supply house, through Amazon.com, or at your local large craft store. The sandpaper, painter’s tape, ruler, compass, and brass wire brush are available through most hardware stores.
2. Using 220-grit sandpaper lightly sand your plaque, working the sandpaper with the grain of the wood. Avoid sanding against the grain or in circular swirl strokes. This will leave fine scratches that can appear during the painting and staining steps.
3. Sand again using 320-grit sandpaper. Remove all of the sanding dust using a dry, clean cloth.
Transferring your Pattern
Click on the pattern images to the right and save a copy to your Desktop. Print one copy of each pattern – the outline tracing pattern and the shaded contour pattern.
Center the pattern to the board, secure one side using painter’s tape. Slide a sheet of graphite paper under the pattern paper with the graphite side against the wood. Using an ink pen and light hand pressure trace along the outer boundary lines of each element of the dragon. Remove the pattern and graphite papers.
For this carving I am using a nice quality Japanese carving tools set which includes a large round gouge, small round gouge, straight chisel, skew chisel, and v-gouge. Carving tool sets can cost between $25 per set up to several hundred dollars. I strongly advise any beginner to start with an inexpensive tool set while you discover which style of wood carving will be your favorite.
1. Mark a 1/4″ margin using a pencil and ruler along the outer raised carving area of your plaque. This 1/4″ area will remain uncarved, at the original level of the wood. During the next two steps treat this margin line as if it were a boundary line to your pattern.
2. This project begins with dropping the background area of the plaque to free the dragon pattern for carving. With a bench knife or large chip carving knife, cut along the outer boundary lines of the dragon pattern. Hold the knife vertical to the wood and slowly pull along the tracing line. Stop cuts are made in several shallow cuts instead on one deep lunge of t he knife tip.
3. Using the small or large round gouge, rougehout the background. Lay the center of the gouge about 1/2″ to 1″ from the stop cut tracing line. Glide the gouge into the stop cut. This will release a small chip of wood.
1. The background rough-out step begins with a stop cut made with a bench knife or chip carving knife.
2. Hold the knife vertical to the wood and make several shallow cuts along the tracing lines.
3. Use a round gouge to carve from the background area into the stop cut line at the pattern edge.
4. The rough-out stage may take several layers of round gouge cutting. As you deepen your background re-cut the stop cut along the outer pattern line to slowly drop the straight-edged wall along the dragon. My final layer of round gouge cuts was worked with the grain (vertical to the plaque) to set all of the carving strokes in one direction. More about Background treatments for your relief wood carving.
Determining the depth of your relief carving
The depth of your carved background and carved design is determined by how thick your carving board is. As a general rule the carving is cut to approximately 1/2 the depth or thickness of the wood at the deepest point. For a 3/4″ board this makes the background drop about 3/8″ deep. More about Determining the depth of a carving.
Please join me tomorrow, November 16, 2013, as we work through the shaping and contour steps for this Celtic Dragon Knot pattern. Thank you, Lora Irish
In depth, step-by-step, how to wood carve your own unique Chess Set.
Download your free wood carving pattern package on the project page!
This one is perfect for the brand new beginning carver to walk through the simple cutting steps. For you seasoned whittlers the Tiki theme is great for innovation, experimentation, and creating your own unique chess pieces. Each piece has taken me about one evening’s session to create.
So get your tool kit out. You will need a bench knife, 3/8″ round gouge, 1/8″ round gouge, and your favorite v-gouge. Bring your carving glove, thumb guard, a compass and pencil, a little sandpaper, a set of rifflers, and, of course, your strop and rouging compound.
The set is worked on 1 1/4″ square by 3″ basswood and 1 1/4″ square by 4″ basswood blocks. The patterns can easily be re-sized to fit other square dimensions and these Tiki’s would make great cane toppers or walking stick tops.
Great Book of Free Carving Projects and Patterns by Lora S. Irish Online Series
