Most All of the wood carvings I do are very organic in nature, I neither plan what I’m going to do or even give much thought as to what the final outcome might look like … it very much just happens. I can remember somebody somewhere saying that they don’t create what they carve, they just uncover it, that’s how it feels for me.
I’ll pick up a random piece of kindling with an interesting shape, grain, or knots and I’ll see something in it, then I just ‘hack away’ until I’m happy with the end product … more recently I’ve started attempting to adopt specific styles, so the eyes in this piece are something of an experimental departure for me based on Tiki sculptures I’ve seen elsewhere. It’s a style I intend to develop into something more me. Tiki appear to be terribly prescribed to my eye, and whilst the chaps and chapesses who do them clearly have a great deal of talent it’s not a direction I’m particularly keen to move in … the notion of the Tiki is culturally remote to me.
The Yawn, takes it’s title from the knot that form the mouth, to my mind it look like a great gaping yawn, the eyes shut tight at the climax of the intake of breath.
It was carved relatively quickly and the finish is a departure from my usual coat of varnish, as I’ve oiled and waxed it. I’m not sure I’m keen, I like the gloss that a varnish gives you and I’m fairly comfortable with how smooth gloss feels to the touch, an aspect I find quite important in the objects I make … I’m forever, stroking WIP’s and running my thumb over the surface as I work, as I define the shape, it’s important that some aspect of this is carried over into the finished object given the part played in their creation.
Anyway, enough from me, I have another carving to finish and as it’s nearly bedtime and I’m restless I’m guessing I’ll be up beyond midnight tonight … oh joy!
Tags: carved, carving, craft, handmade, head, whittle, whittling, wood, wooden
