The devil’s monkey ~ an abstract wood carving

I finally completed this piece last night as I applied the final coat of varnish and worried over wanna-be drips, thankfully there were none!  I was also grateful this morning to find the sun-shining and the camera charged –  a happy combination for capturing some decent snaps outside … although it’s hellish cold out there!

The carving itself has been completed using the rhizome from the highly invasive plant Japanese knot weed, unfortunately this plant can be found all along the west coast of Scotland suffocating and replacing native flora and making a general nuisance of itself, you can read more  about it here.

Although I’ve labelled it ‘The Devil’s Monkey’, it really depends on how you look at it.  I’ve seen it also as a sea horse or maybe an undead dog!?  Whatever you see in it, I’m really quite pleased with it, although in reality I didn’t have to do a great deal with it beyond tidying it up a bit, removing some material, and carrying out some shaping, smoothing and sanding.

One thing I do like about this material is the texture, grain, and naturally occurring shapes in the rhizome (as pictured below).  It was quite difficult to work with as I found some areas were extremely soft, others were extremely tough, and due to the way it grows (I imagine) there were areas inside and in nooks and crannies that were just full of muck!

Indeed, some bits simply broke off as I worked and prior to finishing I applied oil to selected areas to harden them up prior to final carving, sanding and varnishing.

The picture above shows the back of the piece and if you click on the image to enlarge it you should be able to clearly see the curious lattice of the wood and the grain in the ‘knots’ which I’m guessing are where the shoots come from.  It’s a fascinating material and I hope to use it again in the future … although given that it’s a controlled plant I’m not keen on transporting it.  As a point of interest (or not) I incinerated all off cuts and disposed of all waste materials in my fire, I’m pretty sure that it was dead when I found it though.

Available to buy in the shop.

Tags: abstract, art, carved, carving, craft, devil, handmade, head, monkey, ornament, sculpture, whittle, whittling, wood, wooden, zombie