My latest woodworking project has been the creation of Bertie 2.
I need to explain. Bertie is ‘my’ first pet. Not many people of 50 something can say that their childhood pet is still alive, but mine is. Bertie was/is the family tortoise. He is at least 60 years old. He now lives with my sister.
As we don’t have the real Bertie, I decided that I would make my own wooden version.
As usual I will go through some of the stages in order to get to the finished piece.
Above is the real Bertie. He is about 20cm long, so a small tortoise.
My Bertie began with the choice of wood.
I decided to use London Plane, otherwise known as Lace wood.
It has a lovely grain. I cut it across the heart wood so that the lace look would come out across the shell.
Part 1 was the taking of a number pf pictures by my nephew, with Bertie placed on graph paper so that I could take key measurements.
Stage 1 of the carving process is below. Having selected the orientation to bring out the grain, I gradually formed the outline shape using my new home made carving stand based on a towing ball.
The final stage of the poppy is of course the instantly recognisable seed head.
There was then a rather long process of setting up the sculpture ready for my mum’s 80th birthday party.