Tag: wood carving

For the second part of my wood carved fuchsia project I made the central part of the flower. It started as a piece of oak bought at the National Trust Ickworth wood fair.

The idea was to use different wood to reflect the different textures and colours of the different parts of the flower.

 

 

 

 

I began by turning the basic shape from the block of oak. For a while it looked rather like a cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next came the actual wood carving stage. I did this to the roughed out point whilst on our annual holiday in Northumberland.

We have spent a week  in a remote farm cottage every year for the last 10 years. It began as a retreat from all that is office life, at a time when the garden was quietening down and the bees tucked up for winter. Now we go just because we love Northumberland.

And so that’s it, short and sweet for stage 2. It still needs a lot of finishing, particularly to the base, where it will fit into the petals made in part 1.

Watch this space for part 3.

 

My wood carved fuchsia has been a long term project, but that’s no bad thing. It has been quite nice to work on something I haven’t felt like I wanted to finish as quickly as possible.

It is made from a number of components, mainly wood, but also with leaves and stems made on my forge. All of which I will explain as I go.

We should start with my inspiration, a fuchsia flower. Having said that, my fuchsia is a bit of a composition, rather than a copy of a specific fuchsia type.

For my wooden version I started with the main petals, made from ash.

I started with a slice of ash bought at the local National Trust wood fair as I like to know that the materials I use are from a sustainable source.

From this plank I cut 4 pieces, glued them together into a cross, and carved them into the shape of the 4 petals and the first part of the stem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so this is stage 1 complete.