[kat]

hi, my name is kat and i would really like to learn how to carve wood!!!!! I have just started looking at online sites and no very little about wood or carving, so i am really a newbie. i would like to eventually make wood jewelry. any help, advice, words of wisdom would be great!!! also it would be great to hear from anyone that knows about where i could take classes/buy supplies at in the l.a. area. thanks and i can't wait to start!!!! Also i looked at the starter kit from, now i can't remember the site, but it was a knife starter kit, with glove and holding case (i think), and it seems like a good deal, is it something i should get? i only have a dremel, which for wood carving purists or just wood carvers in general may not be the thing to use, anyways let me know please!!!!!

[AlArchie]

Welcome, Kat! You should be able to glean some advice and ideas from this site...there is a pretty good range of carvers here.

That beginners kit you mentioned is most likely from www.littleshavers.com
Rick Ferry's site. It's a good kit at a good price. There are some others out there who also have some decent kits I've seen on line but haven't seen those upclose and personal.

Carving jewelry? Do you mean small pins, necklaces and amulets? A set of palm gouges is great for doing this type of work. I've done quite a few amuelts and pins of Native American design, and several of our club members make pins of carved feathers and flowers. You can carve them from basswood and paint them, or from higly figured wood and finish with stain and either oils or varnishes. Try the highly figured burls as you get more experience. These have beautiful grains but are a devil to carve. You might have to locate growing burls yourself and harvest, cut and dry them yourself, but that is half the fun of using the burls....finding and harvesting them.

I cut my outlines on a jigsaw and then finish carving with the fine palm tools. I'd suggest you start with a good grade of basswood and do some practice pieces. Then as your confidence builds, try some thin hardwoods. You can purchase 3/8" and 1/4" thick boards of oak, cherry, maple and aspen (maybe a few others, too) at the big box stores and quite a few local lumber companies, but you will probably have to ask about it at the lumber companies....they seem to keep it hidden in the back somewhere.

You can add semi-precious stones in round or cabuchon in a variety of sizes from jewelry supply outfits. There are dozens of supply houses around the country. Just do a search online for "jewelry supplies". They also sell gold, silver and base metal chains and ropes.

For work that close you might want to consider one of those lighted bench magnifiers or a set of those visor type wearable magnifiers. Maybe those are just for us "old eyes" types, but they make the close work a lot easier.

When you are working with pieces that small, make sure you either find some way to clamp the piece to your work bench or always wear a protective glove on the hand you are holding the piece in. The Pony Clamp outfit makes a real nice little clamp that attaches to your bench with a removable special bolt. Trouble with most of these clamps and even the old style bench dogs is that they are metal, and working that close to the clamp, puts your tools really near the metal parts (asking for dull tools). You can overcome this by making a wood pad to go between the clamp and the workpiece.

There are lots of beginners books out there...for the type of carving you mentioned, I'd look at books on beginning relief carving, or traditional classic carving.

Good luck and hope to see some opf your work as you develop your skills.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Good info from Al...oh.....Welcome! ......I don't normally do jewelry but did make some very small cross earrings for my wife from olivewood from Bethlehem, but I made those with a scrollsaw....I would think the scrollsaw would be a necessity for doing jewelry. imho

[MelNM]

Hi Kat

Welcome to woodcarving, the first thing you need to learn is to sharpen your tools. This makes carving a lot more enjoyble. There are servral threads here talking using different sharpening methods.

Make sure to get you a detail knife this will help bunches in carving miniture stuff. Get a good one though, you'll find you probably be wasting your money on the cheap stuff. Like Al said contact Rick at littleshavers.com
he won'l lead you astray.

I like carving miniture stuff too
Mel

[Eddy Smiles]

Kat... By now, with all the good advice put forward by everyone, your noodle is probably swimming. If you want to make wood jewelery, my suggestion is to go to Michaels, Joanns, or Hobby Lobby and buy yourself some thin basswood. They sell it in strips and sheets and bass wood is soft and a very forgiving medium to work with. Take it home and use a cheap coping saw to rough out a shape, then use your Dremel to develop a finish shape. Then use sand paper and finish as desired. Just jump into it using what you have and your needs will become known as you go along. In the end you will most likely need everything mentioned above plus some but for right now you can probably get started with what you have on hand.

The attached photo shows a small "Om" pin that I made for my wife using a chip of red cedar that I found left over from another project. It's approximately 1-1/2" in diameter and about 1/4" thick. It was one of my first power carving projects and as I described above all I used on it was a cheap coping saw, my Dremel, and some sandpaper.

Good luck!

[squbrigg]

Welcome aboard Kat. The only jewelery that I've carved is a few Celtic Knots and a monkey's fist that were to be used as pendants. And they were carved with a Dremel and a couple of simple knives. You can use whatever you can find as tools to carve with, not just expensive tools, modified broken dental tools were a favorite of mine for many years. Ask your dentist to give you some of his/her broken or worn out ones.

Bob

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Geez Bob! about a 2 1/2 inch monkeys fist was tough enough! and even at that it has more of an egg shape ha ha

[Mark N. Akers]

Hi Kat:
Welcome to the site.

[Blake Lunsford]

Welcome aboard Kat! I'm sure you will find a ton of information on this site!

Blake

[kat]

wow, thanks everyone for all the help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i really appreciate it and am super glad that i found this site and all of you!!!!!!!!!!