Has anyone carved anything like this ??

[Claude]

Originally Posted by CodderCape

How would someone go about carving a frog like that? What would the best wood be? Even if it is a cast, ( you guys know better than I) how would you tackle this carve? thanks

Thomp is right about the collar tips and the crown. If you were making the frog anything less than a foot tall, you'd have very thin and delicate wood in the collars and crown. You could modify the crown to not have such tall and thin tips, and you could modify the collar so it lays down on the shirt instead of sticking up in the air. The way to tell if you can do it, is to take a piece of scrap wood (the harder it is, the better detail you can get), draw the crown on it the way you like it and try to carve it. If it works, do the whole frog; if it doesn't, try modifying your design and try to make it again.

After 4 or 5 mods, if it still breaks very easily, give it up an draw the frog as a Santa Claus - stocking caps are easier to carve than crowns!
Claude

[Thomp]

As Claude,
said the carving could be modified under the crown they wear a stocking type hat of velvet to keep the crown from chilling their head in the cold drafty castles, lot of the old kings are represented in heavy bulky clothing for such reason...

the lost wax method was probably used if this is a casted frog.
i feel this frog was probably originally carved out of hard machinist wax like paraffin but more durable, then a silinone or plaster cast made of that, when plaster was hardened the wax would be heated and poured out, sprews cut into the mold for axcess to the finer voids allowing finer detail and vacuum-injection of resin-catylist mixture would have produced the frog easily... loosing the original wax carving = (lost wax) a plaster cast would have to be distroyed as well to release the casted item, mostly usde for metal castings...


but to answer the original question, how could it be carved.
use the image or a better image square center of the item where all properties are symmetrical.
print this image to one side of a page, then with a ruler draw with pencil corresponding lines to highlight the features you could see of the image from side view,
(This takes some imagination)
but the forehead eyes bridge of nose ears tip of nose top lip mouth opening bottom lip chin neck and so on...

after you draw all the lines to use as elevation of features of side view then start to sketch in nose, eyebrow, chin, lips, and so on knowing all protrusions and how they would align keep it in scale to front view then attach it to a block of basswood or your favorite type, kind, species of wood with wacky tacky your favorite kind of adhesive and then remove waste... with a band saw.

at this point you should have a roughly shaped item, with basicly no real features, you will have to imagine how far out the nose beak or whatever is sticking out beyond the eyeballs ect... pencil in some guide lines then start carving paying close attention to the original photo for a map on how much to remove..

basically in a nutshell that's it on how to carve this frog.

after you carve the first one, make your observations on how it could be better and make another, after 2 or 3 carvings you should have a pretty close rendition of the item your trying to duplicate or inlarge.
thomas

[Knotbored]

I am going to go way out on a limb with a test of my memory !
I think that is a model of the Buster Brown shoe company radio icon FROGEE (a show from the 50's

[Thomp]

Could be,

but i was thinking of the nursery princess and the frog... where the princess lost the ball down the well and the frog tried to get her to kiss him for retrieving it ,
its been 25 years since i read that one,,,

[whitecree]

That would suit almost any wood, just make sure the grain runs vertically from crown to chin. This will retain most of the strength of the wood in those more delicate areas.

Treat it like a mask, which is what Thomp ^^^ has outlined IMO.

[CodderCape]

Its Mr. Toad from Mr. Toads Wild ride in disney world. Its almost certainly a cast, I found more pics of the same toad heads through out the ride.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Originally Posted by Thomp

Could be,

but i was thinking of the nursery princess and the frog... where the princess lost the ball down the well and the frog tried to get her to kiss him for retrieving it ,
its been 25 years since i read that one,,,

Problem with that is.....ya gotta go thru a lot of frogs to find a prince!!Ice Cream