Stien Carving Advice?

[Krienert]

Hello all!,
This forum is awesome. Obously I'm still new to carving, but my love for it has grown since finding this site and the wealth of information it shares. So in respectful stance, heres my current question...

A local pub has 'regular' mugs for cats whom often call the place home. Couple buddies of myne sent me two mugs to carve, and the amount of work im doing is probably going to end up with a third as well (for me of course).
Anyway, introduction aside; the carvings on the two on hand are a Lion standing mid-roar with a couple stars and the moon in the background. The other will have a texted name in stylized lettering, and the Chicago cubs emblem. (non-cubs fans please hold your insults..its not for me


The point im at though is on the unfinished Lion Stien. Its a slat style mug, and the grain is wild, (cause to the 7 random piece construction). Included is a photo of the ruff carve out up. Im satisfied so far, but getting a feeling for the wood up to this point sends messages of difficultys ahead with detail work on the face, and textures.
I plan to either stain, or woodburn following finalizing of the carving to give depth and texture, but these things are new to me.
If any of you cool cats out there have relivent advice, it would be apreciated to the fullest. Giving thanks!

Joe K.

[bigEd_H]

That's a pretty cool project you have going there. I can't give you any advise since I've never carved a stein before. Hopefully someone with an answer will be along soon.

Ed

[Krienert]

Just a quick update... Im sure ya'll can see some of the trouble spots.

The ear on the lions head...

The moon (whats the best way to show a cresent without ruining the detail?

Now the wood is pretty soft, so getting hair texture is difficult. I tryed and damaged some of the work, so I cleaned it up, and I feel like maybe woodburning, or staining might be a better option to give depth.

Any advice would be highly respected.
A thousand Thanks!

Joe

[Krienert]

In between classes today I will be starting the other stien (with a Chicago Cubs emblem).

Yet still no posts? Its beacuse Im new eh?

[Krienert]

Well...

Even though noone said anything heres the progress report:
-got them both complete as far as carvings go
-really happy with them, and upon showing them to the 'clients'
they are stoked, and looking forward to the finished mugs
-all thats left is some staining... which brings me to my next short
question...

I have acrilic based paints on hand... now parts of the carving are going to be stained with a mahogony color, some left natural as highlights; but there are some spots on em' that I plan on doing a color based stain(IE = to make the cubs logo a little more obious with blue and red).

Now Im a broke artist, and as far as colored stains go, im planing on slightly watering some acrilic paint, and applying is as a sort of 'wash' to areas with a small brush. I will likly have to do it a couple times, and following I plan to topcoat topcoat with some really nice food-friendly clear coat I bought.

Does anyone know if such an acrilic color based wash (blue, red, yellow, green) will hold up over time under clearcoat?

[Claude]

Nice work. A good clear coat of waterproof poly ought to protect the acrylic paint ok.

Claude

[Krienert]

Thanks Claude,

Any recomendations on ratios of paint to water for good retention of the wod grain underneith? Ive done a bit of experimenting... but would still like to hear of some experiance...

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Looks good !

Dave

[AlArchie]

I don't think the low number of responses is because you're new here, but there probably aren't a whole lot of folks that have tried this particular type of project. I'd sure hate to offer advice on this and have a screw up result....anyway, your mugs look great.

Mixing paint for washes is pretty much a matter of trial and error. Different woods retain the washes in different manners. And with those multiple slats, getting a consistant hue might be problematic. You might want to seal that project first then use some of the transparent paints available rather than going with the thinned washes.

Either way, I'd try some experimenting on a practice piece of wood to see what happens.

Al

[squbrigg]

Interesting project, sorry but it's the first time I've seen the thread. Some detailing with woodburning will sharpen up your details before you use a wash on them. Acrylic washes will do fine, just plop some water in a lid and add a few drops of color at a time until you have the consistancy you want. I'd test you wash on a piece of scrap wood to check.

I like the idea, any idea of what kind of wood the mugs are made of? Nice work so far.

Bob