Baltimore Oriole carving WIP

[Marc Barger]

Here's the next piece I'm working on. This represents one day of work. Will be either sitting on a branch with a few leaves or at a feeding station with an orange it's been eating on. Sort of leaning towards the orange for the complimentary orange colors.

[Kenny_S]

nice one!!!!!!!

[Marc Barger]

Thanks Kenny!

Here's another pic of some progress. Doesn't look like a lot sinc ethe last pics but at this stage you slow down a little...or...more like you still work as quickly as you can but it doesn't look like you've done much! HA! But got the eye holes shaped and the rest of the wing and tail feathers carved (but not completed). I usually go through and carve everything at a basic level of detail and then go in after the entire bird is close and put all the detail into it. That's where I'm at now so the next pic will show most of the detail carved/stoned into it then it'll get more detail burnt into each feather...and then paint! Although I'll get the base/habitat done first before I paint anything.

[Marc Barger]

Some stoning detail on the head.

[makenchips]

That is some very nice detail. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see the finished product. Thanks again.

[cedarshavings]

I'm still new at this stuff but trying a bird myself. I always thought that kind of detail you have on the head was burned in. Could you explain the stoning you've done?

Thanks for showing us the progress in your work. It's great help for guys like me.

[Ashbys]

Marc,

Nice work ,
Looks like the ones I see sitting on the fence post when I am feeding the horses .

Looking forward to seeing this as you go.

Ash

[Marc Barger]

Thanks everyone!

cedarshavings, The stoning is done with small cylindrical stones like the one I posted the pic of. The ones I use the most are white and the color usually suggests the aggressiveness of the cut. Blue is rougher than white. White, to me, gives me a little more control as it doesn't cut quite so quickly. You use these in any high speed rotary tool such as a Dremel or the one I use is the E-Max 1,000-35,000 rpms. Basically every little 'groove' you see on the Oriole is a stroke of the stone. So lots of 'em!! The whitetail carving I did I figured out I probably took over 2 million strokes in the stoning and buring of the hair!! Pretty sick of it after about a million! HA!! Hope this helps!

[cedarshavings]

Thanks Marc. Your work is a real inspiration to me. It looks like stoning might be a little faster way of detailing. I'm sure there a lot of things I'm doing that are the slow way but I'm learning. All the information from this site is a bunch of help. I've got the dremel so I'm getting one of those stones.

Thanks

[Marc Barger]

Steve, If you have a Home Depot or Lowes or something like that in your area they have not too bad of a selection of these stones. I was surprised. I saw them at Lowes. As far as faster ways? I think a lot of people sand sand sand and sand some more before they texture but I've found that I hardly ever sand much anymore as when I'm shaping feathers and groups of feathers I go over them to give them some 'ripples' and character with a round stone. Various sizes. My most used one is about 1/8" in diameter and is a brown colored stone. I also have a diamond round the same size. Super fine grit and it works great too. Basically 'sands' everything plus I was going to put the ripples in anyway so why sand and then do that too! (I hate to sand anyway) Then I put the finer detail into everything.