Grapevine Relief

[Lazy Carver]

I started this one some time back last year. It measures 21"x 9.5" and is carved from Radiata Pine. I try to find time to work on it when the mood serves. I usually do other type carvings, like whistles, letter openers, walking sticks and other things which i will post for you here in the forum and the carvers gallery in the near future. The roughout is done, just working on shaping it, and detailing it.. I delineated a few leaf shapes so you can see some of the detail. Once again its a work in progress, no ETC on this one. I will keep you updated on its progress, on this thread. Don't worry, i will probably be finished with this one well before the Crazy Horse Monument is complete!
Sincerely yours, Rob Vega (Lazy Carver)

[pallin]

It's a very nice subject for a relief carving, and you're doing well on it. The grapes will give you some good experience with shaping.

[Merle Rice]

Hi Rob, you have a nice piece of work going for you ,it's going to be a Great piece. Merle

[Robson Valley]

I grow grapes and I sell rooted grapevine cuttings. Yes, I can sell my garbage prunings for $5/stick. I have 6+ varieties here at 53N (and a 7' fence+tape to keep the deer out.)

Your elaborate entanglement is exactly what I see out my SW windows. LC, your powers of observation are to be commended. Sometimes, grapes grow in a fairly species-specific arrangement. Study the bunches = big? little? half big and half small? Two bunches, different sizes?

[carver33]

Looking good so far - only 5 more like it and you'll have a great start on a 6 panel door

[sebastiaan56]

Ahh, someone who works at my speed . What is the Radiata like to carve? The stuff we get here in Australia is very prone to splitting and virtually a hardwood.

[Robson Valley]

I have some nice pine, might be Pinus latifolia or P. contorta, doubt if it's P. radiata. Carves like cheese. But, I bought a 1x10 x12' and kept no more than 1/3 of it for carving. The rest is firewood. I went into the storage warehouse and picked through the boards, looking specifically for very evenly spaced 1/16 - 1/8" ring widths. Then, I went into the store and bought it.

It's fairly easy for me to work despite the usual lack of detail holding. Normally, I like western red cedar which is notorious for splitting. So I do exactly that = start with chunks of log and split out whatever I want, down to 1/4" x 4" x 24".

Knowing that, I'd switch to a serious hardwood, mahogany, cherry maple, birch if I ever found the patience to work in detail.

[bob easton]

Good looking carving. Nice progress!

Oh, you're a brave man using Radiata! Across the river and upstate from you a bit, the Radiata pine we have at the home center comes all the way from New Zealand. It is clear and white, is useful for some primitive cabinetry, but I can't imagine carving it. Like many pines, it has huge variation between soft and hard in the rings.

[Robson Valley]

Pinus radiata is "Monterey Pine," regionally from the California area (old, old seed swap for Eucalyptus.) The idea was for pulp fiber. However, fast-growing conifers don't have the extreme cell length that gives web strength to papers running in high speed printing presses. Consequently, the best pulp fiber (white spruce) with the longest cell lengths (white spruce) comes from where I live, in the central interior of BC.

Carving conifer wood from BC when you live somewhere else = COFI stamped in green (Council of Forest Industries). SPF stamped in green (Spruce/Pine/Fir = Abies sp) we don't make any distinction. The pine is conspicuous because it will be streaked with grey (aka blue stain), a fungus carried along by the Mountain Pine Beetle which has killed 90% of our pine, millions of standing cubic meters of crap now.
Never pick a board with less than 16 growth rings to the inch.
Never pick a board which shows really abrupt dark brown finishes to the late wood, the summer wood, in each ring. Aside from other fun things like the spiral thickening in the S2, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) has the abrupt finish and splinters like Hello.

[Dan Wegiel]

Hey Rob,
Its already beautiful, can't wait to see it finished.

Dan