Gracie the Chocolate Lab

[CarverFromNoWhere]

I agree with Doc, and it looks like your off to a good start.
Carl

[MelNM]

Now you got me excited when you said you were using Aspen. I was at Lowes the other day wondering how it would be for relief carvings.

So far you carving is coming out real good, are you going leave natural or paint it?

I definitely will be following this thread to see how it comes out.
Mel

[Orygoner]

Mel... if you click on my gallery link you can find a couple of paddles that I made from Aspen and did a relief carving on the blades. The subjects are a rainbow trout and an elk. I painted these paddles with acrylics. Don't confuse them with the PNW Indian design paddles. Those are done on red cedar with no carving.

I just stopped by the computer room after bandaging up my latest cut. Makes it a bit more challenging to type. Smile

Now back to the carving of Gracie.

[CarverFromNoWhere]

Ya lets see some pics of this battle wound Randy.
Carl

[MelNM]

Randy your paddles are great, nice carvings on them too. My daughter and son-in-law would love those.

You convinced, I'm going to buy me some of that Aspen.
Thanks
Mel

[Orygoner]

Ya lets see some pics of this battle wound Randy.

I'm a fast healer so not much to see. No stitches necessary. Got a palm gouge cut on the tip of the left index finger, matched nicely by a knife cut in the tip of the left middle finger and they go well with various nicks from errant gouge runs. Also manged to drop a knife which luckily only ran through my Levi's and not my leg. Maybe I should stick to watching TV. Smile Or maybe get a leather apron and one of those handy little carving gloves for the left hand.

Randy your paddles are great, nice carvings on them too. My daughter and son-in-law would love those.

Thanks Mel. I'm sure your family would like them. One thing I've noticed with the Aspen is that it looks pretty plain (some things can be seen prior to finish but they're subtle) until you put some finish on them. I use an oil finish with some Briwax on top...sometimes plain and sometimes with a built in pine stain. It really brings out the beauty of the grain.


I've not been able to focus on Gracie too well, but I've made a bit of progress. The cattails are almost finished being roughed in. I couldn't work on it yesterday and missed most of today. But, I did run out this evening and cut/shaped some plugs to epoxy into the holes beneath Gracie's collar. I will shave them off quickly tomorrow. If I have any gaps I plan to make up a little filler using epoxy and some aspen dust that I collected from sanding paddles. I will use a rotary carver to make a trough along any cracks and this apply some filler in the trough. That's my plan anyhow. Of course I may have hit it well enough that no one would notice. Not likely. Smile

[Orygoner]

More work on Gracie today. I lowered the plugs under the collar; finished the cattails on the right side; took the sun and clouds down to finish level; lowered the geese, redrew them, and removed some of the excess wood around the edges. Tomorrow, I hope to finish the basic carving and get on to the finish details.

[torpidhummer]

Great job Randy,I use to raise and train,hunting Labs, and you have done a great start, thanks for sharing.
Oscar

[markken5889]

Looking good Randy! I admire you're having stuck to it through the tough part!

Mark

[Orygoner]

Still whittlin' away at old Gracie. Got much of the dog done today as well as much of one goose. I was bit surprised at how slowly the work went on the goose.

I did use a rotary carver to help smooth out the surface on Gracie. I intend to give her coat some texture, either with the rotary carver or a v-tool. I'll need to test out texturing on some scrap aspen to see which works best for me. I need to let her sit for a bit so I can think on her looks.

Hopefully tomorrow I can finish the geese completely and begin on some of the finish undercutting and fine tuning of the cattails.

I am mulling over making a stamp (meat tenderizer type head) to treat the background areas.

Anyhow, here's the latest stage.