[doris]

long time no post, but now i am back, with a try of carving grapes. is much more difficult than carving faces to me... critique welcome, good and bad :-) ... (... is linden, and once oiled with thung oil)

[xsailer]

I love the carved look but to emphasize the grapes, which is the attraction, what do you think of smoothing them slightly to give a nice contrast to the rough carved vines and leaves? Not necessairly sanded, just finer cuts to make their surface different than the rest of the carving. How are you going to use it?

[santagibbs]

A very nice carving. How will you finish it..Stain , paint etc? Thanks for showing it.. Charlotte

[wade clark]

Doris,
It's beautiful! Did you use a pattern or draw it on the wood from memory, or just carve? Very nicely done, in any case!
Wade

[Wolf Kiessling]

Originally Posted by doris

long time no post, but now i am back, with a try of carving grapes. is much more difficult than carving faces to me... critique welcome, good and bad :-) ... (... is linden, and once oiled with thung oil)

I like the design of the piece but if it were me I would have sanded the entire thing to a smooth finish. I don't think grapes look good when they are left with tool marks showing. Also, only if it were me, I would have applied a stain, something subtle like a fruitwood color. That is because, except for human busts or figurines, I don't care for the light color of basswood (linden)....

Meine zwei pfennig............

Wolf

[doris]

thanks everybody for feedback :-)

xsailor, yes sounds good idea of making grapes smoother, though i have to admit this is one point i had big struggle with...i will try more like this... and, yes piece is just for hang on wall. nothing special meant for. i did it only because i want learn carve such things, and grapes are so difficult

charlotte, no i wont paint or stain. maybe put more oil on it, but otherwise this is how i like carvings most.

wade, i make several drawings of grapes, i post the last one which i used to get the carving started. but then, i changed my mind as you can see... i dont use patters or such, i just make drawings before to studay subject i want carve, or sometimes a model in plastilin, and then make some helping lines on wood and start carving. and then let guide me by what i learned about subject in drawing...

wolf, yes, i think too, grpaes would look better when smoother... i am not a fan of sanding however. its just a matter of taste, i dont say its good or bad. to me, i like rough carvings more. but i definitely agree with you about the grapes should be smoother...

[mark yundt]

Hi Doris,,it has been a long time! Grapes/spheres can be tricky especially if you want to keep them round.The technique of using the chisel reversed is very handy here and when done well very little sanding is needed.Using the chisel in this way can come in very handy in many situations.Another thing I've found that helps the realism of grape clusters is to stagger the uniformity of the whole piece. You're right though,,at times they aren't as easy as they look.I'm glad you tried them as your piece looks good.

[wade clark]

The first time I carved grapes, I went to the store and bought some plastic fruit grapes. I don't like artificial fruit, but it was great for a carving pattern! I had the leaves and the grapes to work with. The leaves seemed harder than the grapes to carve, I thought, maybe because they're a lot more complicated than a round shape.
Now that I have a vineyard with 25 or more types of grapes, I realize that grape leaves vary greatly, which explains why I've seen them carved so many ways. But all the grapes are Round or oblong, very similar in any variety, other than color and size.

[doris]

hi mark, yes long time, life got very in way to carving. i missed it badly. hope i can do more now again... i will try more grapes, definitely i am not where i want to be with them. i have a hard time using chisels reversed. no matter what i do, one corner always seems to dig in somewhere.

nice idea with plastic grapes, wade. i bought some real ones, before i started to look how the single grapes are arrange, ah and since i love eating them :-) . had no leaves though...

[Joy]

Nice job, Doris. Mark makes those round grapes look so easy when he does them LOL. I like your design.