carving a shell.....Updated

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Started a carving yesterday after having bought a shell. I want to use the shell as a still life model :) rather than do the idealic shell. To me these are the little bits that in time to come embellish furniture if one has mastered being able to carve them such that you would risk it on the real piece.

Mike Henderson has a great tutorial on his site if anyone wants to see how to do a shell. There are also tons of other tutorials Mike has put up on the trickier bits in woodworking. (Thanks Mike you do it so well).

uploadfromtaptalk1378736037946.jpg

Here is Lindas progress to date....

uploadfromtaptalk1378736082082.jpg


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I see joint collaboration on carving projects in the future. Keep it up Rob and Linda.:thumb:

A few years ago I took carving class at a local community college. Mike Henderson was the guest instructor one saturday and he taught us how to carve the shell. It was a lot of fun.
 
You certainly got the background reduced nicely! That always seems like its harder than it seems like it should be.

You did a really nice job of getting the basic profile roughed out but on the details I'm going to argue that you are starting at the wrong end of the shell. I think you would do better cutting away the deeper coarser cuts first for cutting the lines in the shell and then refine the shape back from that. Starting with the finer lines first you have to get them "more correct" whereas if you do the bigger cuts (not all the way down at first!!) first you have some time to look at the overall shape and correct as you go along.

A more confident carver might well give different advice :D
 
To me these are the little bits that in time to come embellish furniture if one has mastered being able to carve them such that you would risk it on the real piece.

The carvings and embellishment on the altar in our church are made separately and tacked or glued on. This seems to me an eminently intelligent way to handle the problem of mistakes during carving.

That's a very good start! :thumb:
 
Rob.

I think that I can see the your eagerness in finishing while I see the steady and more patient attitude on Linda's carving.
You got the shape great, but those lines spoil the result. I do not know at what stage you are now Rob, but I think that you have been caught on the beginner's trap, which is jumping into making the details too soon. I've been there myself, so nothing to be ashamed, its part of the learning process.

My suggestion would be to lower down the background 3 or 5 mm as I've said many times, "the art of a good barber is to obtain sideburns from where there is no hair". ( you've got plenty of wood to do it) and erase those lines. . Check the volume of the tail hinge of the model and the roundness of it. Its different heights at different points. Once the shape pleases you, ( keep on cheking with the model) draw the lines with a pencil and carve them away. It's no sin to draw lines on a carving. Notice that they are deeper and wider apart on the front edge of the shell and tha they converge and become shallower at the tail. On yours you started the other way round. Once you have them right round the edges in order to get the shell wrinkles or pattern.

Don't rush, shape and volume proportions come first always, details at the end. If the shape beneath is wrong no matter how well you carve the details they won't hide it, if the shape is right, details will enhance it.

Keep up with the work, it's coming out real good. As per Linda´s, my advice is the same, look at the volumes, at how do you want those petals and leaves curve, do not undercut anything until you are sure that the shape is what you want. If you undercut to soon you will not be able to move the shapes backwards.
I look forward to see the progress of both of you, in a way I feel responsible for having planted the carving seed on you. ;)
 
Shell ...progress pic added

Made a little more progress today on my shell carving. Took the rear down a whole lot more and started to shape the back to get more volume.

Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate the comments.


2013-09-15_19-32-14_952.jpg2013-09-15_19-32-04_185.jpg
 
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Good job Rob!

One more advice, get rid of that step, I know that you must be clamping the piece by it but it will force you to put the tools in an akward and too steep angle when you carve the tail of the shell, make your life easyer, and leave it at the same level as the rest of background, and when you clamp it put a small piece of 3mm plywood or similar between the clamp and the piece to protect it. Besides it will distort your perception of the form.
When carving you have to forget that it is a shell, you've got to see the volumes as independent ones and how they relate with each other, for instance, is some part too small or is it that the part near it is too big?in this case the forest is hiding you the trees and not the opposite as usual. If you get the trees ( proportions) right, the forest (the shell) will be right.


Made a little more progress today on my shell carving. Took the rear down a whole lot more and started to shape the back to get more volume.

Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate the comments.


View attachment 78443View attachment 78442
 
Re: carving a shell

Got to work on my shell carving during some time away camping over this past long weekend.

Here is where its at now

shell carving updated aug2014.jpg

Few things that dawned on me during this excercise,

I now understand why there are so many profiles of carving tools and i got a clear idea of where i am missing a few in my line up.

Carving is like therapy. I find it really gives me a mental break. I dissapear mentally when i am doing it and think of nothing else but what i am trying to do. Grain direction, tool slection, angle of approach, object of cut, and more.

Really badly need to refine and simply a method and process by which to keep tools sharp.

My tools need sharpening badly, and this was very evident when i started to carve away from the direction of the grain on either side of the shell. I know at this stage clean cuts require sharp tools.

Then i have a question to ask seeking as many views and inputs as possible.

Should one use sandpaper during or after carving?

What about tools like a dremel with burr?

Hand tools for me have a aurora of tradditional craftsman about them, i dont seek perfection such that a carved item end up looking like a model for a mold or cnc template to copy.

I started this shell (my first ever carving outside of whittling a spirit face or two) as a artist would do a still life. Wanted to try reproduce the shell i have and started out to copy.
Found i did not have the tool to put the correct "u" valley between the ridges so settled for improvising but thats not what i wanted to achieve.

However i have a dremel and other sanding aids that could help me achieve my goal, part of me feels thats cheating or going "against the grain".

I like a finish of tool marks but not sure this item would lend itself to that style.

Any comments welcome

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Hi Rob.
For an unknown reason the link doesn't work for me, I don't know if the problem is on my side or yours. So I can't see the image.

To answer your questions to the best of my knowledge.



Should one use sandpaper during or after carving?


I always try to stay away from using sand paper while carving, I use riffler rasps instead. Reason: Particles of sand papermay get embedded within the wood so that if you carve over them your tools may get nicks and get dull earlier.

What about tools like a dremel with burr?
So far I have no problem with those, I use them when I need although I don't like the noise nor the dust.

Hand tools for me have a aurora of tradditional craftsman about them, i dont seek perfection such that a carved item end up looking like a model for a mold or cnc template to copy.
The more you carve, the more you will learn, do not get obsessed with the final appearance of the surface, but do try to get the volumes right.



I started this shell (my first ever carving outside of whittling a spirit face or two) as a artist would do a still life. Wanted to try reproduce the shell i have and started out to copy.
Found i did not have the tool to put the correct "u" valley between the ridges so settled for improvising but thats not what i wanted to achieve.

Not having the right tool to do a job spurs you to find creative ways of usings the ones that you have.

However i have a dremel and other sanding aids that could help me achieve my goal, part of me feels thats cheating or going "against the grain".

I have a rather pragmatic view on that issue. To me what is important is to achieve what you want to achieve, and if you do not have the skill to do it with a gouge, why not use a dremel? People can (with practice) draw perfect straight lines freehand, but if one can't there is no sin in using a ruler. However, you'll find that with time you will depend less and less on those aids if you keep trying.

As per sharpening your tools, it is rather difficult to learn to sharpen them on your own (although you can) but it makes it easier if you see someone doing it. Special mention needs the "V" tool that many carvers find really difficult to sharpen. A usual, the more you practice the better you'll be at it.


I hope that this helps you a bit, remember when you started learning to write; first you made sticks /////// then circles OOOOOO and so forth, carving is the same. Nobody asked you to write a resumee on the second day of your writing lessons, so don't ask for it yourself. I know from my own experience that we always fall on the trap of wanting to achieve something while learning how to do it. This is specially evident with software, one wants to use a cad system just dopwnloaded to draw the plans for his project and at the same time learn how to use it.
 
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Hi Rob.

You should not be discouraged, I find that the result is pretty good. This carving only needs a bit of clean up job on the background, some undercutting on the contour of the shell to make it pop out, and if you want you could try to fix the mixed flutes on the right side. Always remember the saying. The good barber gets sideburns from where thereis no hair ;)
 
As far as the Dremel, it depends on you. When you are carving with a chisel you are feeling the wood.

Feeling it resist and give way to the sharpness of the blade. There seems to be for me more of a a mind muscle connection.


For me with a Dremel, it is more like using a small Testors paint brush. I feel the Dremel and look at the wood to see what is happening.

The end result "Can Be" the same with either method. The question might be, what do want to personally retain after it is done.

The feeling of having carved it, or the satisfaction of having made a shell.


For me, I'll pick up a gouge or a hand plane every time before picking up mechanized tool, unless the mechanized tool can produce a superior result.

Although for sanding, which I hate, I'd pick the dremel.

I haven't carved anything since the early 1970's, but I can still feel the tools in my hand, and if I decided to carve tommorow.

I don't think I've lost it. I'm not sure if a Dremel would have given me the same muscle mind connection.

Now with carving a turkey, I'm like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre--lol

Just my 2 centavos, and a shot of tequilla for your coffee:)
 
Got to work on my shell carving during some time away camping over this past long weekend.

Here is where its at now

View attachment 85520

Few things that dawned on me during this excercise,

I now understand why there are so many profiles of carving tools and i got a clear idea of where i am missing a few in my line up.

Carving is like therapy. I find it really gives me a mental break. I dissapear mentally when i am doing it and think of nothing else but what i am trying to do. Grain direction, tool slection, angle of approach, object of cut, and more.

Really badly need to refine and simply a method and process by which to keep tools sharp.

My tools need sharpening badly, and this was very evident when i started to carve away from the direction of the grain on either side of the shell. I know at this stage clean cuts require sharp tools.

Then i have a question to ask seeking as many views and inputs as possible.

Should one use sandpaper during or after carving?

What about tools like a dremel with burr?

Hand tools for me have a aurora of tradditional craftsman about them, i dont seek perfection such that a carved item end up looking like a model for a mold or cnc template to copy.

I started this shell (my first ever carving outside of whittling a spirit face or two) as a artist would do a still life. Wanted to try reproduce the shell i have and started out to copy.
Found i did not have the tool to put the correct "u" valley between the ridges so settled for improvising but thats not what i wanted to achieve.

However i have a dremel and other sanding aids that could help me achieve my goal, part of me feels thats cheating or going "against the grain".

I like a finish of tool marks but not sure this item would lend itself to that style.

Any comments welcome

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

I don't use sand paper if I don't have to, on most of my relief carvings I don't at all, that's with hand tools only thought, when it comes to power tools like foredom an dremals there are different sanding heads for hard woods try not to use them on softwoods. I personally love doing by hand I lose track of time when I'm using my hand tools an I feel great when I do like no worry's.

Now I do use power tools an the bigger projects when I have to
 
Thats looking really good Rob! Glad you got time to get back around to it!

You might try getting some of the 3M sanding mesh and hit it with that real quick and see how it looks.

The reason I suggest this is not because I like sanding nor do I think you should nessecarily sand all carved work.. but as a learning exercise I've found that often when hitting a piece with a little bit of something to polish it up a smidge really highlights the failures in my chisel work :eek: Having done that some, its becoming easier to see what the chisel work should look like without sanding and thus my chisel work has commensurately improved.

The layout on the left side of the shell is (imho) substantially better than that on the right - out of curiousity did you start on one side and work to the other or work the whole thing at once? By better I mean it has better spacing and structure (flowing all the way from the edge to the root and are more evenly sized),
 
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