My carved picture frame for the swap

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Hi there.

Next saturday I am going to my in-laws to spend 10 days, I thought I could start my swap project and take it there to work on it in order not to die of boredom.:( as I will not be able to log on the forum.

As I can only take my gouges and sharpening stones, I started the project today making the things that need some machinery.

From a piece of cherry wood that Larry gave me during the last gathering I just glued the pattern and cut it on my bandsaw.

Then with my reciprocating saw I cut away the inside waste and with the router I routed away one level leaving enough thickness on the back to route a rabbet to allocate the glass and the back lid of the frame. That rebate will have to be done at the end as I need all parts to be supported to preven breakages.

Then I marked both on the outside and inside the maximum depth the carving will have, so that I know how much I can play with the shapes.


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C'mon guys, nevermind the overacheiving on the awesome projects already started but this overacheiving schedule.... :huh::D

I'm a procrastinator but i'm making progress on getting ready to get started! :eek:
 
Ok, I had to rush as I had to have it ready to take it with me tomorrow.

So to make things short, I cut away the interior and routed a rabbet on the back to acept the glass and the frame lid.
I marked a template and fromit I cut the back lid.

Now the back lid is glued provisionally to give support to the thin pieces while carving.

The whole thing is also glued to thin board and that board is locked with wedges on my carving support.

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Allright gals and guys, I'm back from holidays and to prove that I have not been idle, here I bring you some pics.

Before I could start carving I found out that I left my favourite wooden mallet ( courtesy of Jim Bradley) at home so I had to improvise one with a branch of Holm Oak from my FIL's fire pile.

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The rest of the pics are sequential so I won't bore you with explanations unless I consider them necessary.
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Allright, here there are some more pics with some explanations for those who are inteterested, in carving details and reasons.

If you look at the petal on the rigth, it looks finished and OK, but it has a boring look and maybe not very natural. A very shallow groove made with a gouge and subdued after blending it with the sides makes it look more natural and interesting.

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The same technique is applied to the one the left. On the first pic you can compare one petal with the groove with the other without, which one do you prefer? These are details that need to be taken into account otherwise the carving looks "dead" one usually says "Its great but... there is something missing but I don't know what it is.

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The reason for this is that we have certain things or objects more interiorized than others and flowers are one of them. For instance, a carving of a horse may look perfectly right to someone who only has seen horses on movies or maybe once or twice in his life, but it can look wrong to someone like Jonathan who sees horses everyday because he has all the proportions and details interiorized in his brain without even thinking about it.
 
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