Almost finished with the first carved shell niche! I know those of you who know me will not believe me, but I spent most of the day with sand-paper in hand. Yes, and if you have ever taken a class from me, you will probably remember that I teach to carve with chisels, not sand paper. If you have to use sand-paper, only use it to remove any facets created by the carving tools, but not to actually carve or shape the wood with sand-paper. First of all, it takes too darn long, and second, it is much more pleasant to feel the chisel flow through the wood, rather than gritty sand paper that creates nasty dust.
For this particular shell, it is important to create a very smooth flow from rib to rib – thus the need for sandpaper.
I still need to lower down outside the pie-crust edge 1/4″, so that thin edge will appear to be raised. After that, I will take this block on a band-saw and remove as much of the bulk of wood that is not necessary. Why didn’t I do this earlier? It certainly would have been easier to move around -and my back would be happier. But the main reason I have waited is that I wanted to keep it a square block as long as possible for ease of clamping and securing it to the bench – I may have needed that flat surface. Also, when I route the outside edge lower 1/4″ (and yes, I did mention a router!) I will have a lot of surface to set the router on. And the router is used because there will be a trim that needs to fit exactly flat against this surface.
Now all I have to do is make another one exactly like this one!