More progress on carving the shell niche

I’ve made some good progress on the acanthus detail in the center of the shell niche. I am happy with the way it is turning out.

Many times I will draw the design on paper first, but with the scroll design and the contours involved, I really needed to draw the design straight on the wood so the proportions will work with the shell the best. At the drawn-on stage (before starting to carve it), I traced the design on velum paper so I can have an accurate design repeated for the other 2 shells.

If you look at the first photo (the one that shows most of the shell), you can see little marks on the flutes of the shell. These were marked off with calipers at 2 locations down the length of these flutes to make sure when I take a flexible ruler (1/2″ wide piece of cardboard) I can get an accurate line that keeps consistent along the whole shell. Very easy for the lines to get wobbly or uneven. 2 of these marks down the length is really a minimum. 3 or 4 would have been better. I relied on my eyes a lot in making sure the lines made sense.

The scroll details still need to be carved, but I think I’m pretty close to finishing the acanthus leaf. I may lower the background a little more to cause the leaf to stand out more, but we’ll see. I should have it finished next week.

Lots of exciting work coming up – along with the video school!

God is good!