Last night I added another video to my online woodcarving school. It contains about 2 hours of the process of carving a very classic design of a shell in the center and acanthus leaves scrolling on either side. This particular one will be placed on top of a square mirror as a sort of “crown”. This design is just one variation of this very classical motif.
The video shows the technique of carving one side of the acanthus leaf (you just need to turn your brain inside out to carve the other side) and how to carve the shell. The most difficult part in this project seems be working with grain issues when carving the shell. Because of the scroll design in the way, you are really limited to mostly carving from the outside of the shell towards the center – which can give you some real challenges when the you are cutting into the grain. The bottom line is make sure those gouges are razor sharp – it will make life much easier!
The acanthus leaf part of it is similar to others that I have carved, but since it is scrolling and twisting, it does not have the typical “eyes” and “pipes” because these are actually on the other side of the leaf (not seen). Tricky, eh?
It just dawned on me about the concept of the “other side” of the leaf. I jumped up to check out my acanthus growing in the kitchen to help me visualize this. Thanks for pointing this out.