This symmetrical flower shows how to carve overlapping petals and techniques in carving in the correct grain direction to achieve controlled carving cuts.
Click on the links below to view a printable PDF template of the Simple Flower, list of gouges used in this lesson, and photo of the finished carving.
Thank you, Mary, for very helpful videos. They are the most detailed and understandable videos on carving that I have seen.
Two questions. First, do you ever glue your pattern on the wood with rubber cement? If not, why not?
Second, I have made a carving “peg board” so that I can clamp the board to my bench (or clamp it in the vise) and fasten the carving blank to the board with wooden wedges so that the blank can be repositioned easily. Would you like for me to send you photos of that?
Many thanks.
Grace and peace,
Ed Womack, Cottonwood, AZ
Hi Ed,
Thanks! I’m glad you are enjoying the lessons.
I have not tried using rubber cement, but will try it for future projects. My guess is that it will leave a sticky residue on the back of the carving. The double-sided golf grip tape has worked great for holding tightly, releasing easily with Lacquer thinner, and not needing any clean-up.
I have several “peg boards” but have found that the carving can slip out of the pegs if you put the pressure in the wrong direction or are not paying attention. By clamping it solidly, I don’t need to be concerned about the wood moving or shifting and can carve in any direction. I imagine if you become accustomed to shifting and rotating your carving to only cut against the pegs, that would not be a problem, but I never was able to get used to that method. This would be a good forum topic.
Ed: If the holes can be hidden later, an obvious choice is to run a few screws through a piece of wood under the carving to join that and the carving. Or, a few dollops of hot glue may do real well. I have found the hot glue to be incredibly tough and easy to remove.
Thank you Mary for these lessons. Wish I had found this before I started carving. I bought basswood and a book. With hand gouges. Or palm ones. Only started three weeks ago. Two weeks of stitch’s in one finger. Happy it’s my left hand. Lol. But now I’m scared of the small gouges. But don’t want to stop. So I will buy the right stuff and do it your way. So thank you very much. Also a side note. Is there a way to put closed captioning on your videos? Your voice and speech is very clear. But once in a while I have to replay it just because I am used to having the words from YouTube. Lol.
Hi Kelly,
Welcome to the wonderful world of carving! I will certainly look into the closed captioning. There have been a few requests for that.
Kelly: I just got hooked up with this carving stuff, so I hope you have not already bled to death. There are very supple, knitted-like Kevlar gloves that I will try on my left hand just for the nicks that may come along.; in the beginning, anyway. I have been on the wrong end of my straight wood chisels after hitting them w/ an 8K grid diamond stone, and it only takes the slightest brush against them and you red the place up. I use those gloves when cleaning game, with a latex glove over top even, and they are not terribly cumbersome; probably less than a big old bandaid!
Mary, thanks so much for the videos. I am using these to learn my final career. I appreciate you sharing your experience, thoughts and lessons learned while teaching how to carve. I did leather tooling many years ago and really enjoyed the finished work. I see many common elements between leather tooling and wood carving. I bought the starter kit and have enjoyed using the tools with the lessons.
Hi Kevin,
I’m so glad you are enjoying woodcarving! Leather tooling is very similar to woodcarving, in that we often use the same tricks to showing 3-dimension in extremely shallow depth. Have fun!
MARY August 12,2018 Thank you so much for these lessons ; So far I have been very impressed with the way you Instruct your students,you are a great teacher, I’m an old dude and it’s easy for me to understand so far ; by the way I am beginner student. I have always liked to work with wood; I use to carve some when I was about 15 ;but that’s been many years ago.I am looking forward to getting my tools and getting into actual carving. again thank you for being here for all of us students! Gene Parrish
Thank you! I’m so glad you are enjoying the lessons!
Great video Mary.
I appreciate you putting together this free video series. I’m learning a lot, and watching these videos is good for my blood pressure. Your presentation is a nice combination of Bob Ross, Paul Sellers and Mr Rogers (“Won’t you be my neighbor”). I like your style!
Hopefully I will get the chance to take a class one day soon.
Best wishes and continued success,
Dan
You made me smile all day :)) Thank you! I am honored to be grouped among those greats!
Thank you Mary for sharing your free lessons. I carved my first flower last night and had a great time following your instructions. I look forward to continue with my new hobby. Woodworking has been my passion for many years now, I would like to add details to my projects in the future,
Only cut myself once last night so it was a good night,
That’s great! And it’s my pleasure! Keep the bandaids close 🙂
We found the template for the Craving a Basic Flower, but we didn’t see the written instructions. Where could we find the written instructions, they are very helpful when we are in the shop as a reference after watching the video. Thanks, Patti & Bob
Ooops. Sorry about that. There is actually a set of instructions from an earlier lesson called “Carving a Simple Flower”, which is also very similar here: https://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/2012/06/28/carving-a-simple-flower/
Hope this helps. I’ll adjust the text on that.
I was typing and it went somewhere, anyway thanks for the detail instruction it sure move me along, I have been making cabinets for about 8 years and the grain still give me a hard time. your video help keep me straid good job, keep it up i am really loving this.
I keep practicing and find that I am making good progress. One difficulty I am having is that some of the v-groove cuts require the tool to be angled very steeply to get through the grain, and sometimes very shallowly, both of which may be the vertical grain direction. Is there a good way to compensate for this “deeper digging”? I am using basswood, which does have some “cathedral” figure in it.
Hi Lindsey,
If you need to go very deep with the v-chisel, I often take 2 passes to achieve the full depth. The more you carve, the more comfortable you will get with how this very important tool is used. Practice, practice, practice!
Hi Mary, do you have a good way to gauge how deep you’re going with the downward cuts defining the edges of the flower and the cuts to remove background? I seem to be going through all the steps at least twice until it seems like the design is deep enough, but I’m really just shooting from the hip. I know you mentioned around 3/16 inch in the video, but it’s hard for me to picture that. Thanks!
Hi Dave,
This type of thing really comes more easily with more experience with carving. You will begin to determine what the desired depth is based on what your end goal is. And yes, sometimes it takes 2 or 3 times to determine this. It can be a bit deceiving how deep I carve on the video because of the close-up. But as a “general” depth to relief carving, a v-cut usually brings it 1/8 to 3/16 inch, because anything deeper than that the 6mm v-chisel will go under the wood.
Thanks so much for these lessons, I’m working my way through the basics and will dive in deeper once I get there. I do have a question. How do you get the petals smooth without sanding it? Im wondering if I have a gouge that wasn’t curved enough, I’m using the flex cut palm gauges. I keep getting the fuzz in hard to reach corners too that the toothpick can’t get rid of. Thanks for any help I really appreciate these online classes!
Hi Katie,
Welcome! You’re not alone! I think the “fuzzies” are the most challenging part of carving – especially for beginners. First of all, the nature of basswood, being as soft as it is, has a tendency to get fuzzies for several reasons – maybe a tool is not quite sharp enough and it splits the wood rather than cutting it. Maybe the cuts are not very solid and are more hesitant, so the wood is not fully cut? Sometimes it might take 2 or 3 cuts to get the cut, where after some experience the same area can be cut with one, solid cut.
Smoothing the surfaces really just takes experience, sharp tools, and a gouge that fits the curve as closely as possible. And what’s wrong with a few gouge marks?? It makes it look authentically hand carved 🙂
I hope this helps!
Thanks Mary for getting me started in wood carving. I have bought your suggested starter tools and am working on the simple flower and following your video. So far it is working well. Looking forward to the next free lesson. A question I have in regard to membership. If I choose the monthly option and it says recurring, does this mean there is no way out, or is it possible to cancel anytime? Your are great!
Hi Dean,
Thanks for joining! The monthly membership is an automatic recurring payment (like Netflix) but can be cancelled at any time.
I was typing a comment and it went somewhere… Thanks for these beginner lessons, they are well done and I look forward to trying more lessons in the future. At present I am repeating these beginning lessons until these fundamentals are second nature (like that donut exercise), the basic flower has been the most encouraging since the improvement was so apparent after a few attempts ( and it impressed my wife). My biggest problem now is chisel technique but hopefully that will improve with practice. One of my favorite parts in your lessons so far has been your highlighting the various angles of attack with the chisels to achieve different results and the occasional “corrective cuts” for those special “moments”(these have been invaluable).
Thanks again for these lessons, Larry Kirk
Hi Larry,
I’m glad you are enjoying the lessons! It’s wonderful to hear great feedback!
Thanks so much Mary for the free lessons and for motivating me to start wood carving. I carved the basic flower today (you make it look so easy) into pine and while my version is very rough and full of mishaps, it was great to get a feel for the grain and how it affects the carving. It was also great practice carving with my non-favoured hand.
I’d previously bought some cheap gouges to start and even after a massive amount of sharpening they just wouldn’t go into the wood. So I ended up buying a more expensive set and only took about an hour of sharpening (your videos on sharpening were very much appreciated) and it made such a difference. I’ve been watching your videos over & over for the last few weeks and your tips and lessons have been so helpful The relaxed way you explain everything is so easy to watch – you remind me so much of my friend (she’s originally from Nebraska)!
I’m aiming to be able to eventually carve my own cookie molds (it’s so costly to keep buying them in $US & getting them shipped to Australia from overseas).
I note that a lot of your videos are with relief carving. I’m also planning to try carving deeper molds (for speculaas) – rather than pressing the mold into the dough, the dough is rolled into the mold and knocked out. What is the best way to prepare the wood for use after carving, is it best to sand the finished product?
Thanks again for your kindness in offering free lessons.
Hi Lorraine,
Thank you and welcome! I’m glad you are enjoying the lessons. I have several lessons available as a premium member on carving different cookie mold designs. Have fun!
Hi Mary, so if I’m using a v chisel to carve a “snaked” line or groove down the length of a board, like wavy hair. One side of the “V” is always going to be cutting against the grain with the other side going with the grain. Turing around and going the other direction won’t solve the problem. Since there are numerous lines close together, Is there a process that minimizes the against the grain pressure? I’ve only been able to cut a very shallow line with the v tool first and when going deeper, try to put pressure on the “with the grain” side of the chisel. There must be a better way (I hope)
Hi Pat,
The process you mentioned is correct. Make the initial cut down the wood where one side cuts with the grain, and one side cuts against the grain. If the tool is sharp enough, you should not have any issue with the wood snagging. The deeper the cut, the more likely the tool will snag on the side going against the grain. Make the initial cut shallow. Make an additional cut a little deeper only putting the pressure on the side of the tool that cuts with the grain. Make another cut reversing direction, only putting pressure on the side that cuts with the grain. That really is the best process of preventing snags.