Shadrach's Lamps

[Shadrach]

The artist in you doesn't like the colo(u)r and texture of the dead parts?

I love the colours; it's the dead wood parts I'm not happy with, texture and polish.

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you very much for the positive comments.
I took some more pictures in daylight. I'm not quite sure why. Trying to get myself to accept the piece in part I think.
It looks okay stood on my speaker in the house.
Anyway, I've got an interesting project starting. I'll forget about my dissatisfaction in a bit and be ranting on about the next.

 

[Shadrach]

I've been asked to make a sculpture. I'm going to make three. One is going to remain a secret until it's done. The other two I will post a bit as I go.
These are the pieces of wood I'll be making a mess of.
The first piece is cherry and I have an idea of what I want to do with it.
The second is Alzina and I started on it today and I'm already in trouble.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thank you very much for the positive comments.
I took some more pictures in daylight. I'm not quite sure why. Trying to get myself to accept the piece in part I think.
It looks okay stood on my speaker in the house.
Anyway, I've got an interesting project starting. I'll forget about my dissatisfaction in a bit and be ranting on about the next.
View attachment 2277637View attachment 2277638View attachment 2277639View attachment 2277640View attachment 2277642View attachment 2277644View attachment 2277645

I like it too. It has a lot to engage the eye.

 

[RoyalChick]

I've been asked to make a sculpture. I'm going to make three. One is going to remain a secret until it's done. The other two I will post a bit as I go.
These are the pieces of wood I'll be making a mess of.
The first piece is cherry and I have an idea of what I want to do with it.
The second is Alzina and I started on it today and I'm already in trouble.
View attachment 2279276View attachment 2279277View attachment 2279279View attachment 2279280View attachment 2279281

Exciting to be in at the start!

 

[bruceha2000]

The other two I will post a bit as I go.

 

[Shadrach]

Best laid plans of mice and men and all that.....
As I was saying...
I cleaned up one face of the cherry. The wood is so boring I almost fell asleep while working on it. It does work comparatively easily but there is no way I'm interested in making the type of sculpture suitable for the wood. It wants something geometric. It will hold sharp edges well and works well with a chisel. It's construction wood basically. Not at all what's wanted and not at all interesting to me atm. The other thing is the colour; there isn't any! It's back into storage for this.
See for yourselves.

Now some of you may have spotted that twisted bit of branch on the left. I have deliberately not shown much of it. Now that I know has got some colour in it! I've done some work on it and it could go either way. It could be another Adoration, or Arboc style piece. It's got some problems and could end up as firewood very quickly. I'll work on it in secret so you can't see if it goes horribly wrong.
The Alzina piece mentioned as a prospective sculpture is okay, but I'm looking for something a bit special for this person. I've got just the thing, but, I think it's going to need to be an illuminated sculpture.........a lamp in other words. I've done quite a bit of work on it and the shape, tapering outwards towards the base is ideal for a lit piece. I'm going to do it and give the person who may be interested the option of light or not. If they don't like it I have options.
This is the bit of wood. Not only has it got colour in there it's got pattern and texture. What I've got to try and do is make it tactile. I've had this bit of wood for a while and been wanting an excuse to work with it.

 

[Shadrach]

Bearing in mind the posts are usually a bit behind the current day this is where I've got to today. I know where I'm going with these two pieces now.
This will be called Mandolin.
There is a terrible mess to be sorted out at the back but if I can sort that then this is in with a shout. It has, as they say, potential.

This is going to be called Marble.
This is a heavy lump of wood and it's rock hard in places. I know exactly what I want to do with this now. The last picture shows the kind of style it will have when completed.

 

[Shadrach]

I mentioned yesterday that the back was a bit of a mess. Looks like I understated the case.
Here it is before I started to try to clean it up. Cleaning up involves carefully chipping away the crap with a hammer and chisel hoping to find solid wood in there. There was any. Just one big hole full of dead wood and rot.

I did something drastic. Normally a fault like I found condemns the piece to the burn pile. For some reason I think there is a nice looking sculpture in this piece somewhere.
I can't get into the back to clean it out properly so the only way was to separate the piece into two.
The next two pics are the stand part (not the base) and I've cut what will be the mandolin shape off.

This is what I found and it will be even bigger when the rough edges are taken out and all the crap dug out. But, the hole doesn't go to the front. There is a decent amount of solid wood there.

The fault on the front and the crack are fine. I can do something with them. Large holes in the back are not fine.

Fortunately I've got a piece that will do nicely that I cut off the end.

So now it's chip out the hole. Shape up a piece from the bit above. Glue it in the hole and put a couple of dowels in and glue the lot back together.
There are lots of cracks and they follow the curve of the wood. In the past a piece like this with the cracks on the curves has looked rather fetching imo.
This better look okay when I'm done, or I'll be having a tantrum!

 

[Shadrach]

This section is taking shape now. It's been rough sanded and the basic shape cut in. It's read y for the first application af slate paste which I'll do later so it can dry overnight.

It's got some nice curves and the cracks follow the shape well.

This is the disaster piece. I cut out the dead wood, shaped up an insert and glued it in.
I find usually when letting pieces of wood into a piece like this that it is much easier to adjust the hole it is to fit into, than the insert. I make the insert to the rough shape, place it on the work piece and scribe around with a sharp point. I cut around the scribe mark making sure the chiseled cuts a tiny bit deeper at the base of the cut than at the top. Once the glue is in a few whacks with a hammer spread the top edges of the hole while hopefully not at the bottom. If this isn't done and you are trying to get a light interference fit you are likely to create a wedge effect and split the wood.
I think this will be okay once it's dried and sanded back.