[Woodcarver] Carving Site CHAT

[Watson Family]

At 01:59 PM 4/09/04, you wrote:
>Thanks for the great pictures.
>Sylda Nichols

  Not being a man of many words Sylda, I usually answer questions with yes 
or no but I don,t think I would get away with that here.
You asked about tools. I will use what ever does the job. I prefer malet 
and chisel but have used everything including chainsaws.
Now the only wax models I make are for casting in bronze. These are made by 
pouring wax into a rubber mould that I have made from a wooden original. I 
sometimes make a plastasine model but very rarely. If I want to solve a 
problem I am more likely to rough out a model in jelutong as wood is my medium.
I don't think I have a favourite wood, but I do prefer different woods for 
different types of carvings.
Among the pictures on the web page there is Lime, Boxwood, mulga, Jarrah, 
Jam a lot of them native Australian timbers.. Depending on where you live 
you would have different woods available. I do prefer the harder woods for 
their ability to hold fine detail which is why I work mainly with mallet.
My standard answer at shows for the question "how long did it take?" is 
50years. That is about how long it has taken me to learn. But to you 
question I would say that the longest time spent on a carving shown on the 
web would be for my prize winning one and that took three months carving in 
spare moments. Probably about 100hours.
On the skateboarder I wil just keep going until it is finished. There is a 
good chance of money at the end so I will be consientious and put in 
regular hours.
Now don't let any of this put you off. Just remember how long it took you 
to walk, and take one step at a time and most of all have fun doing it.

Peter


Woodcarvings and Wildlife Sculptures
http://www.watsonwoodcarver.com