Finished fish

Thought I'd put a piccie up of Katie's finished wooden fish that she very skillfully made during the first 2 weeks of a 10 week family sculpture class.

She initially wanted to try and chisle the fish out of a block of wood, but the teacher suggested she use a crank saw to "cut" around the fish shape before chiselling the edges and body of the fish to give it some texture. Using the crank saw was quite difficult for her to start with as the blade was very delicate and snapped at one point. However, she quickly she got the hang of following the pencil lines and turning the saw around the bends of the body. The chiselling took up a lot of her time in the second session as the fish has a small split along its length and she didn't want to split the wood any further. Once all this was done she drew on scales, eyes and mouth with a pencil and then used a wood engraver to burn the design onto the wood. For a first piece of woodwork we all think it's brilliant.

Ben is in the middle of making a bowl using a square of pine wood, chiselling out the circular centre. He got on much better this week with the chiselling. It's amazing how the confidence soon comes the more you practise. Next week he'll be using the wood turner (which looked rather scary) to smooth the bowl shape.

I'm making a Victorian gargoyle from clay (using clay-crank which is clay with sand mixed in, seems much sturdier to work with) and have finished the main body, feet, face and tail. I need to tweek the face abit - it looks like an angry hog vs a hippo at the moment but I think just squishing it smaller will make it look more appealing (one hopes). Then I need to add sizeable wings to the body which I think will be quite tricky. Hoping it will be fired in the next couple of weeks. I'm really enjoying working with clay, finding it quite theraputic.

Photos of Ben's bowl and my gargoyle to follow once they're finished.

PS have decided to continue with my gardening blog - the link's at the side ("the plot").