Carving a simple Wood Spirit

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SOAR

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 21, 2007
2,031
8
48
cheshire
As I was asked to do a tutorial I thought I would give it a go, now I have not carved many of these before so I'm no expert but this is how I carve them.
I used a small piece of Ash about 3cm wide, so the detail is never going to be as good as a large carving.

The tools I have been using are cheap detail carving tools like these you can get them from Ebay I think I got these a few years ago for a pound.

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I start off by carving out the size and shape of the face with the 6mm gouge.

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When I am happy with the face size I remove the bark leaving the nose in bark.

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I leave the bark on the nose as a guide, you can use pencil to mark out your face details if you want or you can just do the whole carving by eye. For the next bit I use a pen or pencil to mark out details of the eye sockets and the moustache.
 
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SOAR

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 21, 2007
2,031
8
48
cheshire
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Here you can see where the top of the eye sockets are and the shape of the moustache marked out in pencil.

Now I start to carve out the eye sockets using the 6mm gouge, to determine the depth of the eye sockets you have to imagine how big your spirits nose will be.

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When your happy with the eye sockets.

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You can then remove any wood around the face to give the moustache, beard, and nose the shape and depth you want.

To remove the bark from the beard I use the 7mm straight bevel.

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SOAR

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 21, 2007
2,031
8
48
cheshire
Now at this stage when your happy with with your spirits face and beard you can start to add detail, I use the v shaped tool to carve out an outline around the beard

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As this is only a small simple carving I am not too bothered with the eye detail so I use a 4mm gouge tho carve out the eyes

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Now you can start of by adding the hair, eye brows and other details to your wood spirit.

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Now that its taking shape you can refine any other details or re shape any part of the face if your not happy with it.

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SOAR

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 21, 2007
2,031
8
48
cheshire
At this stage I am quite happy with it and have an idea as to what this little spirit will become, so I start to carve the top and bottom of the spirit with the knife.

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The idea I had for this little fellow now I'm happy with him was to soak him in scented oil add some elastic.

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And turn him into a air freshner for the van at work, now he can watch over me all day.

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Melonfish

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 8, 2009
2,460
1
Warrington, UK
ooh i reckon i know what i'll be doing tomorrow morning and prolly most of this week.
any particular wood good for giving this a go?
 
Dec 29, 2010
43
0
Scotland
Wow this is fantastic!..
I whittled a mother earth type goddess statue a few years ago and loved working with the wood and watching her take shape.
it was from a piece of silver birch I picked up on a walk, which just kind of "spoke" to me.
I want to get started on one of the ones you've shown right now :p
I just used a sharp knife for the statue I made, but these little tools look great and much safer to be using with the kids hanging around watching.
will have a look on ebay for some.
thanks for posting this :)
 

SOAR

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 21, 2007
2,031
8
48
cheshire
Thanks guys, I look forward to seeing some of your carvings.
 

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