My first ivy sculpture is finished!
Well, sculpture is a bit of a misnomer, as I didn't exactly carve this out of a solid block of wood, no matter how many people I have told just that. Nature did most of the sculpting.
What I did do is find a nice, big, old piece of ivy, strip off the bark and sapwood, some sawing, milling, gouging, and filing, and then a lot of sanding. A lot. Next, I aligned and flattened the bottom bits so it can stand independently.
Finally, yesterday, I applied beeswax, for protection and a modest shine, and there it was, a beautiful, um, ornament:
It stands 72cm (2'4") tall and serves no practical purpose I can think of, but it is very decorative and I love looking at it. Really chuffed with the result, I am. Yes.
I'm now working on a second piece, but it will be a while before it is finished. Especially the manual sanding (twice) of all the twists and corners takes a lot of time, and the skin on some of my fingertips is now so thin I can't unlock my phone with my fingerprint anymore.
Still, I am going to do some more sanding now, and let my voting power recover at the same time. So efficient.
Hmm, you might have just found the secret all scofflaw's have been searching for. Want to rid self of any 'imprinting' while up to no good? Just peel and sand an Ivy Tower.
Turned out gorgeous. I'm on the look here, but as I noted before, good luck, since your ivy is older than most of our trees. Artists large sigh.
Hm. Maybe I should go out and nick something.
The pieces I used are about 35 to 40 years old; I counted the growth rings. I don't know how many years the sapwood layer would have added, as it is gone.
Looks good. It gets my imagination going. I see lots of legs and bodies and arms etc. What a psychiatrist would infer from that, I don't know :-)
I see the same things, and more, so there's nothing wrong with you, unless the same is wrong with me, which would be too great a coincidence.
That's really beautiful @ocrdu. Who would have thought that ivy would look like that after being sculpted. I can see why you feel proud. Great job! 😊
Thanks! What is left of the skin on my right index finger now shows a strange craquelure from sanding too much, but the result is well worth it.
Well now I'm going to have to look up was craquelure means @ocrdu. it's amazing what you can learn on Steemit. 😂
Small cracks in a dry surface like old paintings sometimes have.
wow, I love it!!! As you know, I love to work with wood and this piece reminds me the word "connection", great! Well done!
Thank you!
"Family", "bodies", and "connection" are now the associations I have heard from people. Maybe I should give it a name. "Sore fingers" perhaps 8-).
Very pleasing to the eye but what do you do with it. Need a place to display it but where?
My living room will do nicely 8-).
Congratulations @ocrdu! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPthat's some decent work 👌
Thank you!
Nice sculpture :)
Thank you.
Very cool looking indeed. Well done!
Thank you!