Radgast the Brown's house

[dervishcarving]

Ok, a bit of an obscure title but Radgast the Brown was one of the wizards in Tolkein lore. he was the slightly scruffy one who spoke to teh animals and i assumed to live in a bit of a ramshackle tower.

This was a tower i carved revently as part of a pair of carvings in Old Aberdeen. Lovely garden owned by a very posh lady. she wanted fairly restrained (yeh, like i can do that) but liked teh tower idea when i suggested it. The tree has a lot of lean and rot at the bottom (Hollow to 3 or 4 foot up at least) but is 19 foot high (yes, 19 foot!!! 3x bigger than what i have done before) so i had to not take away too much solid wood at the base or i would risk making it unstable. Meant the door was not quite where i wanted it and i couldnt do anythign to reduce the lean-effect but hey... it came out ok. owner was delighted and I just wish i had charged twice as much!

[David Humphries]

They're fantastic

 

Out of interest, as the pair possibly have a fairly long potential life span in there new form, do you know if the sculptures are to be inspected on some kind of cycle for stability ?

 

 

 

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[Gnome]

Some amount of work in that Dave.

 

Did you use a scaffold or are you cherry picking them these days. As usual given me a few good ideas there.

 

 

 

The second last picture does look like a big willy though

[dervishcarving]

Thanks chaps. We used scaffold but, if im honest, it was not really good enough for the job. It was all we had and so we made-do but i didnt feel comfortable with it. I dont like working on scaffold with a chainsaw, feels too 'wobbly' but maybe im just getting old

Cherry picker was an option but the ground is v sloped at teh base of the tree and i wasnt sure if it would be any safer. would have involved les work though dismantling the tower to move round teh tree again and again

As for your question David... I am not aware of any 'legal' requiremebnt to check any carving in private gardens BUt you have a good point. I pointed out to the owner that there is rot in the tree and so it coul dbecome unstable after 'soem time' but i have no idea how long. Ill mention it to her and her gardener next month and leave it up to them. me? im just a saw jockey with a little artistic flair, im not competent to judge if a tree is safe or not.

[dervishcarving]

oh, yes! lot of work. each 'stone' needs 12 cuts and then some 'weathering' My Harricane was very handy for this job, i could get a nice 'weathered stone' effect using it.

The biggest work though was removing the bark. I didnt have a ripping chain available so it took AGES to remove the bark all the way round that 19 foot! next time i will make sure i have a ripper. Anyone got any handy tips for removing bark quick and easy? getting it off this Elm, still alive, sap rising in the spring,.....it was a nightmare!

[David Humphries]

Cheers Dave.

 

No real legal issues beyond duty of care to anyone who visits the garden.

 

I'm interested as we have a couple of sculptures that we have reduced due to decay a few years after they were carved and we continue to monitor them.

 

Ours are in public areas with a higher footfall around them than the ones you have created.

 

But this has got me to thinking about how often these things are looked at, especially as they appear to be growing in popularity.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/55972-sculpture-management.html

 

 

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[dervishcarving]

very good point David and i will bear that in mind (no pun intended). I have only been caring 2 years now so none of my pieces are old enough to be at risk yet (teh stuff i did in year 1 were all pretty small)

[gobbypunk]

Hi Dervish I love the tower I like the way you have kept the contours of the tree going round I plan to do the same but mine will have crenalations on the top how long did tit take mine is 7/8 ft tall and I hope to get it done this week weather allowing I will work out how to put up pics so you can see my effort nice work dervish

Cheers Mark

[dervishcarving]

Cheers Mark

took 3 days to do this one. If i had thought to have a ripping saw it might have been a bit quicker but its a big job

[FriarsGorse]

Wow .... Super Smashing... I am sort of jealous cos I would so like to have a go at something like !!! Its really great !!!