Woodcrafter

Willow is not a good carving wood. People think it is as it's so soft. Also not great for long life.

Nice 1 Si wouldn't mind hooking into that I'd have a new pb.

Cheers I really appreciate the comments. The eyes are just teddy bear eyes you can buy them from eBay. All different sizes.

A quick practice before I carve a static stump commission in a couple of weeks time.

I personally carve to order. I only carve stock for shows/demos feedback is generally that my pieces are cheap so I up them. Never been haggled on a price. I've given discounts to multiple buys but not much. I'm Surrey area so price fairly high. As long as your carving decent timber and is well treated pieces stay in good shape for ages so I don't mind hanging onto them for a while. I do have a Facebook page and I just pop them on there. I really need to get a site built tho.

That's a great price and worth every penny way too many carvers selling stuff too cheap.

I'd start by carving some mushrooms and some stools etc. Then move on from there it's a good idea to watch some vids.

I just rotated it on my phone very nice!

Looks great! Have you any closer shots?

I'd say that's unlikely to comeback if it does potentially its unlikely to survive. Unfortunately euc holds too much water once it dries it splits open bad.

If your just carving I'd go for some light weight chaps.

These are my best pair.

I use a Stihl ms200 with canon dime tip carving bar. I personally believe that it is worth investing in power tools you should always be carving a little fatter when you start out. If it takes power tools to get it to how you want it to look without you making a mistake and you ending with the result you'd hoped for then it's all good. Once you've produced a few you will find that your getting closer and closer to the finished piece before you've picked up a power tool. I have 4" angle grinder arbotech mini grinder (similar to proton), dewalt die grinder with a long neck, power file, dremel with easy extension hand tool, a couple of battery drills and that's about it. Oh and a decent dust mask!!!

Really nice mate well done!

Hi yes there good starts I would make the owls head a little more rounded like Andrew said push the eyes further back. Also being a rustic carving your eye socket looks a bit to perfectly round I would push them back a bit use the tool and then soften the edges with a dremel to make them less machine like cut. The face was a good practice but perhaps use the bottom part of the log and carve it into some form of perch or branch like stand. I know what it's like when you start you have lots of things you want to try and do but you can't run before you walk make a few single pieces before attempting multiple carves on one piece. Anyway I hope that helps and keep going the more you carve the more you find form and it all comes much easier.