HOW TO MAKE A WEDDING CARVING

THE BLUE PRINT

The first stage in any carving is comming up with an idea of what you want. On the Wedding Carvings I make I take in consideration the couples first name, and the date of their union. I also add at least two hearts and flowers and a ribbon with the word "Forever" on it. Next I arrange everything so that it all fits together in a small package. The size of the wood I have to work with is always a factor in my design, because I can't do more than I have room for. Finely I may add other decorative things for the purpose of adding strength.

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TRANSFER THE DESIGN

I sketch out my design on paper first hand so that, I have more freedom to erase mistakes, change things etc. After I have come up with my design I use carbon paper and trace a copy of my blue print (never use the original) onto my chosen piece of wood. I use a copy of my design rather than the original because it is easier to see were I've been if I trace over a copy rather than over what I have already drawn.

On my first Wedding Carving I negelected to draw my design to scale. Because of this I had to re draw the design onto the wood. It would have been much easier to have drawn it to scale then to have used carbon paper to transfer the picture onto the wood. Life is full of learning experiences.

REMOVE EXCESS WOOD

After the design has been sucessfully transferred to the wood it is now time to use a saw and cut out the basic shape of the carving. At this point the carving can now begin.

Continuing to remove the excess wood we start by carving or removing the deepest part of the design first. We start with the deepest parts first so that we will not cut away our design. As we move along we choose the next lowest spots to remove.

At this point I am finished with the carving. I have removed all the excess wood and shaped the flowers, the leaves and extended the words. I have also sanded and added detail where needed.

Here I show the back of the carving. On most of my carvings I carve a hole in which to hang it on the wall. Sometimes I also cut slot for magnets so it can be hung on the refrigerator. Too many times things hung on the fridge get broke, so I decided no more magnets for wedding carvings. Along with the hole I always sign with my initials, EJS and put the date in which I completed the carving. The last thing to do is to put a protective coat over the piece like varnish, linseed oil, or as in this case polyurathane.

Now that you know the steps to take to plan, start and complete a carving. I hope you have as much fun as I do when I undertake a project. All these steps work for whatever carving project you undertake. The main ingredients in any project is an imagination and patience.

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