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Shell Fragment Series #2
Rick Crawford

Shell Fragment Series #2

11"H x 7.5"W x 1.75"D. Ambrosia maple, turned, carved, textured, pierced. Stand is merante, paint, brass rod. This is a further exploration into the textural inspirations that I'm deriving from my beachcombing findings. This particular piece is from a fragment of a hard clam, commonly found on beaches in northeast Florida. I held off on making this piece until returning from Hartford, because I wanted input on the first one which I had in the IG. I'm especially grateful to Marilyn Campbell, who gave me an indepth criticism of that piece, and also to Ed Kelle, who gave me the knowledge needed to bring out what I saw in this piece. This piece may or may not be finished. I'm thinking of bleaching the maple, also leaning towards a slightly bigger stand. As such, I would greatly appreciate all comments and criticisms.
I didn't pay attention when posting this, but the real title is Shell Fragment Series #2.

Richard, thanks for your comments. I turned a larger disk, cut it into segments to be carved, then carved, pierced and textured them. I use a Ryobi DC500 reciprocating carver with Flexcut bits, and a Dremel with flexshaft, using mostly carbide burrs of various sizes and profiles.
 
I think a larger base would detract from the piece. If anything, I would turn the base so that the sides curved (reducing its mass without shrinking the footprint) in a complementary fashion to the piece.

Ed
 
Ed just stole my advice. The piece is beautiful, but the base doesn't look like it belongs to the main piece. Perhaps something with less straight lines. Excellent work, Rick.
Don L.
 
Amazingly, a piece of wood which looks so much of what I know as a piece of "nature textured" shell. Terrific.
 
Many thanks to all for commenting!

Ed and Don, I'll be making a slightly larger base, but with curved lines to echo the curves of the piece. As is, the piece is a bit tippy, and a slight increase in size should control that.

Hal, most of my recent work revolves around making wood look like something else...gotta love the fraud.
 
Rick Like I said on Wow this is fantastic texture
How about a verdigris or iron rust effect on the base
 
Hi Terry, I think ferrous oxide would be cool on the base, as it would also reflect the seashore/found object environment. Verdigris would work as well, but I'm exceptionally fond of the colors in ferrous oxide. I will cobble together a textured/carved base with patinas added to see how it looks, will post when happy with it.
Smiles,
Rick
 

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