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What’s on your carving/embellishing bench?

Would love to see some progress photos, David! I'll learn with you :)
This was the first process for me. I’ll try to post some progress pictures, if I’m happy with it😁.
Need to clean up the bottom carving, define the flowers more, add a couple more flowers, and figure out what I want to do with the band around the middle. Pyro will take a while to complete.
 
Estimated completion date summer of ‘26😁. Still long ways to go. Have not completely decided on the band embellishment and if I will add color to the flowers and bottom half.

View attachment 82737
Really like your idea about “ dishing “ out the petals. Yeah stippling takes forever! Looking great ! An unfinished band is a good option also.
 
Estimated completion date summer of ‘26😁. Still long ways to go. Have not completely decided on the band embellishment and if I will add color to the flowers and bottom half.

View attachment 82737
Very nice! Love the form. I'll send you my address for shipping. I'm in no hurry...

I'd think carefully about the colors and the band in the middle. To me, the conundrum would be balancing the elegance of the black stippling/natural wood against what might look a bit too busy.

JKJ
 
Really like your idea about “ dishing “ out the petals. Yeah stippling takes forever! Looking great ! An unfinished band is a good option also.
Need to go back over the dishing out a little. Still not decided on the band embellishment, if I do anything to it, it won’t be much.
I thought about dishing out around the petals but now that I’ve done the stippling there is no way I’m going to do that and have to start the stippling over😁
 
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Very nice! Love the form. I'll send you my address for shipping. I'm in no hurry...

I'd think carefully about the colors and the band in the middle. To me, the conundrum would be balancing the elegance of the black stippling/natural wood against what might look a bit too busy.

JKJ
That’s what I’m trying to avoid. If I use color it would be very light and the band would also have very little embellishment. Since this is my first attempt at this type of carving and embellishment I want to take my time and make the right decision.
 
A lot of first with this one and it shows😁, but I’m getting close to being finished. I need to crisp up a few lines and some touch up. Tried texturing the band to see how it would look, okay I guess for my first attempt. Hand is still vibrating!
After spending most of the day with this I need to release some stress, have to turn a bowl for that😁!

1766431975282.jpeg
 
A lot of first with this one and it shows😁, but I’m getting close to being finished. I need to crisp up a few lines and some touch up. Tried texturing the band to see how it would look, okay I guess for my first attempt. Hand is still vibrating!
After spending most of the day with this I need to release some stress, have to turn a bowl for that😁!

View attachment 83150
That’s fantastic! Looking toward to the finish!
 
Japanese Maple, around 12" dia open flower. One of the tricky aspects of the maple is it's very soft, so as I hand finish it I have to handle it with kid gloves
 

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