Inlaid Lily Pad Leaf
I’m always looking for new(to me) ideas and I had a lime round about 18” square which was too thin to carve without carving the end grain. I have been trying to develop myself in doing some larger carvings and had bought an Arbortech Carver. With this, I hollowed out the centre and shaped the top and bottom. The original idea was to place the Dragonfly on a lily pad in the front garden, but size and practicalities dictated otherwise. So I had a lily pad that I wasn’t sure what to do with?? EREEKA!! I had messed with inlay work on other carvings so I thought it might work here.
After many trials of trying to get the copper to stick in the grooves and lots of small bits falling out as I sanded and scraped it, its turned out ok. I have to admit that the light green tinge is purely accidental as I use Brasso on the wood to try and clear the build-up of copper filings and glue that had built up on the wood as I sanded it. The project went on hold through COVID lockdown and the copper filing that were embedded in the wood oxidised turning green. I’m not sure the Brasso helped either, but some accidents in history have created great improvements. It was finished with an acrylic spray to help give it a clear shine.
This has encouraged me to continue with some larger carving projects.
Can you spot the copper stem that dropped out at the last minute? I’m not going to replace it as I would lose the will to live!