Oak Leaves and Acorns
In September 2019 when my Mam saw a carving I had done of the maple leaves, she asked if I could do something similar and suggested fern leaves. I put a design together with fern leaves, grasses, bluebells and a little field mouse with the idea of carving it on a piece of sycamore turning blank.
I had been busy running up to Christmas in completing ‘Philly’s Fist’ and had another carving on the go for my daughter ‘Forward Thinking’. This is when my Mam changed her mind and asked for Acorns and Oak leaves instead. My first design was for a tealight that I was to carve and my brother to do the electrics inside. I had already turned the shape of an acorn and was carving the oak leaves around the outside when a fateful attempt to do too much made it collapsed in on itself.
I had finished carving Philly’s Fist by this time and was just in the process of polishing it, but that left me with a month to Christmas and 2 carvings to complete before Santa came. My daughter’s carving was having similar problems with arms falling off and I was on to my third attempt.
When all else fails I went to my old favourite place to find help… Pinterest… and found a picture from an unknown source that had been downloaded many times.
There is nothing like a lifesaving helping hand from an old friend!! Pinterest. Although it’s not an exact copy I thank the original designer for saving my Mams Christmas present. I carved it on an oak turning blank and the undercutting of the branches was tricky to do without breaking anything. I polished it with Danish oil to give it the lustre it needed and the background is stippled and covered in a lime/ash wash before lightly sanding it off to help with the differentiation between background and foreground.
I can tell you it was received with great appreciation and is now placed on the wall next above the fireplace opposite to the Treble Clef Love Spoon.
