For this post, I wanted to try something a little different. I have been caught up in a rabbit hole on YouTube, watching wood carving videos. Some of my favorites are by a creator named BM Sculptures. His signature style is to combine the wood with a clear epoxy resin and carve an animal out of this mixture.

A favorite of mine is this bear as at the end of the video he takes some time to create a small salmon out of wood to place in the bear’s mouth which really elevates an incredible piece. As with a lot of professionals showing off their talents, they do it in such a seamless and flawless way that makes the video think, you know I think I could do that! And I was beginning to develop some of those feeling while watching these videos. Now I am not going to sit here and claim that my first piece would look like this or even be a large scale build but I did have the inspiration I needed to give it a try! I do also appreciate how BM Sculptures is very transparent in his video, showing mistakes and failures along with beautiful finished products, and he is frequently asking for advice from views. I think that also lend credence to the feeling that anyone can give this a try if they are willing to put in the time!

Now that I had my inspiration, I needed to find my design. I wanted to continue with the animal theme as I figured this was a pretty popular item that I would be able to find a fair amount of tutorials about, and I just thought it would be fun to have an animal carving! Initially, I was thinking about carving a wolf as they are one of my favorite animals, however, I decided that they might have a few too many intricacies for my first attempt, and decided I would follow the lead of my inspiration and crave a bear.

Before we dive too much more into the design I want to spend some time distinguishing between dremel carving and whittling. A dremel is a power to used for cutting, carving, sanding, and polishing, either wood or metal.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/power-tools/rotary-tools/71188-dremel-3000-variable-speed-rotary-tool?item=17J1710

The process of whittling, involves a knife, most often specialized knives of different sizes, to create a sculpture out of wood.

https://beavercrafttools.com/blogs/ideas-inspiration-carve-hacks/suitable-whittling-projects-for-beginners-everyone-will-succeed

For this project I wanted to try my hands at dremel carving. With my design and material all set it was time I found a tutorial video. After a bit if searching I came across a video by Log’s Carving Club which had exactly what I was looking for!

In the video he uses hardwood as it is easier to carve stays together better. Unfortunately, I have to drive out of town to to acquire the hardwood that desired and I was unable to do that in time for this post. However, I tried anyways with some pieces of scrap wood I had around the shop. This proved to be difficult to work with as the wood kept splintering and messing up the design. I had to call it on attempts as I was running out of wood that fit the size I needed. It was good practice with the dremel however, so I am feeling a little more confident with that! I am excited to try again in the coming weeks when I am able to get my hands on some hardwood.

Thanks for reading my post!

Until next time!