Stick to Sculpture – Wooden Tiki

This week’s Learning project post is a pretty cool one I think. For this weeks carve I decided to use my  sharpened knives to create this wooden tiki. To do this I used a stick I had in my backyard. I have had it inside and out of snow for a little while now and it should be dry enough that it is ready to carve. Also, If you read my last learning project post you would know that I sharpened my knives! You would also know that I was waiting on a leather strop to come in and lucky for me it has! Now I am able to keep the edge of my knives razor sharp while carving. I haven’t had a chance to use my knives in a full carve yet so this was a great test.

What I found cool about this video is that I did not look for it. What I mean by that is it was already recommended on my YouTube before I went to look for something to carve. My algorithm is recognizing that I watch A LOT of carving videos so its showing me some it thinks I would like. And I loved this one! The video is by the user Charly Brunet Sculpture and it is included right here:

I really like the look of the carve and the thick bold outlines made it very easy to see where the cuts were going to be. Although there is no speaking in this video I still found it easy to learn from. At this point in my Learning Project I find myself recognizing the same cuts on different projects. Since I have experience on other projects I could recognize and identify the cuts that were being made without the video explicitly saying so. Now, If I was just beginning my learning project journey I would have found this video difficult as it doesn’t explain why this is happening or give little tips and tricks on how to make it easier. I think this is proof of my increased skill and knowledge so far!

The stick I used was definitely much skinnier than the one used in the video, but I really did not have much option unfortunately. I have one piece of basswood left from the kit that I bought at the start of the Learning Project and it does not have a gooI will use that next week in the final post! Any of the soft basswood that I found online would not get shipped in time for it to be useable for this project, so I’m making due with the resources I have. Despite the skinny stick, I was very comfortable while carving this project. The combination of softer wood of the stick and the sharper knives from last weeks post made the carve go very smooth. This carve was not overly difficult, but enough of a challenge to work on certain things that I struggle with, like the nose. Overall I am happy with how this one turned out. It was a fun task and a nice one to sit down and take my min off other things and complete. I compiled all my work into a video here, I hope you enjoy!