Sunday 12 March 2017

It's got to be big

I honestly keep trying to make smaller things, but they just keep growing. Trees eh!


In the pan for boiling, and after boiling.






I'll leave this for several months now, before coming back to finish the surface.

Time to rive down the oak tree that I brought back from the woods the other week.
















This will become the drawer front to go in that hole there.




This is the bowl I started hollowing in the woods with the chainsaw and flat adze, otherwise I couldn't move it. It contains the heart of the main trunk running through both ends, so it might not work i.e. it may rip itself apart as it dries out. I am hoping giving it a long slow boil this will be prevented.

 
 As you can see, I am also keeping it filled with water overnight, in between carving. It's a big one.






In fact, any bigger and I will need a bigger pan.





With about 80 litres of water and a small fire it took about 6 hours to come to the boil. I kept stoking it for an hour or two and then left it overnight. I imagine it kept bubbling for another hour or so.


With only minimal cracking on the end I am hopeful.





So onwards with the other half of this section of trunk.













I think this one might be called the dragonfly bowl.