Adding carvings

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Both sides of the leaf can match ,or be slightly different , but the lines will look best at the stem if they are spaced uniformly ,either symetrical or alternating. From there it's your call.
   I sobered up enough to finish off the Mermaid. Wound up using the dremel very little any way , as it leaves a lot of cleanup work with the wood. There are places it comes in handy though. mostly I finished up the hair with a small gouge and  the veining tool, then switched over to a modified dental scraper (now a tiny stainless chisel) to finish the rest . There is still a fair bit of fussing and sanding ,but that pretty much concludes the carving portion.
  From here it will get some primer/sealer an a good sanding to fill the pores and prep for paint.I will be adding an arrow strike  in Ivory , mother of pearl or abalone ,but I will do a separate build along for that.  If you think you might like to add some carvings to your products you can start very simple with very few tools . maybe a little oak leaf or the like. There are lots simple line drawing pics on google of any subject you could imagine if you are stumped for an idea.
   You could simply do an incised  carving or chip carving , that can really dress things up. You only need a knife for that. If I have time , I'll try to post some quick simple patterns you could try just to get your feet wet! hope you enjoyed!

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I thought this was done , but in continuing to work on the bow, I keep thinking of things that I should include.
   I put the first coat of primer on  today and realised that if you don't finish a carving correctly you can quickly bugger up a lot of hard work. When priming, you want to use a small crappy paint brush  with stiff  bristles. The kind you would use for glue  or give to the kids because it's useless as a paint brush.   The reason for this is because you want to work every small piece individually and get the primer into those tight details without getting any globs or build up. After the first coat of primer, you can see any of the areas that may need more work but were hard to spot because of the grain of the wood.this coat will also fill the pores and  stiffen the fibres .Once sanded you should have a nice smooth surface, but there might be patches with no primer where extra effort was needed. Prime again with another light coat and sand when dry with extra fine sandpaper ,just enough to smooth it.
     While I was waiting for the primer to dry , I went ahead and made the inlay for the arrow pass. I know, I know, ......I said it would be a separate post but I got thinking " this is a simple type of carving that woud be good to start with"   This will be  an inlaid piece of Abalone  but the same technique could be applied directly to the wood. It is an incised carving. Basically you just cut the outlines of your carving like you would draw it with a pencil, adding depth by adjusting the shape of line and adding shading lines. This is completely flat of course , but with the curve of the scales , it gives it some dimension. Too much detail won't show up on shell and it ruins the iridescent quality , but for a good example of adding depth to a 2D carving, look up "Engravings on custom firearms" .

[Ifrit617]

I don't think I could draw that let alone carve it! Incredible!

Jon

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With the primer dry, you can see the areas that need more work quite clearly. Everything is white ,with no grain to distort the view. Her left arm looked quite bulky and all of her facial features  where not defined yet. A little minor clean up here and there, and she's ready for another coat of primer. And yes, ....I accentuated her bossom.

[Gus]

You have my full attention Sir!

Thank You for doing this Build Along.

-gus

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Well It's been a couple of days . Lets get caught up shall we?
  After cleaning up the carvings  , priming,.... and cleaning up ........... and priming. I did a little  dye job on the limbs. I used a water based aniline dye  in two colours faded into one another. Going with the whole theme thing ,I wanted it to appear that the carvings where in the dark recesses of the ocean , so the slightly muted colours that I plan on using for the carvings themselves won't get lost, but at the same time not appear garish or cartoon like.
     I also inlet the arrow shelf and glued it in place. I will be putting a leather rest on the shelf so I made sure the inlay woulb be high enough so as not to be obscured .I also  covered it with masking tape before gluing. It makes the clean up far easier. The inlay is beveled towards the back  for a snug fit. it also makes it easier to get that fit in the first place, as the deeper you excavate, the more snug it becomes allowing you to just trim the tiny bits that are out of place a little at a time. Be sure to rough up the back of "hard inlays" ( shell , bone, metal, ivory) with a piece of course sandpaper, to give the glue some bite. I think the pics are pretty self explanatory.

   Correction: I have been calling a tool by an incorrect name, and I wish to rectify at this time. The "V" shaped carving tool is actually called a parting tool, not a veining tool. ( it's been a long time since I've learned about carving and I don't get a chance to do it as often as I'd like) . A Veining tool is a small gouge used  live the parting tool , only it makes a round bottomed hole. My appologies.

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Check your fit and go slowly.It can be difficult to inlay on open grained woods like oak, as the soft open grain wants to crumble away. I'm not worried in this case as the Epoxy will fill any voids and later be painted.  I must also remind myself that the discrepancies look worse than they are  when  looking at an object the size of  my baby finger tip , from a few inches away.

Enough excuses! lets look at more pictures

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I use 2 part ,5 min. epoxy.  Check your local dollar store, they often have name brand glues for a fifth of the price.  I line the excavation with a thin layer of glue. just enough that you get a small amount of sqeeze out. I then squeegie it flush with popsicle stick, and let it dry.
   Remove any excess glue with a sharp chisel within a few hours before the epoxy gets too hard. Prime it to assure good paint adhesion, and smooth the transition from wood to inlay.

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   Her you can see the stiff brush i used for the primer. Do small sections at a time, and be sparing with the primer. If it's water based ,it will raise the grain if you slop it on ,and you will loose the detail with it gobbing up in the corners.
      Here you can see the dye job and how I will use the black paint to blend in with the dye. The Bloodwood tip overlays were carefully finished with a couple of coats of poly before dying , then the limbs were sealed with a couple of coats of spray on poly .The whole bow will be topcoated after the carvings are painted.
       Try to be as careful as you can not to paint the carving at this point. We don't want to "build up" paint causing ridges  where we don't want them . Having said that, it is more important to get right up to it with good coverage and a smooth finish with no brush strokes on the background. the few area's that got smudged will be taken care of with the subsequent paint.

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Another coat of black should do it ,then on to the carvings.

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 After seing how the black makes the white stand out, like a cameo, I mahe have inspiration for future projects

[JackCrafty]

Beautiful!! 

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   Thanks, Patrick. I like to mix things up to keep from getting bored . The next will likely be pretty plain Jane. Maybe a Neolithic European Elm   from a small diameter tree . And Like yourself ,I enjoy sharing the knowledge. I know I've said it before but,Thank you, for what you are doing with the flint knapping. Great stuff

[JackCrafty]

A Neolithic European elm sounds fantastic!     I'll be watching...

And I'm going to have to do some carving.  I can't let you have all the fun.

[Crogacht]

that blue/black is amazing... well, along with the rest of it of course