Dennis Hoshield Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Hello all .. Here's a project that I finally finished for my wife at 10pm on Mother's Day! I started it a month ago, but family health problems kept postponing work. The rose and bud are carved of whitetail deer (CORRECTED 5/12/11 - ELK antler) , and the 'greenery' is tinned copper foil and copper wire, then copper patina treated with copper sulfate (sulfide??) I actually wanted the dark patina. The copper was a completely different effect, but went over well. Thanks, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas M. Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Hi Dennis, That's really nice, whitetail deer and copper looks fine together. Great job. Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie K Posted May 11, 2011 Report Share Posted May 11, 2011 Dennis: Unusual concept and materials, I think it looks great! I glad she was pleased, can't imagine that she wouldn't be. Debbie K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted May 12, 2011 Report Share Posted May 12, 2011 I like this piece. It has inspired me to try some antler. What section of antler were the bud/rose carved from. I didn't notice any porous areas like I would expect to see in the center of the antler. What's the diameter of the rose? thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Hoshield Posted May 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2011 Hi, Izzy .. Antler is somewhat fun stuff to work with (really!) . It is usually pretty consistent and no grain to work against. Once you run into the pithy/porous areas, though (unless you have a use for that texture in your carving, of course) ... all bets are off. I lied .... it was not cut from whitetail deer .... (that's another crown I have WAITING to be cut .. probably another rose-in-the-waiting). The rose was from a 'waste' cut from this ELK crown carving. It was the circle cut-out for the rotating coin. As it wasn't too pithy/porous, it would have been a shame to just throw away, so I wondered what I could make of the shape. After staring at it for a while, a rose flower popped out at me, and I started carving. It is 1" in diameter, and 1/2" deep. It did get darker at the 'base' of the flower. I originally thought That could be the 'greenery' part of the flower, but then I decided to make the leaves and stem out of the copper, and ended up covering it up, anyway. The antler part of the bud is 3/4" long, and was just a scrap cut off from yet another project, but was, again , nice and white, with no pith. If you can get crowns, or antlers ... that still have a good chunk of the skull still attached (seemingly more common on whitetail antlers, than elk ), you are in luck. The skull end of the crown is almost always solid and white. The Pith usually doesn't start until the crown or further up. Tips of antlers are often good and solid as well, although usually not big enough for a good sized carving. I have yet to get a full Elk or moose antler, to actually see how pithy they are, and where it typically starts and stops. Good luck! Please post what you come up with! Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Barnhill Posted May 17, 2011 Report Share Posted May 17, 2011 Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing the photo's. I carve antler too and like the way it holds detail. I buy my antler from Moscow Hide & Fur in Idaho. They have a great selection and reasonable prices. http://www.hideandfur.com/?Google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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