Abstract Daisy, Final

With the change back to the school schedule, I must admit that I am not adjusting too well. What that means in terms of this page is that I end up carving in the middle of the night and sleeping when I should be updating. I am determined that this will change. So, with that in mind, I will try to fill in a bit verbally where this is lacking visually.

When I updated a couple days ago, this piece was very flat and angular. I was thinking that I could take some liberties with the rear of the daisy as it will likely be a shelf or wall piece. It didn’t finish out that way, on either point.

Overall, I think the most difficult part of carving this was removing the stone from between the petals. To get the points where the petals come together was...time-consuming, at best.

I sat with the daisy, as it was on last update, and thought about the possibilities within the limits of the stone and overall shape. It is, for all intent and purposes, a test piece, to determine if the creation of a realistic daisy is possible. Problem with that is that this daisy was made from a piece of scrap stone, as opposed to my choosing the stone specifically for the piece. Half of this stone is the more translucent (read larger-grained and softer, less stable) areas of the alabaster. This means that I was not able to thin the petals to the point I would have liked as there just was not enough stability to support that design over about half the surface area. I ended up compromising and thinning them about half as much as I would on a realistic carving of this flower.

Next thing I did was to decide that there did need to be a curve on the outer edge of each petal, leaving a deep curve on the bottoms. I made the curve in the top of each deeper, and beveled the inner edges to meet the center. Then I enhanced the edges of overlapping petals by removing stone at an angle that matched the free edges.

From the Mexican Raspberry Alabaster, I made the center of the daisy, much to the detriment of my fingers and patience. Getting the size and the top curve correct about made me crazy.

Anyway, here is the finished Morning Daisy, in abstract.

Thursday, September 7, 2006

I am going to apply a coat of finish to this, as well as the form carving, later today.

Also have a number of pics up to help with proportions and realism for my next piece. It’s going to be a real challenge, both in form and in finding stone to support the design. I may end up creating it from multiple pieces for stability. It’s going to be an adventure. :)