Mini-Callas Stemming and Completion

Worked my skinny butt off yesterday to get these done. It was worth it, as I am very happy with the end results.

I had already bent the original 36 inch dowels to add curves to the stems. I started yesterday by cutting them to varying lengths and carving a smaller insertion point at the top of each.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

I then carved corresponding holes in the lilies to be stemmed.

Each stem had to them be fitted to the contours of the bottom of the piece is was to join.

In tapering the tops of the stems, I found that the dowels are curly maple, as no other wood carves quite like that. Dowels are always a toss-up as to what they will be made from, but without trying, I got lucky with these.

Once the stems were matched and fitted, I used a green waterproof wash to give them some color. Then came the monster epoxy, to join the pieces together.

Here are the final results, including the one lily I chose not to stem...

All that is left now is to separate the stemmed lilies into groups or pairs for display and/or sale. When that is done, I will take the appropriate pictures and post them on my Work page, and possibly put a couple sets on eBay to see how that works out.