I have started a carving of a man partially curled into a ball. Here is a photo of an early stage. The wood is sapele.
I have a little carving of a man rolled into a ball – you may have seen them in shops that sell candles, joss sticks and so on. They are sometimes referred to as The Weeping Buddha/Monk/Warrior. This is my version of that figure (or at least, partially inspired by it).
It is hard going, as the wood is very hard (this is the first time I have used sapele) and I’m struggling to map my 2D sketches into 3D. Also, I have put it on the back burner for a while – I have been working on another carving as a present for a friend for the last 3 days.
More photos to follow (unless I give up!)…
Next stage:
And the final carving:
So glad you didn’t give up. What a striking colour – is sapele always like that, or did you put a coloured wax on it?
That’s the natural colour – it has a colourless finishing wax.