Woodcarving a hare

[Lordedmond]

Its looking at the moon , so it will know which month it is

heard of the mad march hare.

no good being mad in feb

i will get my coat

Stuart

[Micktoon]

Hi All, well the hare is looking at the moon ,I only know this as the design is called Moongazer, its suppose to mean I love you to the moon and back, according to someone at the carving club. I dont think it is a natural pose, hares have a lot of folk law in the UK so maybe linked to some old tale ? I will look into it and report back

Cheers Mick

[Micktoon]

I have got a bit more done to the Hare carving and also started the wren, I have been loaned three seperate carvings of a wren at different stages from a friend who is an expert at bird carving to use as a guide to doing mine, good job too as they have been a great help so far, I am very greatful to have them to compare to.

This is the hare , I am not sure how different it will look in photos but quite a bit of work has been done since the last shots.





The wren along side the stage 1 pattern, up to the stage I have reached , in the first shot mine is the one nearer my wrist and in the second shot mine is the one at the bottom. I have carved it with gouges to this basic shape then used a dremel type tool with sanding drums to refine the shape , it still needs lots more work, I will post photos of the sample carvings I am aiming to copy next time .





It would seem the moon gazer hare design is a loose copy of a Paul Jenkins bronze scupture of the same name, Paul has a range of very nice hare bronzes in all manner of poses, I assume he gave permission for it to be in the wood carving magazine ? but either way looks like he deserves credit for the design

Cheers Mick

[DaveH]

I think the 'moon gazing hare' is mostly myth, I do know ............
Mary had a little hare,
she also had a bear.
I often seen her little hare
but never seen her bear.

DaveH

[Micktoon]

After a good few distractions I have got some more of the hare carved. I have refined the shape and sanded it quite a bit , there is still more to do but its getting there, I have strayed from the drawings but think my version looks better in some areas so will be leaving them as they are.
Here are some photos at this stage .









There was then the small matter of the eyes to carve in, I have never tried doing eyes before and the project could have still ended up as fire wood if these went badly wrong ! I was going by an article in a woodcarving magazine which was not as good as it first appeared once you started really needing detail, also I really needed a few carving tools slightly smaller and other shapes than the ones I had but just plodded on for hours and hours but they ended up not bad so now thats out the way I just have to keep refining the shape and then put some finish on it and make a base .









Cheers Mick

[f350ca]

Looks fantastic Mick,

[stevec]

Amazing!

[doubleboost]

amazing
The eyes are superb
Nice looking work lamp
John

[EdK]

(11-08-2013, 03:59 PM)doubleboost Wrote: ...
Nice looking work lamp
John

[DaveH]

Wow - looks fantastic

DaveH