I've gotten my blank cut out and ready to carve. I tried to use my Powerarm Jr. but the blank was too big.... it wouldn't hold the large blank but would "twist' out of position. I will be/am using a glued block of wood and my face vice to hold everything for the carvings on the outer perimeter and then try to switch back to the Powerarm. Yesterday, I nicked myself with a gouge that resulted in a 1/16" cut to my left ring finger. I then proceeded to bleed for the next two hours. There is a lot of "DNA" added to the carving...... this will be carved away in the future. Most of my gouges are all beyond razor sharp and the cut was the result of being cut with a razor. Even bleed through a band-aide!!!! Carving is proceeding slowly.

I can see you are giving it everything!  I can't use gloves of any type when I am grinding for the little carbide burrs I use will grab the glove and the I/8"shaft  will bend so bad another one has to be bought so no protection for my hands.

  This is the bits I use and the wire brush is to clean the bits.

These bits I bought in 2016 and use them on all my type of carving. 

Edited December 20, 20196 yr by Smallpatch

11 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

I can see you are giving it everything!  I can't use gloves of any type when I am grinding for the little carbide burrs I use will grab the glove and the I/8"shaft  will bend so bad another one has to be bought so no protection for my hands.

  This is the bits I use and the wire brush is to clean the bits.

These bits I bought in 2016 and use them on all my type of carving. 

I don't use gloves for any carvings that I do. Imagine 12-18 sharp tools, facing you on the bench, and having to reach for one of them constantly. I don't cut myself very often and the worst cut is to the knuckles. The cut keeps breaking open all of the time.

1 hour ago, FrederickH said:

gouges are all beyond razor sharp and the cut was the result of being cut with a razor. Even bleed through a band-aide

been there, done that, got the stitches (and scar) to prove it.   in my case it was a 3 AM drive myself to the emergency room and then being told to move my car in case 400 ambulances came in...

Now that the seasons/birthday/family visits have passed, I've managed to be back in the shop again. I'm proceeding with the "rough" cuts for the shell and then will go back to add the details. It's really difficult for me to figure what needs to be carved first but I'm getting there!

 

Nice!

I would say that you are off to a great start with it.

Good to see you back with those sharp things in your hands... but remember what happened last time.

5 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

Good to see you back with those sharp things in your hands... but remember what happened last time.

Yeah..... I do!

My copy of the Castelbuono shell is coming along. I'm "rough" carving the various layers and will then proceed to fill in the finish details for completion. Notice the lack of red spots? No guarantee that they won't appear later!!

 

Coming along nicely. I sure enjoy seeing your progress on this. Keep them coming. 

Some progress is being made. I decided to rough-carve the left side of the shell, to see how that goes, then complete the right side before adding the details/smoothing.

Rough carving mostly finished. This will be followed by adding the detail and trying to make the gouge marks disappear(using a #2 gouge).

Rough carving completed! I've put the shell onto my Pow-R-Arm for easy turning/access to all of the shell for detail carving and cleaning everything up. The cleanup is my least favorite part of the project.

Shell is coming along nicely. It's amazing what a photo can show versus the eye. I'm seeing areas that need to be "cleaned" up that I didn't see while finish carving. I should have this sealed/sanded by the end of this weekend.

 

Coming along nicely.

The sealing and sanding, the first coat, is done. I'll give the shell a second coat of shellac, sand it down, make the plaque, seal and sand that, then apply a third coat of shellac before the painting/gilding begins. I wish that I had access to a 20" wood lathe for my idea of the plaque but I'm going to do a rectangular one! 

Gorgeous! Can't wait to see the gilding.

The shell is just about ready for the gilding but I want to make the plaque, upon which it will be mounted. It's just a rectangular shape with applied moldings. The moldings will be gilded. I've used a ogee w/fillet and a 3/16"beading plane for the moldings. It always surprises me what amount of shavings the planes will produce. This pile is for about 10 feet of molding(I always make extra).

Everything is ready for the paint/gold leaf. The first photo shows how the shell will be displayed on the plaque and the second photo shows the materials that I'll be using for the paint/gilding. Once the yellow gesso is on, it will make the world of difference in how everything will present.