Sculpture of the week 1st March 2019

The sculpture of the week is a collection of ‘Arbor’ sculptures hand carved from Scottish Oak and Scottish Elm. The ‘Arbor’ sculptures come in 3 sizes Large – 38cm tall, Medium – 32cm tall and Small – 26cm tall. The fused glass section can be made in any colour of fused glass. These sculptures can be ordered in a set of 3 or individually.

The wood

I generally make these sculptures from Scottish Oak or Scottish Ash as both these woods are very good for carving the texture detail to represent the bark.  The wooden section can then be smoked black then lime waxed to give a silver/grey finish or it can be oiled to look more natural.

The making of an ‘Arbor’ sculpture

Once the slab of timber is cut to length I draw the basic shape of the sculpture and then cut it out using a bandsaw.  The bandsaw makes light work of cutting the basic shape. I start to carve the rough shape of the trunk then sand it into a more defined shape.  Then the carving begins using a very sharp V gauge, this creates the fine lines of the ‘bark’ detail.

Then I start work on the fused glass section of the sculpture.  I always start with a clear piece of glass the shape I am going to make.  I then select the different colours of coloured glass and cut these into strips and start to lay down layers over the base glass.  You can see how layering transparent glass over opalescent glass gives you better colour blending.  At this stage the 3 small glass squares are added; this is my ‘signature’.  Once all the glass is cut to size it is then fired in the kiln.  After firing and when the glass has cooled down it is fitted into the wooden ‘trunk’ of the sculpture. The sculpture is now ready to get oiled over a period of 3 to 4 days.

Please keep following my work and look out for next weeks Sculpture of the Week.