After you finish carving a lure, it can be difficult to display it. While a simple wire ornament stand, which can be found in most craft stores, can be used to display your lure, it’s a simple task to bend your wire of choice into a matching stand. I match the color of the wire to the color of the wire I use to make hardware for the lure.

Step 1: Make the stand base. Cut an 18” (457mm) length of 12- or 14-gauge copper wire. Place the wire against the side of a 2” (51mm)-diameter jar with about 2” (51mm) of wire extending past the side of the jar. Roll the long end of the wire around the jar once, returning to the starting point. Slide the wire circle off the jar. Bend the short overhang at a 90° angle so it sits inside the circle; if the short piece extends beyond the circle, cut it off.

Step 2: Create the upright arm. Use flat-nose pliers to grip the long wire end where the circle closes; bend the wire upward at a right angle. Cut the upright off about 6” (152mm) from the circle base.

Step 3: Shape the hook. Grip the end of the wire with round-nose pliers and bend the wire into a half circle that turns away from the base loop toward the back of the display.

Step 4: Finish the display. Using round-nose pliers, grasp the wire about 3/4” (19mm) from the end loop and bend it forward to form a loose S. Use your fingers to arc the upright so the hook points upward and is positioned roughly over the front of the base circle.

Materials:
Copper, colored copper, or aluminum wire: 12 or 14 gauge

Tools:
Wire cutters
Flat-nose pliers
Round-nose pliers
Bottle or jar: 2″ (51mm) dia.

Read Making Wooden Fishing Lures by Rich Rousseau for more information on carving lures. Whether it is the thrill of catching a fish with a handmade lure or finding a perfect one to add to your collection, this book of 11 step-by-step projects with a collector’s gallery will grab you hook, line, and sinker. The book is available at www.foxchapelpublishing.com for $19.95 plus S&H.

The post Making a Lure Display Stand appeared first on Woodcarving Illustrated.

This easy-to-make shop aid is a great way to keep your gouges and V-tools in tip-top shape

By Lora S. Irish

With just a few minutes of work, you can create this honing board customized to sharpen your specific gouges and V-tools. This honing board is small enough to include with your tool kit, yet large enough to allow extra space for new profiles as your tool collection grows.

Materials:
• Basswood, 3/4″ (19mm) thick: 5″ x 5″ (127mm x 127mm)
• Pencil
• Red oxide rouge

Tools:
• Metal ruler or T square
• Bench knife
• Straight chisel
• Gouges and V-tools to be honed on the board

The post Custom Honing Board appeared first on Woodcarving Illustrated.

Simple mixtures and techniques to create a variety of flesh colors

While there are a variety of pre-mixed paints to simulate different skin tones, I prefer to mix my own. That gives me complete control over the colors, highlights, and shadows. It also allows me to personalize a flesh color.

Skin tones are often subtle and barely noticed on a nicely finished carving. Paying close attention to this detail will enhance your carving. A skin tone that conflicts with the piece or rest of the finish is glaringly noticeable.

Adding skin color to a wood spirit carving presents a unique challenge for carvers. Since the facial features blend into the wood texture or leaves of the surrounding background, there are few well-defined outlines to the face area like you would find in a Santa Claus or cowboy caricature. Plus you want to avoid solid-toned, heavy coloring that distracts from the natural wood tones of the rest of the piece.

I’ll use a wood spirit cane topper for the purpose of demonstrating the painting technique. For this style of carving, I use a dry brushing technique to apply the paint. Dry brushing very thin coats of acrylic color to create the facial coloring blends the face into the wood texturing, and keeps your coloring soft and light in application.

The color listings in the chart apply whether you are using watercolors, oils, or acrylics. Paint manufacturers work hard to adhere to a color standard for each tone no matter which media the color is created in. If you place burnt umber acrylic and burnt umber oil paint side-by-side on a palette, you should not see any difference in color between the two of them.

Mixing Custom Flesh Tones

Remember, there really are no white, black, red, or yellow skin colors. Instead, skin colors are shades or tones of orange. The more orange-brown tones that a skin mixture contains, the darker the color will become and the closer to a chocolate color your face will appear. Pale tone skins contain more white tones, and yellow or golden skin tones contain equal amounts of all three colors. By mixing different ratios of three basic pigments, you can produce a wide array of colors.

Types of Paints

Oil paints: I use oil paints when I need absolute control over blending color tones and when I want colors that are semi-transparent to transparent.

Control: Since oil paint takes several days to dry, you have plenty of time to mix a new color on your palette and blend that color into one that you have already applied. I can apply a base coat of the skin tone in oils to the entire face. I can now add some white to the mix to make a highlighting color that I would use over the bridge of the nose, forehead, and along the tops of the cheek bones. Since they are oil paints, this new color does not go on as a brush stroke, but blends into the base skin color. I could add burnt umber to the base coat to darken it slightly and brush along the sides of the nose, in the eyelid areas, and along the jaw line. It will instantly blend to create shadows; lots of color but very few brush strokes.

Application: Oil paints can also be used over a carving that has already been stained. You can stain the piece with burnt umber first, allow it to dry then add a coat of polyurethane spray. Then you can brush oil paints that have been thinned with a mixture of turpentine and linseed oil. You could also use stand oil or walnut oil. Linseed oil is commonly available and often used, but it develops a slightly yellow cast over time. Stand oil is a finer grade of artist’s oils; it is thicker and allows the artist more working time. Walnut oil is a fine grade, absolutely clear oil that is easy to work with and never changes the coloring of the wood. Walnut oil and stand oil are available through art supply stores. This thinned oil color lets all of the stain show through, but gives a coloring over top. When oil paints are used directly over the wood, you will still be able to see some of the grain lines of the wood through the color.

Clean up: For oil paint clean up, I use freezer paper as my palette. It’s cheap and it’s disposable! Plus, if I don’t finish the painting in one day, I can pull off another piece and lay that right on top of the palette piece. This keeps the oils fresh until the next day, when I peel the two papers apart. Use a palette knife to pick up any paint from the top paper, put it back on the palette paper, and start into painting. So the only clean up I have is to wash the brush in turpentine.

Acrylic paints: Acrylic paints dry much faster than oil paints, so I use them when time is an issue, or when I want a semi-transparent or opaque finish.

Control: The speed at which acrylic paints dry factors into the control you have. While you don’t have as much time to blend acrylic paints into each other, there are a few mediums you can add to slow down the drying. Even with the addition of these mediums, the paints still dry faster than oil paints. When mixing colors, though, the best method is to mix the color and medium on the palette, and then apply to the carving.

Application: The biggest advantage that acrylics have in painting is when you want an opaque effect; a strong, solid color, such as the red of Santa’s coat. But in the past few years, acrylic paint pigments have evolved to the point that you can heavily thin the paint with flow medium or water for a semi-transparent effect similar to oil paints. I suggest you use flow medium for the craft-style paints, but you can use water for the artist quality acrylic paints. That allows you to see some of the grain, or add highlights to a piece you’ve already painted. If you don’t like the effect, let it dry and paint again. It’s easy to correct.

Cleanup: Acrylic paints clean up with water when wet. If you accidentally allow the paint to dry, Windex with ammonia, or even straight household ammonia, work well to dissolve any paint left in the ferrule area of the brush.

Watercolors: Watercolors are finely ground pigment mixed in a water based float. Because the base float has no coloring of its own, the finished look of watercolors is extremely clear and crisp. This avoids the heavy look of thinned acrylics or oils. It’s easy to get a transparent or semi-transparent coat with watercolors, but difficult to get an opaque coat.

Control: Heavy thinning will aid you in controlling how much color goes on with each step. Thin the colors until the hues almost disappear on your palette.

Application: Wait a few minutes between each coat for the previous coat to dry before you apply another coat. After you have finished building the colors you want, seal the carving with a light coat of polyurethane to set the color before you use any other painting or finishing method.

Clean Up: Watercolors are easy to clean up with just water. If the paint dries in the ferrule area, soak it in a bit of water to loosen up the paint.

Definitions

Opaque: A solid color. You cannot see through to the wood below. Undiluted paint is usually opaque.

Transparent: You can see the wood grain clearly. Mixing acrylic paint with four times more water than paint produces a tint through which you can clearly see the grain.

Semi-transparent: The wood grain is faintly visible. Mixing acrylic paint with an equal portion of water produces a stronger tint, but still allows the grain to show. Woodcarvers commonly use semi-transparent paint washes.

Materials:
• Carving of choice
• Soft, lint-free cloths
• Paper towels
• Acrylic paint: titanium white, cadmium yellow medium, brown madder, burnt umber, yellow oxide, red oxide, raw sienna, burnt sienna
• Boiled linseed oil
• Turpentine
• A scrap of printed newspaper

Tools:
• Assortment of sable flat shader brushes
• Water pans
• Palette

CLICK HERE to download the Viking Cane Pattern.

CLICK HERE to download the Wizard Cane Pattern.

Read Relief Carving Wood Spirits by Lora S. Irish for more information on carving. Learn the enjoyable craft of relief carving from start to finish, as you create an amazing wood spirit with detailed instructions from a nationally-recognized designer. The entire craft is here, from preparing the wood to roughing out and detailing your wood spirit, to applying a long-lasting finish. No step is left out and no technique is left unexplained. Includes 20 additional original patterns to keep you carving for seasons to come. The book is available from www.foxchapelpublishing.com for $19.99 plus S&H.

CLICK HERE to read more great articles from Woodcarving Illustrated Spring 2008 (Issue 42).

The post Realistic Skin Tones and Practice Walking Stick Topper Patterns appeared first on Woodcarving Illustrated.

By Lora S. Irish

I use stain, oil paint, and acrylic paint to enhance projects without obscuring the wood grain. To demonstrate these techniques I chose this fun wood spirit, whom I call Woodie, that is carved from basswood. While basswood is great for carving, it can be a bit bland visually. After completing your carving, prepare for the finish by removing any remaining chips, fibers, or dust with a stiff brush and a lint-free cloth.

Apply a Base Coat

Create a colorful base coating on the wood spirit using acrylic paints. On your palette, mix approximately three parts titanium white with one part raw sienna. You want a mixture close to the original basswood color. Add a couple of drops of water to thin the mixture slightly so it easily fills the deep grooves and tight joint lines.

Using a large ox-hair brush, scrub one coat of the mixture onto the entire work. Allow it to dry for one-half hour.

When the first coat is dry, apply a second coat of the base mix. I turn the work upside down to get color into areas the first coat may have missed. Allow the second coat to dry well.

Add an equal part of raw sienna to the remaining base-coat mixture. Load your large ox-hair brush with the new mixture and blot off any excess color. Working vertically, pull several random streaks of color across the carving.

Repeat the streaking step, using unmixed raw sienna. Mix a small amount of burnt umber to the raw sienna and add a few more streaks. For final streaking, use titanium white.

Allow the streak coating to dry well. Your carving should be colorful at this point, with changing streaks of color throughout the work.

Applying the Oil Stain

When the base coats of acrylic are dry, apply several light coats of polyurethane spray sealer to the entire work. Let each coat dry well before applying the next. Follow the directions on the spray can.

In a small pan, mix one part burnt umber oil paint with one-half part linseed oil to create a stain. The mixture should be thin, but not too runny.

Using a large soft staining brush, apply one coat of the mixture over your work. Work the oil stain into the deep crevices.

After covering the work with oil stain, wipe the piece using a lint-free cloth. As you wipe, the stain will saturate your cloth. Refold the cloth so you are using a clean area to remove the excess oil stain. Your work should have a light- to medium-brown look on the high areas with heavy staining in the deep crevices.

Slightly moisten a clean cloth with turpentine. Wrap the cloth around one finger for support and lightly rub it over the high areas of the carving to pick up the burnt umber oil stain from just the highest ridges. Allow the oil stain to dry overnight.

Your carving should have a wood-grain look with changing color tones that range from the base color of the wood on the highest parts to dark umber tones in the deepest crevices.

Dry Brushing and Roughing

When the oil stain is dry, apply several light coats of polyurethane spray sealer to the entire work. Let each coat dry well before applying the next coat. Follow the directions on the spray can.

For the face coloring, place a small amount of raw sienna oil paint on a palette. Add a drop or two of linseed oil until the paint is thin, but not runny. Wrap a clean lint-free cloth around your finger and pat the cloth into the mixture. Pat most of the color off the cloth on a paper towel. Using a circular motion, rub the cloth over the skin area of your carving. A very fine coating of raw sienna will adhere to the work. You can apply several coats. Two or three coats will create a nice medium skin color.

Mix a small amount of cadmium yellow medium and cadmium red oil paints to create an orange tone. Pick some color up on a cloth-wrapped finger, blot, and then apply the color to the cheek areas and the tip of the nose. One coat may be enough, but add a second coat for a stronger blush.

Rubbing thin layers of oil paint over a stained work is called roughing. This is a great technique to use for color buildup because the color sits on top of the stain, not under it, keeping the color bright. If you need more than a few layers of color, add a layer of polyurethane spray between coats.

The hair is highlighted by dry brushing the textured surface with acrylic paints. Place a small amount of titanium white on your palette. Moisten a small soft shading brush with water and then blot the brush on a paper towel.

Pick up a small amount of titanium white on the tip of the brush. On a clean area of the palette, work the white into the brush by pulling it back and forth across the palette several times. Pull the brush across the hair area. A small amount of white will be left on the high ridges of the texture, but no white will reach the deep brown crevices. Apply one light coat of drybrushed white to all of the hair sections.

Pick a few sections of hair that you want brighter than the rest. Dry-brush a second coat of white just to these areas. I chose the mustache, eyebrows, temple hair, and his bangs. Add a third coat to just a few places and along the edges of the hair clumps. My third coat went on the eyebrows, bangs, temple hair, and on the edges of his mustache.

Painting the Eyes

The eye area will be darkly colored from the oil stain. Apply one thin coat of titanium white on the round areas of the eyes. Add a small amount of burnt umber to the titanium white to create a medium-brown tone. Load a soft square shade brush with the mixture and blot most of the color from the brush on a paper towel. Use the lightly loaded brush to pull a shadow on the round area of the eye under the upper eyelid. This shades the eye, giving it a more natural look.

Let the paint dry thoroughly. Give your work a final coating of polyurethane.


Materials:
• Basswood: 1″ x 6″ x 10 ½” (25mm x 15.2cm x 25.4cm)
• Acrylic artist paints: titanium white, raw sienna, burnt umber
• Oil artist paints: burnt umber, raw sienna, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red
• Polyurethane spray sealer
• Linseed oil
• Turpentine
• Paper towels

Tools:
• Band saw or scroll saw
• Straight chisel
• Round gouge
• V-tool
• Skew chisel
• Bench knife or chip carving knife
• Assorted paintbrushes of choice
• Soft lint-free cloths
• Water pans, mixing pans
• Paint palette

CLICK HERE to download the Wood Spirit Pattern.

Relief Carving Wood Spirits is Lora S. Irish’s definitive guide for learning relief carving. This book covers everything from transferring patterns to preparing wood and making cuts. Every element of the carving process is illustrated and clearly explained. The book is available from www.foxchapelpublishing.com for $19.99 plus S&H.

Read more great articles from Woodcarving Illustrated Spring 2009 (Issue 46) here.

The post Adding Subtle Color to Any Carving appeared first on Woodcarving Illustrated.