Carved cherry fish

looks like someones taking a bowl break ? me too.looks great, time to start adding more detail ?

You've done well Dave, I like seeing imperfections in timber as they add, for me, real character and interest.

Looks good Dave, that what artist do just go with the flow let the wood dictate what will work the best. Good job.

Looking very nice Dave, and I agree the knot adds to the look. Great job.

It's a darn good job Dave, something fishy about it but still nice work and recognizable. The eye resembles the eye of a whale in my opinion. Definitely a thumbs up.

Pottz, turned a bowl yesterday, but it was Russian olive that really wanted to crack on me, so I just finished gluing it and turning it today. Tomorrow I'll probably be posting that.

Thanks, Peter! Plus it's fun figuring out how to work around them.

Thanks, Oldrivers! There wasn't much choice with this chunk of wood.

Thanks, Eric!

Thanks, Dave! The whole wave in the fish's body was just what the grain wanted to do.

OMG Dave that's going to make the birbs frisky!

I will get the pan ready!

now I feel bad about pitching those pesky little chunks of wood - on second thought, I can't make a cutoff look that good no matter how I handle it.
Another great job Dave

This looks to be a good exercise in finishing, the treatment you applied gives the natural beauty in the wood to show and display it's individual uniqueness. Nice work.
Did you notice any difference when applying the BLO after two coats of shellac? I'm wondering if the shellac sealed the wood sufficiently enough to prevent BLO soaking in.

Thanks, Rob! They seem okay so far, but they're all sitting in bowls, so maybe they haven't noticed the fish yet.

Thanks, Dick!

Thanks, Tom! After the first coat of shellac, I sanded back with the wet-dry paper, and I think I only left shellac, along with the sanding dust in the pores. The second coat went on pretty quickly, and then for the first coat of BLO, I just dipped the fish in my salsa jar of BLO and then wiped it off, and it seemed to soak in pretty well, but the shellac may not have been completely dry yet, so it was a shellac / BLO mix (like a friction finish on the lathe, or like French polishing) that dried as I rubbed it in and removed the excess. At least that was my goal. And I'm not certain, but I think I was dipping my rag in shellac so it probably softened the existing layers a bit,

The second coat of oil happened after about 12 hours, and I was aiming to cover a few spots where the finish looked a little "flat" and I wiped it with shellac again while the BLO was still wet, so I suspect the finish is an amalgam of the two, probably all the way through. And based on the color change of the wood, I would say the oil penetrated at least a little.

Looks like a cool carving of a whale to me

Yeah, Mike. I suspect my brain was thinking whale, but the tail is wrong, so it's definitely a fish. ;-)

Nice fish Dave. Is it's name Wanda by any chance?

Thanks, SteveN! When I don't know the name of something I tend to call it "Bob." Works fine for the bobcats in the neighborhood. ;-)

What's next? There are plenty of interesting woods out there waiting to be carved (zebrawood??)

Depends what I have left from other projects, Earl. I'm mostly using scraps that would otherwise get thrown away or turned to become drawer pulls. So there may be a handful of oak carvings coming…

Great accessory for your (future) birb bath. Could be a mosquito larva eating Gambusi, but large enough to enjoy the occasional oblivious birb paddling around.

The critter army grows….....

Well done Dave!

Thanks, Splint! Not sure if we'll ever have a birb bath here, since with the water restrictions at the moment, we're not supposed to fill one. But maybe I'll carve a bog wooden bowl, and fill it with fish and birbs and acrylic fake water and call it "art."

Dave:
"The second coat of oil happened after about 12 hours, and I was aiming to cover a few spots where the finish looked a little "flat" and I wiped it with shellac again while the BLO was still wet, so I suspect the finish is an amalgam of the two, probably all the way through. And based on the color change of the wood, I would say the oil penetrated at least a little."
Good to know, thanks, and my limited knowledge on this subject indicates that Yes, the oil most probably changed the color.

No problem, Tom! It was an experiment, and I figured the worst that could happen is I'd end up sanding enough to remove the surface layer and then have to try again. As it is, I'm pretty happy with the finish. Looks good, feels good, and wasn't too hard to do.