There are several strands of activity going on at the moment.

A couple of carving projects. They are on sawn off bits of branches. I think the wood is cherry. It’s quite a hard wood which is great because it’s quite forgiving of knife slips. If your knife or gouge slips with soft limewood, you’re likely to break off crucial bits of your carving. With harder woods, your knife just stops.

This is the one I had started the other day and it featured in a slider in the last post. It’s finished now. The photo doesn’t really do it justice. I’m quite pleased with it.

This is work in progress: one I started this evening. A bit more testing than the previous one.

I saw this idea on Pinterest. An easy way of making stamps using puffy/3D paint on corks/pieces of wood. I used puffy paint bought in Flying Tiger. It was very difficult to control the flow of the paint from the container and these don’t really work as stamps. Different colour puffy paints have different consistencies and this orange stuff seemed a bit thin. I might try one of the metallic ones to see if it’s firmer.

I’m making some progress with my autumn project. I need to do something else with these leaves to make them a little less even-coloured. I have some ideas. Each pile below contains between 8-20 leaves so I’ve plenty for the thing I have in mind.

I’ve also cut out a shape for another carving project. It’s going to be complicated, challenging, exciting and potentially frustrating.