Something simple that makes a very personal gift. You will be remembered each time they read their book.
I have made a couple of these in the past and managed to cleave the wood very thin and didn't have much work to do to finish the item.. This one however was a bit troublesome mainly because I chose to splt the Y of a small branch I had found. The final split tor a small hole in the middle which is why I ended up creating a heart design.
The idea has a lot of scope with more exotic wood.
Panic!! A hand made Christmas present and little time to make it!
I had seen simple joss stick holders in gift shops but to make one of those would be too simple.. how could I make it a bit different. Not sure what went on then in my head but I started sketching an idea to carve a nose.. then what? I know lets give it a cold and make it a runny nose.. oh disgusting.
The present was for my daughter, and she knows me well so I thought she would see the funny side.
I used a bit of silver birch branch I had lying around. Cleaved it with an axe to make a simple blank, then used a carving knife and a couple of gouges to create the sculpture.
I drilled a couple of small holes in the nostrils for the joss sticks and a screw eye so that it could be hung on a wall.. if it didn't end up in the fire basket!
To finish I thought it would be good to excentuate the carving by using a bit of dark wax, BRIWAX. I have used it before with some success but it really didn't work on this.. made it look cheap and crappy.. I managed to wash most of this off with some white spirit and then cleaned again with some sand paper. I finally used several coats of danish oil.
