dragon of the day

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Today's practice carving, 2.5" wide from pear wood. I am on a dragon kick this week, a few more to go before I move on to other objects. This dragon design is based on the classic S scroll style with some foliate details. His head is one end of the S, the tail the other. If you look at the dragon from the other day you will see it is also based on an S scroll layout as are quite a few carved panels. http://karincorbin.blogspot.com/2012/04/there-be-dragons.html

I am using up some pieces of pear wood from the end of the slab where there are cracks from the wood drying. It makes good practice wood, the pieces are not too small, not too large.

The antiquing is done using a couple of colors of stain. The first coat is lighter in tone and the second coat is some old thick, dark walnut stain. Lighter stain first keeps the piece from absorbing too much of the dark. Rub it on, wipe some off, wipe more on, hit it with a heat gun, wipe more off and on, etc. It is a random kind of process, not carefully controlled or thought out but it is still effective.