This natural edge catalpa bowl is 13.5” high by 12” dia. The wood is extremely dry and that made this a very difficult project to carve. I have previously carved a lot of catalpa, but that was always green, so this is a first for me. I can only compare it to carving dry, yellow pine. The grain ridges are hard, the wood in between is soft and it has a bad tendency to splinter. I almost abandoned this project.
Anyhow, this represents the completion of the first phase of carving this bowl. My plan is to carve, on the opposite side, another mandella but containing a wolf head instead of Indian head. Then, on the remaining two quarters, I am thinking of two buffalo herds or maybe an elk head with a buffalo herd opposite. I thought I would put this thing up for public scrutiny at this point because, depending on possible comments that I may receive, I may change my mind about how to go about proceeding with the remainder of the work. I will also admit that the Indian head is not my finest work but I don’t think it is quite bad enough to obliterate. The character of the wood caused me problems to the point where I screwed some of the sculpture up to the point where it is impossible to correct. If I proceed along my current plan, the remainder will not be as difficult as the Indian face.
As you can see, there is no finish on the bowl. The reason for that, of course, is that it is not finished. Provided I do finish this project, it will probably be completed with a couple coats of BLO topped off with some coats of danish oil.
If you feel like commenting, feel free. I will not be offended………….
Maybe sad but not offended……………
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Originally Posted by Fred Ritter
