Trapped forever and ever mine

[grygon]

Finally finished this today and it gets its very own post apart from all the others I photographed today (and will share in a few days)

Inspired by this artist who I think was referring to this puzzle I decided to take the design a step further and I trapped something inside...

Comments

[acinom19]

Ooh, I really like that!

[grygon]

:) thanks.

[rainbow_lioness]

Wow! That is awesome!!

[grygon]

i'm very proud of this one :)

[erl_queen]

That is astounding! Both in idea and execution.

I am, btw, just starting to work a bit with carving antler, and if you have any advice on tools or techniques (or even resources for learning such) I would be grateful. Not planning anything nearly as elaborate as this, just looking to make rings and the like.

[grygon]

:) thanks. i was thinking of doing more, maybe a square one with a square trapped inside... yes, i am masochistic. lol.

i never used any resources when i started. just jumped right in. it's really pretty intuitive. i started with a battery powered dremel my first year, then bought a foredom flexshaft and have never looked back. rings are fun. i've made 3 so far and have a 4th in the works. i use a ring mandril with some wire to get the size i want to carve (wrap the wire around the size-number, then slide it off) and trace it onto the antler).

i get most my tools from riogrande.com since they are located in my town and i can drive to pick stuff up but even mail order, they are an outstanding and upstanding company to work with.

[erl_queen]

Thanks for the response - I have a dremel, and a flexshaft is next on my list. Do you mostly use drill bits and sanding attachments, or are there more specialized attachments that would be useful to get? I have tile-cutting wheels which seem to work fairly well at getting through chunks of antler...

[grygon]

I now use a bandsaw to rough out the shape, it's been a HUGE lifesaver as my first few years with a dremel and then the flexshaft I had no choice but to hand-saw pieces out or to just use the burs to cut out the piece. It was agony. So now that I have access to a bandsaw I am one happy kitteh! :D I do all the rough shape-cutting with it, then come to my burs for the shaping work. Some pieces require more shaping, ofcourse, but that's the fun part, where the cutting the PIECE I want to work on out of the antler is the not so fun part.

These are the burs I use and then I use a variety of their polishing and sanding bits. I rarely if ever use the diamond cutters (though I might try the diamond burs on stone in a while soon).

[klgaffney]

that is really damn cool. how long does something like that take?

[grygon]

I didn't time myself for this one but when I do another I will try and remember to keep a time log. But it took soooo long. Way longer than my normal work, for sure.

[klgaffney]

i can only imagine it must've taken forever, which was why i asked, but man, that is a really fantastic result. i'm totally fascinated by sculpture, i'm much better at creating the illusion of depth on a page, than actually working in physical space. =)

(and i dunno if lj had a hiccup or i went blind, 'cause i only just noticed the notification. *embarrassed*)

[grygon]

I started a 2nd one of a square with a box trapped inside (the square would be shaped like a jack, so the box wouldn't just fall out) and I got about 2.5 hours into it and I reckon I had maybe another 2 hours to go and it snapped on me. Stupid wood and the predictable grains. lol. BUT! I should have some ivory nuts (tagua) in the mail today or tomorrow and supposedly those have no grain at all and they are even tougher than antler. So I shall try try again! :)

(and no worries, sometimes there's just nothing more to say so I wasn't worried