New Project - Part XII - All done!

Happy Mother's Day to me! I had a very nice day today, beginning with a long walk at Whetstone Park of Roses. Yesterday and today that walk was in the rain, but that wasn't too bad. We saw a lot of birds, and Emma didn't mind getting all wet and muddy. I also finished my oak leaf project at last. I'm so relieved to have this one done. I have another carving I need to work on in the next couple of weeks to get ready for the summer symposia, plus a collaboration which will involve some carving. I need to go much faster now - this project just ate up a lot of time because it was so intricate in the layout.

To top off the day, Meghan and Richard decided that I shouldn't have to cook on Mother's Day, so they fixed dinner tonight. Of course, I had to go to the store to buy all the supplies and so on . . . They did fine, and even cleaned up the mess.

Here's the finished carving before I took it over to my lab and zapped it with the UV crosslinker. It's been slowing changing color as I've been working, but I want it to be a rich red brown. Since J. Paul Fennell achieves the red coloration on African Sumac by exposing the wood to sunlight, I figured some high intensity UV irradiation would do the same thing, except in a much shorter time period.




Here's what it looks like after 10 minutes of high UV exposure. I also put a coat of penetrating oil on after bringing it home. It started changing in just a minute's time exposure. It was a tight fit - the edges of the box were about the same width as the diameter of the bowl. If it doesn't settle into the red I'm seeking, I'll take it back to the lab in a week or so and zap it again.



I've decided the title of this piece will be: "Quercus rubra." That's the botanical name of red oak, which is what the leaf design is from. Now I just have to make an appointment to take this to my photographer, Jerry Anthony. I need to let the oil cure first, and then I have to pick off all the cotton lint under the magnifiers. Jerry has a knack for finding the lint with a 50 mm macro lens.

Previous posts in this series, beginning on January 3, 2006: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, and Part XI.