Day 2 in Belgium. Carving workshop part 2

The idea of the workshop was to get the owners to actually work and practice carving the deadwood. With this Yew, some unwanted branches were pruned away and the cut branches were turned into more interesting and aged deadwood. I carved one relatively boring branch to show how movement could be created.

Initially the branch was rough carved adding interst to the straightness.

With a smaller tool more refined detail ws then added

As you can see the work is a little fluffy. The branch was then  burnt. This get rid of small fibres and ages and cracks the wood further. Forgot to take a picture of the finished branch but this gave the owner the idea of how to proceed witht the other cut twigs. 

Eric's large Forsythia. Although mainly deadwood, there were areas that were heavy and needed work.

A timely break to discuss how work is progressing

About half way through. The workshops are intended to carry on from year to year. Lots of work with back budding to replace the straight and uninteresting branches. Look forward to working on this tree in the future.

My favourite piece of work  was to make something of this pruned area on a Pinus sylvestris. Because of the way the branch had been pruned, there wasn't much to play with carving wise. I asked Yan to hollow out the inside of the cut, leaving a wall around 3-4 mm thick.

Then with the use of a small cutter, wood was removed to match the character of the existing deadwood.

Detais added and the wood singed. I was very pleased with this work.

Picture taken from a higher position.

Although the back of the tree, it is important that the detail can be seen all the way around.

At the end of the day. Patrick and Yan enjoying a beer. Something to flush out all that sawdust.

All done. A wonderful couple of days and excellent company. M any thanks to Marc Noelanders for the invite and to Yan's family for putting up with me and their generous hospitality.