First relief carving (or any carving for that matter)

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Second carving installed on Mahogany hamper I made from some leftovers.

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My shop is about 20 x 25 in the upstairs of a bank building. It is aluminum sided and no insulation. Weather here is very humid temps from -5 to 100 or so. In the winter I use a wall mounted propane stove augmented by portable heaters. I use the propane to heat the space quickly and the portable...

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Thanks Brian. I keep forgetting that a parting tool always produces one bad edge. But this wood is hard such that pulling a knife smoothly for long distances is hard, at least for me....

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I think the leaves are meant to be water iris. They have more of a raised ridge and softer, less pronounced, convex on the opposite side. Would a raised ridge be easier to produce?...

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Mike the u-gouge would be for the scales. I used a parting tool on the leaves. On the next one I'll try a carving knife, but they seem much harder to control as the grain changes. I have a couple of nice chip carving knives but have never tried them for relief carving. I also plan to taper the leaves...

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That is very very beautiful work!

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Thanks for the feedback, folks. I've started on the second one and will come back to try to make this one better when finished with that one. On the second one I am undercutting quite steeply on the leaves. Hard to do, but they are looking better.

Mike, you give suggests on the vein...

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I'm thinking much of it should be thinner, especially the leaves. But then it will be very fragile to remove from the carving board. Chris Pye recommended 5/8" material. Mine is closer to 9/16", with the thinnest places being about 5/16 or so. Should I take the leaves down to 3/16" or...

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Hello fellow carvers. Not sure I am one yet....I originally posted this in the beginners forum, but thought I might get more pointed feedback from the relief carvers specifically. I've been doing flat work in wood for more than 20 years, and have been turning on a lathe for about 2 years now. I wanted...

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I'm thinking much of it should be thinner, especially the leaves. But then it will be very fragile to remove from the carving board. Chris Pye recommended 5/8" material. Mine is closer to 9/16", with the thinnest places being about 5/16 or so. Should I take the leaves down to 3/16"...

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Thanks for the feedback.

1. Yeah, the fin radius lines are wrong. I knew that.... after it was too late.
2. I tried to follow the photo of Chris Pye's carving as closely as I could. I think the grass has hard edges because it does in nature. That's how he did it. Tapering to the center vein would

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Hello fellow carvers. Not sure I am one yet.... I've been doing flat work in wood for more than 20 years, and have been turning on a lathe for about 2 years now. I wanted to learn to carve, mainly to embellish pieces of furniture and turnings. I have several hand carving tools and a micromotor....