first attempt at carving

[Tony_a]

Drawing a little inspiration from Hughie on this one. Looking at one of his pieces from a little while back I decided to attempt a platter with a carved rim. This piece is sort of a trial of concept and used some macrocarpa pine (Monteray cyperess Cupressus macrocarpa) as it happened to be handy and is ok to carve. Ended up a bit too deep to be called a platter so it is probably best described as a shallow bowl. Having spent a fair bit of time turning, carving, sanding and then more sanding I'm not really sure how I feel about it and would like a few second opinions please.
Piece is 300mm diam and finished with poly, rubbed with 0000 then waxed. The wood had some internal collapse and cracks around the knots. These were filled with casting resin coloured with bronze.

Thanks
Tony

[edbanger]

Hi Tony

The carving looks great, but for me it does not work looking at the first photo the carving looks a bit heavy for the bowl. It might be a case of less is more.

But then second photo the side view I change my mine I think it looks great from this angle. So I can see your dilemma 

You certainly have got a lovely finish on the wood.

All the best

Ed

[hughie]

First attempt not bad , as mentioned a  little heavy. What you might find is the resin.bronze infill may change colour later as the atmosphere gets to the Bronze. I found that I have put several protective layers over the powdered metal infill so, in the end, I gave it away. Now I use spirit based stain to colour the resin, its much easier to deal with as long as you dont mind the time it takes to set and go hard.

[Dancie]

I like this and I don't find it heavy 

[Tony_a]

Hi Tony

The carving looks great, but for me it does not work looking at the first photo the carving looks a bit heavy for the bowl. It might be a case of less is more.

But then second photo the side view I change my mine I think it looks great from this angle. So I can see your dilemma 

You certainly have got a lovely finish on the wood.

All the best

Ed

Thanks for the comments Ed. I can normally tell in two seconds if I like something and the fact that I'm having to ask other opinions is  telling me that the concept isn't there yet. More thought needed.
Tony

[Tony_a]

First attempt not bad , as mentioned a  little heavy. What you might find is the resin.bronze infill may change colour later as the atmosphere gets to the Bronze. I found that I have put several protective layers over the powdered metal infill so, in the end, I gave it away. Now I use spirit based stain to colour the resin, its much easier to deal with as long as you dont mind the time it takes to set and go hard.

Thanks Hughie I appreciate your comments. Attempts like this makes your work look even better. Was never expecting my first attempt to be a masterpiece and as I had a bit of bronze in a jar I tried it in the resin to see how it looked.
Tony

[Tony_a]

I like this and I don't find it heavy 

Hi Dancie
Thanks for the comments, at least someone likes it
Tony

[Derek]

I first saw this elsewhere and liked it especially the way the carving tapers outwards and fades to the edge, as for the carving being heavy I think it is border line.

[Duncan A]

I'd be very pleased if I'd done that at my 10th attempt, let alone my first.
However, I'm with Edbanger on both the heaviness  and overall shape .
Perhaps a plain, rich, wood would have worked better?
Or some form of delineating edge on the rim?
Just my thoughts, from someone who can spend days dithering over the simplest of shapes!
Duncan

[Tony_a]

Thanks for the comments Duncan and Derek. 
My early bowls went proudly from the lathe to the workbench where they sat for a month or two and then into the wood heater as I learned more about turning and design. I expect the learning process associated with carving will follow the same path. 

Tony

[Bryan Milham]

Tony,

If there is one thing I've learnt about people who make things, it is we are all far too critical of our own work.

It looks heavy from above but not from the side, so you've achieved a depth of relief in the carving, probably in error but that does not make it wrong, it's a technique used by carvers all the time to make things appear to stand out further than the depth of the board they are working on.

Each of the swept curves looks the same to me, so that is a big plus point, and it's only your first attempt.

Keep it a few years, look back on it when you've done a few more and ask yourself the same questions about what you think is wrong again, you might be surprised at your own answers.

[Tony_a]

Once again, thanks for the comments Dragonfly.