A Wee Lamb Went To Washington
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We were hired to fabricate a lamp sculpture for Founding Farmers, a whole-food, organic restaurant in Washington, DC. It resides near the White House and caters to the health-conscious segment of the political crowd. The sculpture serves as a mascot that adds folksy ambiance to the dining area.
The client wanted the sculpture be made of wood. I chose bass-wood because it’s a softer wood that shows detail very well. Also, it would mesh well with the antique finish I envisioned for the piece.
Animal magnetism
I began my process by drawing a paper pattern to scale. For reference, I downloaded online photos and altered them with Adobe Photoshop® and Gerber Scientific Products’ Omega® software to match the angle and profile I needed. When carving in full dimension, you need various angles – both sides, front, back, top and bottom. The pattern helped me determine the size of the wood block that I would sculpt. But, as you’ll see, much of the sculpture “appears” as the carving progresses.
The three basswood panels required lamination into one large block. After lamination, the panels measured 24 x 14 x 12 in. I used carpenter’s glue and epoxy to laminate the panels, then secured them by applying even pressure with bar clamps.
I then transferred the pattern to the large wood slab. I later carved legs and attached them with epoxy and double-ended screws. To fabricate the head, I formed an additional piece from material cut from the original slab. I added chipped material for extra padding.
Tool time
Then, the fun began. Chainsaw art at its finest! It’s the perfect tool for cutting away excess wood because we simply wanted to rough out the shape. I used a 16-in. Mastercraft electric chainsaw and a 12-in., timber-framing notcher.
After I’d roughed out the profile, I arranged our tools: grinders, a sharp ax, chisels and a wood mallet. With our grinder, A chainsaw wheel removed lots of material quickly. To remove material more smoothly, we used a coarse-wheel attachment.
Then, we simply continued the roughing-out process, which included rounding out the back and hips. I ground, chopped and carved, to eliminate all the pieces that weren’t “sheepish.” The ax made quick work of rounding the lamb’s body.
To chip away at the lamb’s head and other fine details, I used a 2½-in.-wide, Stubai fishtail gouge. Noëlla held the gouge firmly and chipped away at the lamb’s head.
To prevent removing too much material from one place, remove small amounts of material and work your way slowly around the entire sculpture. It’s not impossible, but it would be difficult to add material once the wood has been carved.
Initially, I traced the profile on the wood – the lamb is symmetrical, so I used the same pattern on both sides. Once the wood is roughed to the pattern, I continued to draw details, such as the ear and the neckline, by hand.
Then, the lamb truly began to take shape. Using the gouge, we contoured the hip and defined the tail and musculature of its front legs, as well as the curve of the back leading to the head. We shaped these details similarly to the body – we slowly chipped away wood until the legs “appeared.”
It’s very important not to carve everything to size at this stage. We laminated the legs and ears to the body first, and then carved the lamb’s form in one piece. This ensured continuous chisel marks that flowed from all sections. Initially, it’s important to maintain extra surface area to make the lamination solid. We sanded the surface smooth with coarse-grit sandpaper and progressed to fine, 200-grit paper. Next, Noëlla gouged fine detail into the “wool.”
After lamination, we continued to chip away until satisfied with the sculpture’s shape. On the face, Noëlla accentuated the mask created by the wool “growing” on the lamb. We sanded and smoothed the whole surface prior to adding the texture.
The fine points
We needed to decide whether to make the sculpture’s surface resemble real wool or to render what might be called a more folk-art interpretation. Personally, I love the rough texture that the gouge leaves behind and chose to allow that to define its texture. So, we chose folk art.
Noëlla made one more pass along every inch of the wood surface to impart additional, rough texture. We envisioned the finish and the sculpture’s final appearance.
To create the appropriate textured surface, a sharp gouge proved key. The tool holds its edge much longer when carving wood, because HDU’s grit dulls a chisel quickly. However, I still returned to the sharpening grind roughly once an hour. A sharp gouge should flow across bass wood like butter.
To finish our sculpture, we shape. I used a 16-in. Mastercraft electric chainsaw and a 12-in., timber-framing notcher.
After I’d roughed out the profile, I arranged our tools: grinders, a sharp ax, chisels and a wood mallet. With our grinder, A chainsaw wheel removed lots of material quickly. To remove material more smoothly, we used a coarse-wheel attachment.
Then, we simply continued the roughing-out process, which included rounding out the back and hips. I ground, chopped and carved, to eliminate all the pieces that weren’t “sheepish.” The ax made quick work of rounding the lamb’s body.
To chip away at the lamb’s head and other fine details, I used a 2½-in.-wide, Stubai fishtail gouge. Noëlla held the gouge firmly and chipped away at the lamb’s head.
To prevent removing too much material from one place, remove small amounts of material and work your way slowly around the entire sculpture. It’s not impossible, but it would be difficult to add material once the wood has been carved.
Initially, I traced the profile on the wood – the lamb is symmetrical, so I used the same pattern on both sides. Once the wood is roughed to the pattern, I continued to draw details, such as the ear and the neckline, by hand.
Then, the lamb truly began to take shape. Using the gouge, we contoured the hip and defined the tail and musculature of its front legs, as well as the curve of the back leading to the head. We shaped these details similarly to the body – we slowly chipped away wood until the legs “appeared.”
It’s very important not to carve everything to size at this stage. We laminated the legs and ears to the body first, and then carved the lamb’s form in one piece. This ensured continuous chisel marks that flowed from all sections. Initially, it’s important to maintain extra surface area to make the lamination solid. We sanded the surface smooth with coarse-grit sandpaper and progressed to fine, 200-grit paper. Next, Noëlla gouged fine detail into the “wool.”
After lamination, we continued to chip away until satisfied with the sculpture’s shape. On the face, Noëlla accentuated the mask created by the wool “growing” on the lamb. We sanded and smoothed the whole surface prior to adding the texture.
The fine points
We needed to decide whether to make the sculpture’s surface resemble real wool or to render what might be called a more folk-art interpretation. Personally, I love the rough texture that the gouge leaves behind and chose to allow that to define its texture. So, we chose folk art.
Noëlla made one more pass along every inch of the wood surface to impart additional, rough texture. We envisioned the finish and the sculpture’s final appearance.
To create the appropriate textured surface, a sharp gouge proved key. The tool holds its edge much longer when carving wood, because HDU’s grit dulls a chisel quickly. However, I still returned to the sharpening grind roughly once an hour. A sharp gouge should flow across bass wood like butter.
To finish our sculpture, we primed the lamb with one coat of white, waterbased primer, which we followed with two coats of off-white, exterior, latex paint. To perfect the folk-art look after we’d finished painting, we sanded the surface with fine-grit sandpaper to remove paint and accentuate chisel marks. When completed, our little lamb looked like it could have been sculpted generations ago.
The faint of heart should avoid this type of carving; it’s time-consuming and requires physical strength. We logged approximately 40 hours of labor carving this lamb. The successful project inspired Founding Farmers’ owner to commission another project. Now, our little lamb has another companion from Sign-It – this time, a piglet went to Washington.
