Real materials 11:
"Sea and Sky"
by Seth
(March, 2007)

This woodcarving is done in basswood (a.k.a. linden, tilia, lindenwood, and lime), a favorite of woodcarvers. It's a beige nearly grainless and knotless wood similar in weight, color and grain to balsa wood and poplar, though it's denser than balsa and lacks poplar's green portions. Given time, the portions exposed to air take on a light blush.

In this piece, I used a variation of my "dolphins and herons" pattern, using the water surface as a barrier between sea and sky, and a reason for the below-surface pattern to be a reflected "flip" of the above-water pattern.

Here is each step in the creation of this piece:

• 1    Sketch on paper
• 2    Sketched on wood.
• 3    Rough-drilled
• 4    Mostly carved
• 5    Partly painted
• 6>> The completed piece