The definitive guide for learning relief carving. From transferring the pattern to preparing the wood and making the cuts, every element of the carving process is carefully illustrated and clearly explained. In carving a legendary wood spirit, a beginner will learn about tools and how to use them, how to create realistic eyes, noses, and other facial features, and how to add the element of texture.

Lora Irish is an artist who runs an internet carving studio with her husband at www.carvingpatterns.com. She is a frequent contributor to Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts and Wood Carving Illustrated and the author of Great Book of Dragon Patterns, Great Book of Fairy Patterns, Great Book of Tattoo Designs, Great Book of Woodburning, and Wood Spirits and Green Men. She lives in Mt. Airy, Maryland.

With the popularity of whimsical garden decorations, craftsmen will be delighted to find a comprehensive guide for learning to carve wood spirits. Designed for beginners, Relief Carving Wood Spirits is carefully illustrated and explains every element of the carving process, including preparation of wood, tranferring patterns, band-saw cutting a blank, roughing out the carving, and the fine techniques for achieving realistic facial features.

At the conclusion of the demonstration project, author Lora Irish has included 10 original wood spirit designs, each provided in three pattern types: an outline for cutting with depth for indicating levels of relief, and a shaded pattern for indicating shadow. Lora also gives suggestions on how to modify existing patterns to create new, unique designs.

Wood spirits have become a very popular subject to carve. Lora Irish brings her wonderful ability to draw and create along with her knack for instruction to this new book. Even the contents pages are impressive due to the huge page-and-a-quarter sized wood spirit drawing that stares out at you from the pages.

The book is divided into three sections with an appendix.

Part One:

Getting Started in Relief Carving
About Relief Carving and Wood Spirits
Relief Carving Tools and Materials
Relief Carving Skills and Techniques
Part One starts with a history of wood spirits, then moves into the steps in the process of relief carving, which is a good overview for beginners and a review for the rest of us. Tools and materials used in a relief carving, such as knives, chisels, and gouges, a depth gauge, types of wood, and work surfaces, among other things, are covered. Sharpening instruction and suggestions for finishing your piece are included here as well.

There are also instructions for making your own bench hook. A bench hook is a piece of plywood with wood attached to the bottom front to hook over the edge of a table to keep it from moving, and two boards in one corner to hold your relief carving in place while you work on it.

Many techniques are explained including creating shadows, making chip and stop cuts, texturing, using a tool upside down and walking the band saw. While most of us know these things already, it's still interesting reading, thanks to Lora's conversational writing style. Who knows, you may even learn something new. Following that are several informative pages on understanding facial anatomy. Steps for carving eyes completes Part One.

Part Two:

Carving a Wood Spirit
Preparing the Wood Blank
Roughing Out the Carving
Smoothing the Face
Detailing the Leaves
Cleaning Up and Finishing
I think these are the most detailed step-by-step instructions I've seen in a carving book. The pictures are excellent and they and the instructions are easy to follow. There are even bulleted lists of goals for each section within part two.

To start, there's a whole page of everything you'll need for the grape man wood spirit project. Lora suggests printing several copies of the pattern so you can cut them into smaller pieces later for retracing specific areas. There are tips like these in brown boxes throughout the book.

I like the progression of the steps to this carving which are very methodical, making them easy to understand. All of the steps and techniques learned here can be applied to the other patterns in the book.

Part Three:

Patterns
There are twelve full-sized patterns ranging from a classic wood spirit to a long maple leaf panel. Many of them look more like green men to me since the faces are set in amongst leaves. Along with each pattern are two smaller versions; one is numbered to indicate depth, e.g. the nose has a 1 on it to indicate it is the highest point on the face, while the other is shaded, which would be useful when using a woodburner. There is also a page of leaf drawings.

There is a sad, droopy appearance to the patterns. I prefer happier looking faces, but these are nice ones nonetheless, and the expression can always be changed to be brighter and more upbeat, if desired. The leaf part of some of them could also be used with your own face design.

Appendix:

Tutorial 1: Dry Brush Painting Your Wood Spirit
Here we learn about using paint, oils and turpentine to color our carving for a wood grain look, and then how to dry brush added color onto it. There are instructions for both the base and stain coats, and dry brushing and roughing. Carving and artist supply lists are included.

Tutorial 2: Three Oaks Close Up
The faces of the three oaks pattern are explained in this two page tutorial. They are turned instead of facing straight ahead, which we know is more of a challenge to carve. Techniques are shown that make the faces turn to one side or the other.

Tutorial 3: Adding Extra Depth
A piece of basswood is carved in this section to look like a weathered piece of barn wood and serves as a background to a wood spirit. Dowels are used to hold the wood spirit in place. The wood spirit, George, is carved from two pieces of basswood; one for his face and the other for his nose, mustache, and lip beard (Lora's terminology, not mine). George has a beard that reminds me of the one on the snowman narrator in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as well as your standard, longer beard. In reading through this wonderful book, I got the feeling that nothing was left out, and I could relax in the knowledge that when I carve the step-by-step project, I'll have an attentive and thorough instructor, even though she won't be there in person. I highly recommend this book for all of the fantastic instruction, clear photos, and tips Lora has packed into its 127 pages. It sells for $19.95, and I think it's well worth the money.