Lots to do at Newport Primary School, East Yorkshire, where a long and quite old row of poplar trees was taken down and is now being utilised in the form of log benches, totem poles and a trail. The benches have been chainsawed to shape and will be carved with the school values, “Work Together”, “Love to Learn” and “Reach for the Stars!”, while the totem poles will be carved in workshops with the pupils; a large proportion of the remaining poplar trunks was divided up into quite hefty chunks of varying sizes to be used for a trail, or just as sculptures to brighten the school grounds ~ and it was on one of these I made a start on today.
I chose the flattest side of the nearest log for the first design of a barn owl; after the previous carving in Wilberfoss, where the sycamore was incredibly hard, the soft poplar took some getting used to ~ it took a fair bit of concentration not to take too much off with each blow of the mallet.
I’d drawn the design straight on to the log with graphite, which unfortunately left areas a bit grubby as I modified parts of the head ~ I started using a normal pencil after that, and I’ll try and sand off the smudges next time, before I oil it.
