As mentioned previously, Pete (Pete Bowser Tree Services) had done some chainsaw work for me on a couple of large beech logs; the more challenging piece was a throne for Willerby Methodist Church, East Yorkshire which needed some tricky shaping so as to leave the arm rests ~ essential for a throne.
Rounding the back required some hefty work with an Arbortech, a messy job but the only solution in this case. Once the back rest was hollowed and rounded I could start on the carving.
I had been given the elements for the design by the customer ~ a lark in flight, some text, and a symbol relevant to them on the rear. The throne had the nice shape on the right, where it spread out just above the arm rest, and I decided to have some nice leaves flowing down, filling the area.
As I got deeper into the wood, a nice colouration appeared, a large dark brown stripe running from top to bottom which gave it some interest, and enhanced the carving of the lark.
There was an awkward, uncarvable area in the centre, so the text had to be arranged quite delicately around it; once that was done, it was on to the leaves on the right and some trailing ivy on the left. The throne was to be situated in the Church community garden, so the leaf design was quite apt.
I carved the simple interlocking square design on the back, as requested, so only the customer would know of it’s whereabouts.
After shaping the arm rests it was on with the oil, which unified the design and brought out the lovely colours.
Pete Bowser was a tremendous help yet again, delivering this and a log bench to Huddersfield on the same day; once in position it looked rather nice, fitting the intended area perfectly.
Testing the throne!
Pete begged me to put this picture on the website…!!