Wood Spirit or Woodwose Carving

I bought a book about carving Wood Spirits a while ago which like so many things in my house started to gather the dust. After last weeks event at Edensor when I decided to carve a face on my chair leg for the bodgers challenge stool I decided I wanted to find a way to make a face quickly Thankfully the weather being abysmal and me being on a weeks holiday I decided to have a go at one. I have quite a large amount of fresh sycamore which I split and started to carve. The whole process took me a leisurely 4 hours and as a first attempt I think that is really good.

This is the Wood Spirit or Woodwose without any finishing applied.
I wanted to bring out the beard and give the features some definition so I used a Peter Child`s pyrography machine to burn into the wood using a hot wire.

As you can see this has added definition in bundles but I was not sure if I liked the overall effect. I then decided to apply a light watercolour wash which I think really works.

Now all I need to do is apply a couple of coats of Danish oil and the wild man of the woods will be finished. I am undecided as to If I like the first plain Woodwose or the painted version but it is good to see what can be achieved with an application of some paint.