Figured wood for carvings?

[dehrlich]

I'm wondering about anyone's thoughts or experience regarding using figured wood for carvings, such as curly, birdseye, quilted etc. Does the figure distract from the carving or compliment it? Does the unpredictable nature of figured grain cause a problem?

[edzbaker]

I think it would depend a lot on what you were carving. For example, the cane below was carved using "Tiger Maple" and the figure of the wood does take a lot from the Skulls and Flames of the cane design. Now that it is finished, I think that some other wood might have looked better.