Crappie project

[fwharris]

Well here is the almost finished project. The link is to a photo gallery page for the pictures. Quicker and easier than resizing.

Crappie carved in pine, hand painted with acrylic and lacquer coated. Tree stump for drift wood was actually found on the Pawnee National Grass land while prairie dog hunting. It has more wind and sun wear than water but could not resist the look it had. I put several coats of lacquer on it.
The base is the resin cast material, small stones and pebbles.




http://photos.ringneckblues.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=140369

[jcorder]

what a wonderful project and great vision! I salute your imagination and talent!

[FiddlemakerMills]

Really Nice. Like the look great work.

Carl

[2upchuck]

UNBELIEVABLE...........I'm in AWE.......GREAT work

[mtylerfl]

Crappie carved in pine, hand painted with acrylic and lacquer coated. Tree stump for drift wood was actually found on the Pawnee National Grass land while prairie dog hunting. It has more wind and sun wear than water but could not resist the look it had. I put several coats of lacquer on it.
The base is the resin cast material, small stones and pebbles.


GREAT project! That is a real "show stopper"!

[brady.schwyhart]

You are a true artist! Extremely fine work.
Brady

[Eagle Hollow]

What a great composition. The combination of captivating art and superior craftsmanship put this project in the top tier of projects displayed in this forum.

Thanks for sharing it and the various segments of it with us.

[Kenm810]

Great Looking Project, very creative use of materials
with tons of detail. A natural theme, extremely well done.
Definitely a real show piece of your Skills .

[DocWheeler]

FW,

That indeed is a great combination of ideas, materials, and workmanship.

[supershingler]

That Project Defininately Deserves A Triple Wow.

Surely A Work Of Art

Kendall

[mtylerfl]

FW,

I can't help but keep visiting your photo page of your project, over & over & over...! Beautiful job on the painting details on the fish, great overall composition - it's simply outstanding!

Just had a thought that you might want to share more details on how you did the project (double-sided carve set up, the paints you used, etc.). I'm sure a lot of folks would love hear the full story of how it was done, where will it be displayed (I assume in your home in a prominent place!) and so on.

[Tom75]

wow that is awsom

[jpeter14]

WOW!! Now that is spectactular! Very nice job.

[RayTrek]

That is truly a work of art. It would seem that there is no limit to the possibilities that you share with us
Thank you for the learning carves and more.
Ray

[liquidguitars]

love it!

LG

[Virginia Beach Carver]

I have attached some pictures. The first two are of my first attempt at a 3D fish but it is a hand carving. The others are what I really want you to look at. These "flatish" fish could be done in the carvewright. The pattern would be modified to delete the pectoral and pelvic fins and carving as usual by the CW. Then you could use the CW to carve so fins out of 1/8 or 1/4 stock with a small tab for attachment, sand then down to desired thickness and then make a small attachment groove in the fish. A little glue and you have a more 3D like fish with very little effort.

Just thought I would pass it on incase you wanted to try it. Good luck. Jim

[Old Cop]

Excellant work.Thanks for sharing.

[mtylerfl]

Those are really nice. I like the idea of the fin add-ons.

[fwharris]

FW,

I can't help but keep visiting your photo page of your project, over & over & over...! Beautiful job on the painting details on the fish, great overall composition - it's simply outstanding!

Just had a thought that you might want to share more details on how you did the project (double-sided carve set up, the paints you used, etc.). I'm sure a lot of folks would love hear the full story of how it was done, where will it be displayed (I assume in your home in a prominent place!) and so on.

Well here goes the 2nd attempt (first response was lost just I was about to finish, dang windows update!)

Crappie pattern from CarveBuddy.com.

Double side carve: set pattern sizes, locations, outline and cutpath on front side, copy and paste each pattern one at a time to the back side and align the back side with the vert. and horiz. reference points from the front side.

Painting: Acrylic paint and paint pens with pearlizing medium added to the bottled paint and pearlesent green paint pen. First I painted them all white and did a coat of spray lacquer. Then each paint was applied with a cloth so I could work it into the detail of the fish without excess build up and help blend colors together. I did a coat of lacquer after each color was applied. It helps to seal each color and adds depth. The pearlesent green was added over the darker green and then rubbed out to blend it over the other color.

Rock base: Polished stones and pebbles (12 lbs.) set into casting resin (32 oz.) Added a little masons sand to the areas between the stones. Thanks to Kenm810 to the tips on the casting! 2 coats of spray lacquer over the stones. The base is 1/2" plywood with a 1 3/8" x 1/4" side walls. The 1/4" board was bent by heating it with a heat gun and glued and stapled as I went around the curve.

Stump: Suppose to be weathered drift wood but it actually was found on the prairie. When we found it we all agreed it would look great for a fish carve. A good buddy even volunteered to carry it back on the 1/2 mile walk.
I put on 5 coats of brush on lacquer to help seal the wood and give the appearance of being wet.

The crappie are attached using 16 GA. stiff wire and epoxy. I have also added a few old lures and jigs to the stump. (not in original pictures but will post a couple latter)

This will be going to Illinois to Jason, LittleRedWoodshop, for this gallery that will be opening soon. He originally contacted me about doing another trout project for the gallery and during out great conversation I mentioned about wanting to do some crappie carvings. He stated that they would be great for his area since he lives next door to one of the best crappie lakes in the state.
I sure hope UPS can package this up and get it there better than they do some of the CW machines

I think I covered most of it (since I had to type this twice) and again thanks for the more than generous comments.

[fwharris]

I have attached some pictures. The first two are of my first attempt at a 3D fish but it is a hand carving. The others are what I really want you to look at. These "flatish" fish could be done in the carvewright. The pattern would be modified to delete the pectoral and pelvic fins and carving as usual by the CW. Then you could use the CW to carve so fins out of 1/8 or 1/4 stock with a small tab for attachment, sand then down to desired thickness and then make a small attachment groove in the fish. A little glue and you have a more 3D like fish with very little effort.

Just thought I would pass it on incase you wanted to try it. Good luck. Jim


Jim,

Great idea and I have thought about doing that. I have not carved any yet but what I came up to do it is to set a "0" depth carve region around the fin areas of a fish leaving just the fins to be carved. Then do just as you stated for cutting them out. For the fin area on the carved fish I would just sand them down.

You have some great looking fish and the different fin placement does add a lot for realism.

[Kenm810]

FWHarris,

Thanks for step by setp explanation on your beautiful project.
Your definitely going to have wandering along the lake shore looking for drift wood stumps
and filling my pockets with shinny stone and pebbles as I go! http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif

You probably already thought of it, but when ever I have to two finger type one of my long posts,
I often first type it in MS Word or something like and do most of my corrections and then do a copy,
paste in to the post. --- (I too have seen 10 or 15 minutes of typing disappear more than once) http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif

[mtylerfl]

FW,

Excellent "tutorial"! That should give us all the confidence to attempt projects that are "out of the box" so to speak.

Funny, I was wondering where you got the Crappie fish patterns - stupid me - I didn't even recognize them as the one from CarveBuddy!! They just looked different somehow - the beautiful paint job and the angle of the camera I guess is what threw me off! (I never saw them look so good.)

That will be a wonderful addition to Jason's Gallery. Would love to see his gallery in person sometime! Maybe someday...

[fwharris]

Thanks for step by setp explanation on your beautiful project.
Your definitely going to have wandering along the lake shore looking for drift wood stumps
and filling my pockets with shinny stone and pebbles as I go! http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif

You probably already thought of it, but when ever I have to two finger type one of my long posts,
I often first type it in MS Word or something like and do most of my corrections and then do a copy,
paste in to the post. --- (I too have seen 10 or 15 minutes of typing disappear more than once) http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif

Ken,

Your are right about looking for driftwood, problem is there are just a few that have that right look to them. I did find one piece that is almost identical to the pattern that Michael made for the trout project though.

Some times when you start typing you do not know how long winded your going to be!:rolleyes:. I did think about typing it up seperate, but that was after I lost the first one.:(

[Kenm810]

Wait until you loose a few more, or a couple of long winded ones like some of mine!! http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif
and ya can't remember what you had already typed. http://forum.carvewright.com/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif
Typing it seperate starts sounding better every time it happens.

[fwharris]

Ken,

good point and yes I have typed some things up separate and posted it that way before. It does make it a lot easier for sure..

Michael,

The crappie were camouflaged so you could not recognize them;)..

The wife and I are planning on a trip to Illinois in May. She has relatives in Decatur which is about 45 minutes away from Jason. Pleasure and business, might even take my fishing pole!:-D

[beachman]

beautiful project from a real artist

[Jeff_Birt]

I see nothing 'crappie' about it! What a great project!

[mtylerfl]

I see nothing 'crappie' about it! What a great project!

Don't ya wish it was spelled "croppie" or "croppy" instead?

So much more polite-looking;)

[fwharris]

I see nothing 'crappie' about it! What a great project!

Jeff,

Thanks and don't you know there is nothing better than a bucket full of "crappie". :p

[fwharris]

Well I got everything done with the crappie stump. Added a few details to the stump to make it look like it has been fished.

http://photos.ringneckblues.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=140369

Also would like feedback on viewing the photos this way or is it better to post the pictures within the forum.

[LollyWood]

FW,
That is an outstanding piece!! The detail and little extras are excelent. Dynomite work my friend.

[Kenm810]

A Great project, tons of detail in the layout,
I've been back to admire your Display a few times.
Beautiful example of what these little machines
and a bit of imagination can do in the hands of a Craftsman.

[fwharris]

Bernie and Ken,

Thanks for the comments and feedback! I had a ton of input on this from friends, family and forum members to put all of this together. To tell the truth it was hard not to go to over board with the details. Just enough for the effect. As far as craftsman, well I know I am not there yet but the words of encouragement sure makes me want to keep going!