QPT - first carving attempts

Started carving the panel. 

Did an outline of everything first. 

Then started clearing large areas. 

Next started enhancing lines and layer effects. This has turned out to be quite tricky and I ended up removing too much in some areas and should have been paying closer attention to how the picture looked instead of kind of carving it how I assumed it was, then realizing after that I wasn't quite right. 

Went back and began deepening everything and shaping thugs closer to the picture. 

This was about an hour's worth of carving. Stopping for now 'cause I'm heading over to a friends to talk illumination, and because the bones in my hand are vibrating from all the dremelling. 

QPT Progress - preparing the blanks

My project idea for this Queen's Prize Tourney is to reproduce a small section of the Franks Casket, using cattle bone as my medium. 

This is the little section I would like to do. 

Unfortunately, today as I was cutting out the pieces of bone to make the blanks for carving, disaster struck! 

The bone split in two as I was sawing it into shape!

So, now I have only one narrow section of bone instead of two, which means only half of the above picture will fit on it. 

I've gone ahead and drawn out the left half of the scene on my panel, and will focus my efforts on that. 

If I have the time, I may try to sand down the two broken halves of the second panel and carve it in two pieces, but we'll see. Honestly, trying to get the first half carved may be project enough! 

Bone Carving - First attempts

My first attempts at making things from bone


Spoon - Cow bone
the decoration was done with a needle file
the dye is actually tan leather dye, all I had on hand



Thor's Hammer - Cow bone
The bone broke when I tried to stamp the circles, so I had to glue this one back together. Dyed with tan leather dye just for fun.


Tooth shaped bead - Cow bone
Just a scrap I played with.
Dyed with tan leather dye.



Some quick dice I made out of small cut offs - Cow bone



Small cylindrical beads - Cow bone



A pin - Cow bone
Started out a lot thicker than it was, and I tried to do a spiral on the needle part... didn't work so well, thus, thinner pin 



Belt end - Cow Bone
Tried a bit of relief carving using my dremel
Need smaller bits for more detailed work
but okay for a first time carve, I guess
Dyed with tan leather dye.



WIP Comb - Cow bone
The nails are just to hold it in place for now. 
I made the middle section with the teeth first, but closer examination of some period combs suggest they were assembled first and cut after... Still lots of work to do on this one


Other side of comb. Those scratches were the first attempt I made at engraving bone with a dental tool... tedious, need sharper hand tools, or stick with a file and/or dremel tool for now I think


Belt Buckle - Cow bone
Did a bit better on the relief carving with this one. New bits and faster speed worked much, much better.


Belt Buckle - Cow bone
A little higher contrast on this one to make the carving more visible.



Pin #2 - Cow bone
Started out trying to replicate a pin, but it didn't quite work. Still turned out okay though. 
It's difficult to photograph bone to get all the details to show up!



Serpent - Cow bone
Taken from a rune stone. Lots of open areas that had to be cleared on this one. Still pretty rough, but not bad for my first try of something like this. Still a ways to go to get everything smooth and rounded so it polishes nice. This will be a good benchmark piece for me to look back on once I get really good (I hope, anyway wink emoticon




Comb - Cow bone
Assembled, with one pin in place, and some decorative lines. Still need to add a ring to the end for hanging.

Comb - Cow bone
Assembled, with one pin. The second pin cracked the bone, if you look closely you might be able to see it on the left side, so for this experiment I opted to glue it, and will add a ring to the left hole to hang it from. Everything's a learning process.

Spoon Commission - Cow bone - Back side
WIP second spoon, slightly larger than the first one.


Spoon Commission - Cow bone - Back side
WIP second spoon, slightly larger than the first one.
Slightly larger 'spoon' area, but still pretty flat. As with the first one, just followed the contour of the bone.

Spoon Commission - Cow bone - front side
Added a little celtic knot.

Spoon Commission - Cow bone - front side
Close up of celtic knot.
I had to fiddle with the colour etc. in photoshop to make it stand out. Doesn't really do it justice though. Looks much better in person.