Transform a basswood egg into a simple tree just in time for Christmas
By Lori Dickie
You should be able to carve this fun, cute, and quick Christmas tree almost as fast as you drew the pattern onto the turned Santa egg.
Carving the Tree
While carving it from an egg will speed up the process, you could easily start with a rectangular piece of wood. Trace the outline of the pattern onto the blank, cut off the excess, and round the corners to make the tree shape. If you start with a Santa egg, carve off the ring that’s intended for the hat trim to create a soft cone-shaped blank. Then, draw the branches, make stop cuts along the branches, and carve up to the stop cuts to separate the boughs of the branches. Go back and add some individual branch texture with a micro V-tool. Use a woodburner with a writing tip to remove any fuzzies from under the boughs of branches.
Painting the Tree
Paint the entire tree with Delta Ceramcoat hunter green acrylic paint. When the paint is dry, dry-brush a few accents onto the edges of the boughs and the top of the tree with Americana white acrylic paint. After the paint is dry, seal the carving with matte varnish.
Materials:
• Basswood turned Santa: small #2 size (1-3/4″ x 3-5/8″, or 4.4cm x 9.2cm)
• Graphite paper
• Acrylic paint, such as Delta Ceramcoat: hunter green; such as Americana: white
• Varnish: matte
Tools:
• Carving knife
• Woodburner with writing tip
• Micro (2mm) V-tool
• Pencil
• Paintbrush
CLICK HERE to download the Simple Tree Pattern.
About the Author
Lori Dickie lives in Michigan with her husband, Steve, three Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and 80 chickens. She has been carving for 18 years and displays her work at local shows and at www.Lmdickiel.etsy.com.
Complete instructions to carve the cute Snowman shown in the photo above can be found in Woodcarving Illustrated Holiday 2013 (Issue 65). Click Here to purchase the issue.
For more adorable and fast carvings, check out Quick and Cute Carving Projects: Patterns for 46 Projects to Carve in One Day by Lori Dickie. Learn the basics of caricature carving with quick and easy first-time projects that use just blank basswood “eggs” and a few simple cuts. Includes clear carving and painting instructions, color photographs, step-by-step projects, and ready-to-use patterns. Available for $15.99 plus S&H from www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.
