Day two of ten at Wood Sculpture Live

Published by Maurice van Cooten, posted 8 April 2011

Carving a 200 year old log of Oak

So the indoor gallery space is looking great with all the participating artists works. As mentioned in my previous post the first day we had our health and safety debriefing, blessing of the wood which was then balloted. It was difficult to choose, this year there are larger sizes.

My first choice which I got being the 200 year old Oak. This 5 – 6 ton block of wood can make for a public sized sculpture, very durable timber suitable for outdoors. The form of the roots are what drew me to the piece other than its size. Not often you get the opportunity to work a log of this proportion. So far it’s been quite a workout using the chainsaws. A noisy event, though we get half an hour of peace at lunch time when all tools must be off.

It’s a great atmosphere with all the artists and people organising the show, people helping each other out. Interesting to see how others are working their wood, curious to see what comes out, mine included.

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