Finishing a Carving

"Painting and finishing a carving is an art in itself" (Ellenwood 178). When you finish your carving, you have many options in protecting it and enhancing it. Without a finish, the wood would be bare and can become dirty overtime, which wouldn't look professional (Ellenwood 178).

There are two main options for finishing your carving: finish and paint. There are different types of finish, but they are mostly used to protect the wood. You can get kinds that enhance the grain of the wood or that cover the grain, whatever you feel like doing. You can get finishes that stain the wood to give it a nicer color, or leave the wood the color it is. A finish is what makes the wood on a table look glossy and smooth. There are also different kinds of paint that will give different looks to the wood. 

On the left is a gloss finish and the
right is a satin finish.

My "Anne" from my previous blog post had no finish on it and, if you look, you can really tell the difference. I wanted to be creative, so I decided to pain an "A" that I had recently made. I started by making a plan on what colors I as going to use and what patterns I would use, then I took out my paint and started painting! It turned out like this: 

Finished "A" carving painted.

I definitely need to work on my painting skills, but overall I think it turned out pretty good! 

Now I ask, have you ever taken a simple project or design and found a way to make it better by adding something to it? Even if it's just a drawing page that you added color to, that's still making it better!