temptress/aphrodite

[Janette]

A friend of ours' son is a sculptor and uses that stuff called Sculpey or sculptey. It's great stuff as it never gets hard until you bake it. You could get some of that and use it for practice before you actually do it in wood. It would be much easier to make changes and get it the way you want first. Then you'd have a "model" to refer to in 3D while making your final one. Just a thought that jumped into my head! It might save you re-doing when something isn't working for you.

[Rolf]

Just my opinion Janette but that is a brilliant suggestion on that I will use in the future for other applications.

[workin for wood]

yes, a friend of mine had suggested that too, but I am not sure it would quite work for me because I don't knife carve, I power carve. The putty is still great because you learn what a face should be, but that's only half the battle, the other half is controlling the machine and knowing which bits to use. When I get a chance, I am going to buy a bunch of balsa blocks to practice carving on. This way, I can learn to use the machine more effectively while also learning to make a face. I'm going to order some of those Ian Norbury books and video's too when I can. It's all just a matter of time and money...a little bit at a time and eventually I'll get there. I really am just an amatuer with no training and only half a plan. I just keep trying new techniques, because I learn best from making mistakes. Everything I ever made had some sort of mistake in there somewhere. It's the can-do attitude that keeps me going.

[BobD]

Don't use BALSA!!!! You can carve that with your fingernail...and you'll never learn to control the power carver!!!!!

I'd suggest basswood or poplar for the type of work you do, Jeff...bird carvers, who do a lot of power caving prefer tupelo so that's another choice. Basswood and poplar tend to fuzz up when you power carve, but tupelo doesn't fuzz up as much. The fuzzing is easily remedied by spraying on a light coat of lacquer to stiffen the fuzz and then sanding off the fuzz and lacquer (a sanding sealer, so to speak).

Bob

[workin for wood]

ok, thanx Bob. I had no idea, but that's what I'll do. I already have lots of 2" poplar that's not much good for anything.