Hand Carved Witch's Library

 



To start, I drew my Witch’s Library on tracing paper before transferring, with carbon paper, to my wood block. Since I’m drawing in a whimsical style, I’m not overly concerned with scale and dimension. Some of the elements, especially the stairs, even appear to be floating. Other than book cases, my most important element was cats. Every witch needs a familiar, so I wanted numerous cats lounging around. I also knew that I wanted to feature a gothic desk with typewriter, for writing spells and research papers.


I begin carving the spaces furthest back in the library, with my woodblock secured in the vice. The background will eventually be the deepest space I carve. Since there are so many small details, I always take a straight edge chisel, and create a barrier around the things I want left untouched. This way, as I’m taking wood away with the sharp chisel, there will be a barrier to stop me from accidentally going further than I wanted to. Working in the background first, also allows me to grow in confidence before carving the more delicate detailed areas.








After carving the first layer of each area, I sand with a curved, pointing tip on my Dremel tool. Because I usually work with tiny spaces, the Dremel helps me get into the corners of the tiny details. As I carve smaller and smaller details, I have a miniature Speedball chisel and gouge that I constantly reach for, always cutting out a protective channel before proceeding.





When I am satisfied with my carving and sanding, I prime the piece with Gesso before painting with acrylics. I used the Arteza, metallic colors for this piece, because I thought the metallics would fit the witchy vibe.








This piece is available in my Etsy shop. tghandmadedecor.etsy.com




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