I made this project for my boyfriend, Ryan. We have been together for over a year and been friends even longer. He always makes me happy and he does it so easily, which is quite an accomplishment. I've been hurt and crushed by friends, family, and loved ones, and I thought my heart would never be the same as it was before all the hurt and pain. I was right. He made it even better than before. So to him I give a representation to my heart, inspired by a poem I wrote for him one night when things were a lil' rough. He really has become my muse. And for once, a happy one that comes so naturally. I dedicate a lot of my work to his inspiration. Even though he seems to have no idea how positively he effects me.
So you start out with three slabs of wood that you glue together with wood glue and then wait. Once it's dry you can start carving a design.
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Then you come up with your design to carve. Try to use the space you are given in the best way. My idea is an amitomicly correct heart in a hand with a key hole and key.
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Then you draw your design on the block Go bigger than you need or think it should be. This gives you room for mistakes and corrections.
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Started carving. The fingers, hand, and key are going to be the most forward part of the work so you carve them out first. And started trying to figure out how to round off the heart. It is still very blocky right now and I can't wait till that goes away.
The fingers are smoothed out a lot more and better. Thanks to Josh Tatem's suggestion I carved the pointer finger by the key into the key and got ride of the key totally. It just wasn't coming out very well and don't feel like it would have visually added any more, expashally with the surprise. And now the finger looks less blocky and better by giving it a more inward curve. The heart fat is outlined [all hearts need fat to stay warm. No one wants a cold heart ;) ] I curved the heart in by the bottom of the hand and up at the top and rounded the sides. Now I need to tackle the artery's and veins and sand it before I can paint.
I got the veins and arteries by just going for it, I didn't really have a plan of attack. It worked though! :D I used a drill to get the holes in the veins and arteries, and a combination of that and a dermal to get the key hole. I sanded everything as best I could, even in between the fingers! The only thing that wasn't sanded was the fat, cause fat is lumpy.Then I used super glue to make the veins on the heart, 'cause even your heart needs blood. And then poured hot glue into the top vein, and Josh did the bent artery (he really wanted to be the one who made dripping blood). This made the heart look like it was just taken out to be presented. Then I painted the hand and fingernails with light colors. I also mixed water and red paint to stain the wood, where ever the mix dripped onto the hand I left to help with the freshly-taken-out look. Then I went over the red stain with a much thicker mix of paint and water to make it darker, and then just paint over the veins. They just did not want to be painted. :/ Finally I stained the fat a light yellow. (Every thing was done lightly so that the wood stain would not make the color too dark.) Then you coat it in a sealant, wait for it to dry, stain, wipe, wait, sealant coat, wait, done. I used the same red on the heart and heart veins because I knew the stain would only attach to wood and make them pop out from the heart.