Dave is done!

Well, I think I am just about done. I had a good day yesterday and managed to get most of my part seen to. There might be a couple of little things to tweak or clean up, but I think I have hit that point when 'enough is enough'. I ummed and ahhhed all night about whether or not to put a coat of oil on it for protection etc.. At first I didn't want to because it does make touch up sanding a bit trickier, but I think that the protection it will afford against wear as the spoon is shipped around will be a valid trade-off. I have only used one thinned coat, but that has let me see the grain and if there were any rough sections etc.. I hope Laura is ok with me doing that!!! I should have asked but it was pretty late and I made an executive decision (at least I think that is what they are called).
I had a big chip break off the flower which made me alter my plans in mid-stride, but I more-or-less recovered the situation. The front part of the petals look good, and I managed to shape around the breakage on the back to give the flower section a bit of a curvy feel






Its a cute little flower but I am very interested to see how it stacks up against Laura's daff when she is done. Flowers are her specialty, so hopefully she won't have to do too much tweaking to mine!










Here's a detailed shot showing my section of the spoon completed and with one coat of protective oil. I'm very happy with the little stylized dragon. He's not as literal as last year's spoon, but I think he has a lot of charm. I like the way his body is woven around the frame of the spoon and merges into the knotwork. I'm also very pleased with how the wings turned out, given that they are much smaller than the ones on last year's dragon and so were much trickier to detail.
I've also carved the back of this spoon in pretty good detail so that the dragon is recognizable from both sides and the knotwork will cast nicer shadows when it is hung on the wall. The bowls of the spoons are also nicely rounded now and also give a nice shadow when the spoon is viewed against a backing.
I can't wait for the spoon to get to Laura and to see what she comes up with! This spoon has been quite an interesting challenge. The design aspect was a lot of fun as we thrashed our way through all kinds of ideas and now it is equally interesting to see how two carvers with very different styles will complete a single spoon! It will also be interesting to see how many people are inspired enough by what we are doing to make a donation to the Left Coast Eisteddfod!! Remember every dollar donated equals one chance to win the completed spoon!