Elephant Legs?

07 Sep 2010 8 Comments

by markyundt in woodcarving

I’ve recently begun an interesting project where I was asked to design Elephant heads where they would be used as legs for an Island Unit. As you can see the trunk resembles a “typical” leg for a table. Two of these will also have a conduit running through them for electrical service to the Island unit. They will fit at a 45 degree angle to the corner of the unit.

I also have to design two corbels or brackets to support the range hood. The hood measures 5 ft X 2 ft. and the brackets must fit into an area 8″ X 15″ X 20″D. I only made the Elephant head as the bracket will be fairly straight forward.

Here I’m showing them in the clay mock up stage. The large piece has been approved and the smaller one is awaiting approval. They will be done in Walnut and left in a natural finish to match the top of the Island unit which is also being made of Walnut.I wasn’t able , because of space restrictions, to do a complete and accurate depiction of an Elephant. The primary objective here is to get a representation of an Elephant within given parameters.  The client was thrilled with my renditions so far.

The large head is 34″ high, 10″ wide, and approx 10″ deep. The smaller is 14 ” high, 6″ deep and 6 ” wide.

Should be an interesting project I believe.

The square on the top represents the area covered by the counter top. As I indicated , the leg ( head) will be at a 45 degree angle to the unit.

And this is the small head approx. 14 ” tall for the face of a bracket supporting the range hood. As I said, it didn’t have to be an anatomically accurate depiction,, just something that said “Elephant” a bit more convincingly than what is commonly available. It seems to work.

I’ll post other photos as I progress

Ok, an update.

I was able to glue up the blanks for the heads and get them roughed in as you can see in the following photos. In two of the heads I was able to run an electrical channel up  the center of the trunk as power is needed in the island unit.

The tusks are carved as part of the whole block and are not inserted separately. I was able to do the bulk of this carving prior to gluing up the entire head. That made it much easier to reach areas  as well as remove stock instead of fighting with a massive block of walnut. The model was so important to allow me to do this as it gave me all the reference points I needed to follow.

Here is where I am at the moment. Finished pieces are not far away.

A group shot, or is that a herd? The blue strip you see on one is an index. I use this one as the master to take measurements from.

The clay was used to make this one, but repeated measurements and profile gauges start to distort the clay. So now I take all measurements from the wood one.

Again, they’re only roughed in at this point but you can see how they are progressing.

Well after a bit of time ( and effort) I managed to get them completed. The shots may not be the most flattering but you’ll be able to see how they came out.

The smaller heads that are to be used for the Range Hood were added to some simple brackets I made out of Basswood. I used this wood only because of it’s less porous grain since just this part will be painted in an Ivory with glaze finish. The rest of the wood ( the walnut sections) will be done in a natural finish. This should be a nice contrast allowing the carvings to stand out a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well there they are, I hope you enjoyed following them along. Any questions or comments I’d enjoy hearing them.

Mark