Pete's Green Man

This is what I put at the end of my last blog post:


I am currently working on a relief carving of a Green Man on an old pine log, but I haven't got far and there are no photos of it yet.

But this is a picture of a Green Man by Master Carver Chris Pye which I am trying to copy:

If I am half as successful as that I will put a picture here eventually.

I have now finished the carving of the Green Man, so here's the story:

I have always been fascinated by the image of the Green Man, I'm not sure why, its just something that touches me. Since I have been doing this carving quite a few people have asked me what the origins are, of the image. Well I don't really know, it speaks to me of growth, springtime and new life. But if you want to know more, Mike Harding (DJ, Writer, Folk Singer) has a web site dedicated to the subject called Mike Harding - The Mystery of the Green Man (if you click on the blue writing it will take you there). 

Davina bought me a small Green Man Plaque which has been hanging in the garden for a couple of years. But, one of the reasons for taking up wood carving was so that I could create a Green Man which I had made.

My carving tutor (DJ) and I decided that the image above was a good one to try and copy, but on a curved surface, not a flat one. He, DJ, also found me a piece of old pine (we think), to do it on:

So I stuck on an outline drawing of the Green Man and started to carve (slowly):

You can see that the wood is quite stained, some of it had rotted and broke away as I carved,    so that gave me what DJ calls design opportunities, which meant I had to change it as I went along.

You may not realise it, but the image is made up of six leaves (three on each side of the face).  The two bottom leave are supposed to be emerging from his mouth, but after many attempts I decided it was easier to make them as extensions of his moustache.

When I finished the carving and some sanding, I decided to treat the wood with some Boiled Linseed oil, to preserve it and give it some colour. The end result was a bit darker that I wanted, but its too late now:

This was the first picture of the finished sculpture

I wasn't very pleased with that picture, because it doesn't show some of the detail. so I asked my friend MC, to take some for me. These are MC's pictures:

These pictures are all good but, my favourite is the last one.

I hope you like my first effort of a Green Man, I want him to be the first of many.