In late 2013 I began to play with relief carving through Mary May’s wonderful online lessons. I do not foresee adding carvings to my furniture designs, however it is fun and adds depth to understanding cutting tools and techniques.

When the rains (hopefully) and short daylight hours of winter hit the driveway workshop, carving is an activity I can enjoy in my office where I have a small bench.

Mary has well over 100 projects with a new project added each week ranging from simple exercises to very complex. I bounced around the lessons, selecting those that were visually compelling or laid a foundation for those that caught my eye.

Here are some images from those early lessons and a few that were of my own conception.