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1 Introduction

The Three Hares is a great image or motif. The ears are optically quite tricksy, as Gollum might say, there being only 3 ears between them! What I hadn't realised was the incredible age and history of this symbol. Rather than my saying more about it, have a look at this Wikipedia page here. 

I'll give you my pattern in the download but there's lots of fun to be had changing it and working out your own version. An online search will get you a large number of images to play with.

This is an intermediate carving and not too difficult: it looks more complicated than it really is. You to do the same thing 3 times and the depth is quite shallow; it's all in the outline. The main thrust of this project, however, is an exercise in removing background and getting into tight corners.

We'll start, as always, at the beginning with preparation.

Useful, related videos:

Subscriber download: Three Hares - Working Drawing and Tools

Comments:

| 31 March 2019 16:26

That's great advice, Chris, many thanks. I'll look around specialist timber yards in London.

| 30 March 2019 16:00

Valerie - Yes, it can be tricky getting hold of good carving wood. The thing is, the chances of buying just the size piece of wood you want is very small. You can certainly check out carving and turning magazines for blocks. You can also ask your local carving club, via British Woodcarvers Association for ideas.

When I started carving, the first thing I did - literally on the way home from first meeting my future mentor - was to call in at a specialist hardwood timber firm and buy a whole board of Limewood. It lasted me for quite a few years. Depending how much you want to pursue carving in the future, I think you've got to be prepared to buy a larger piece than you want and have spare for future projects. There are several specialist timber yards in the UK (Sykes or Moss for example) that you can find online. It's an investment of effort and money, certainly but it's wonderful having a stock of your own wood.
If you want to go down that line, write to me if you need any more advice.

| 28 March 2019 08:35

I'm really dying to have a go at this design but i am having great difficulty sourcing lime wood blanks of the appropriate dimension (or even smaller). It doesn't seem sensible to reduce the size much further due to intricacies. Any tips as to best way of sourcing blanks? A number of sites list many sizes but with most 'out of stock'...

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