Thinking Outside The Bark.

Carved Cottonwood Bark with added detail

One of my reference sources for carving cottonwood bark has been videos by Ron Adamson.  If you look at photos of Ron's bark carvings, you will see that certain details often appear outside of the original dimensions of the bark!  I had to try this...

So yesterday I carved Indian face number six and the shape of the bark made it feel vertically unbalanced.  "Fixing" this problem with an add-on seemed like as good a place as any to start thinking outside of the bark.

Working according to one of Ron's videos, I carved a short feather and attached it where it would appear to come from the hair at the back of his head.  The addition is surprisingly steady and I love the look :)

All four of Ron Adamson's videos are available here.