Jelly #4
Jellyfish Series - #4
The 4th in my Jellyfish series, this piece is at a scale and level of detail that I have not attempted before. As I have done with other work, I used tinted dowel pegs to build areas of color and pattern around solid areas of Maple, Purple Heartwood and Maple ply. The bell is 16.5" in diameter and built in two layers. The outside is Maple and Purple Heartwood with purple and blue Birch dowel. The inside is built with layers of Maple ply with a ring of blue dowel where the oral arms attach to the bell, as well as where the layered Maple meets the ring of Maple at the rim. The Oral arms are also carved from Maple and surrounded by 24 copper tentacles. The jellyfish sits atop a 3" diameter clear acrylic rod and stands at 70" tall.
This is by far the largest piece I have ever done, taking over 3 months and more than 4000 pieces of wood to complete.
16.5” W x 16.5” D x 70” H
Wood, Copper, Granite base.
2015
The Birch dowel is colored by placing short pieces in a solution of tint and denatured alcohol. Then I place them in a vacuum chamber for a couple of minutes. Once the vacuum is released, the color fully penetrates the wood instead of just staining the surface. This allows me to carve and refine without fear of cutting away the color.
The ring of Maple around the rim of the bell was cut from one single piece of wood so there are no seams. You can see the two rings of blue dowel I used to create a transition from the layered effect of the Maple ply to the larger pieces that make up the rim and the oral arms.
Here you can see some of the detail in the oral arms. Because of their size I was able to get more elaborate with shape and texture than with previous Jellyfish. Each one is a little over 3' long.