Window to a Sea Soul (The name could change)

While the weather is fine, it's Autumn here in Western Australia. I like to set my carving table outside and enjoy the warmth, no wind, no flies and the dust is not a problem.

Roughing out the 3D shape is easier using a drill with 5" sanding disk. This enables me to start getting movement into the piece

Window to a Sea Soul (The name could change)

My inspiration a shell from my local beach

Window to a Sea Soul (The name could change)

After marking out the basic shape I start the carving process. Not sure how this inside shape will look once finished I'll make adjustments as I progress

The board is not blemish free so have design opportunities to incorporate these knots and cracks into the finished sculpture. The knot on bottom right of photograph will be glued with colour and maybe if needed some embellishment with pyrography  

Here I've drawn the board centre to guide me when carving. I find myself immersed in the carving and things can get away. Big black lines remind me to stop.

Window to a Sea Soul (The name could change)

800mm H x 350 mm W
Goldfields redwood (Eucalyptus transcontinentalis) small to medium-sized tree or mallee widespread to the goldfields, endemic to Western Australia.
This piece was cut from a slab I was given by friends in Kalgoorlie after a demonstration I did. Thanks  all members of GSTIF (Goldfields Specialty Timber Industry Group)

Basic shape cut by bandsaw

Inside shape drawn 

The inside shape was cut out by drilling holes throughout the inside shape, then cutting with a jigsaw.

Starting basic carving

Would I do it again

Drawers -  were certainly a lot harder than I thought they'd be using those runners. They were extremely difficult to set in and get right but I think they were worth the effort, not to see all the hardware when you open the drawer. As I had carved the front and carcass already it was much easier to fine tune the doors and drawers to match. I would have been in big trouble if I'd put normal drawer runners.
Carving - If I made this cabinet again I would set all the doors and drawers in, fettled them so everything was in place then carved the front. 
Because there where things I had to wait for I used that spare time to carve. It was  time management that forced me to carve earlier than I should have.
Hinges - setting the hinges in for the doors was difficult as there was no straight edge/point to measure off - nothing was square. The quality of the hinge was poor as I said earlier, very disappointing.
Lock - I was disappointed with the lock, the quality was very average. I thought being English it would be better than what it was. 
I'm not happy with the spacings around the drawers and doors. You need some but I didn't allow for sanding. Sanding takes a little bit off each and that compounds to a lot overall.

Handles - not sure they worked all that well. They are not sharp/crisp where they went into the wood, I feel that is not as good as it could have been. 

Would I make this cabinet again.....................yes if someone offered me enough I would. 

Photographing

Good friends of ours Steve and Stef Lloyd-Smith kindly photographed Hidden Spirit in our garage as moving the cabinet would have been an effort.

Steve takes the pictures while Stef and Sue stand around talking!

Finishing touch

Because the drawer sides where not square onto the front I had a small gap, so decided to finish with a small piece of silver