Each year at Christmas time, I love to send all my friends and family something. I wanted to share how I created this wooden arctic fox through the technique of laser cutting which I gifted last year.
As with all my creations, it started with a sketch. This idea popped into my head almost fully formed. I have always loved the way that arctic foxes burrow into their tails and use them to keep warm. I wanted to capture this, and produced a really simple image with just a hint of colour.
Next step was to render this as a vector image using inkscape. When you are laser cutting, you must create the outline in red, at 0.001pt. You can see here a close up of the eye. In my experience, a smooth, simple image works best if you are cutting. I knew I would be cutting out of wood, so if you minimise the detail, you reduce potential problems with scorching or wood burning and breaking.
You can see above the piles of little foxes I made at the extremely marvellous Famous Grouse Ideas Centre. I cut them out of a beautiful veneer which is made here in Scotland by Sawn Construction Veneers. As I wanted the wood to be as light as possible, I elected for wych elm. I sanded any scorch marks off. I used a white wood stain by Village Green to lighten them further but retain the grain, applying two coats. It is as liquid as water so I had intentionally chosen a strong, durable wood which would resist warping. I wanted to have a pop of colour, but I did not want to disguise the grain of the wood, so I used one of my beloved faber castell oil pencils to gently colour in the cheek in pink. I followed this up with a coating of beeswax to protect the wood and to give it a sheen.
I was hooked on making these little foxes, so I created some more out of different batches of wood. The first were made out of scrap plywood I had lying around and I painted these a pearlised white. Take a look at the top panel above. The second were made from plywood I ordered from this great initiative called Glasgow Wood Recycling. This plywood was a bit chunkier and was imperfect - but I loved the look of this. I found the best way of colouring these was to spray paint them in white. The ear above shows some of the spray painted imperfections - I love wood with a bit of history. I have to say, I love ALL the foxes I created, it was such an enjoyable project to do!