Pine oak leaves, another Christmas Tree, and yet more mushrooms

While wondering how it’s possible that another year is suddenly nearly over, I realised that it’s been some weeks since I blogged. On Christmas Eve, I plan to post my regular ‘thank you’ to you, my fabulous readers. But before then, here are a few pictures of the things I’ve been carving while the weather here in Warsaw has remained mild enough so my workshop has yet to turn into a large, walk-in freezer.

First, I had the idea to try some relief carving. I started with this piece of pine shuttering wood:

I drew around a couple of oak leaves, carved them in layers, and then gave the finished piece a smudging with dark beeswax and a coat of stain:

In addition, this week I finished my fourth Christmas Tree, also carved from pine shuttering wood:

Finally, as I’m flying to the UK on Tuesday for five days of both business and pleasure, I carved a few more mushrooms to give out as small gifts. Here is the ‘before’ photo, where the eagle-eyed among you will spot a knot at the base, and then in the ‘after’ photo, where you can see the same knot more clearly. Stay safe, peeps!