Some time ago on vacation we had this awesome cedar tree with cut off branches, so I could just cut off a little more and have perfect thick wood pieces.
I obsessed quite a lot over it (no shit I think sailors made them because they were lonely) but then figured out the wood was too dry and the arm is too short.
I could probably carve the rest with a dremel or so.
The hardest part was carving out a tilted face, surrounded by hair, wearing a hat, with an arm underneath. Holy shit, that was soo hard and I have aphantasia so my brain wasn't really able to process that, but the result is quite fine!
The process
- Saw out the tail and rough shape
- Carve the rough shape
- Hips and more details
- Belly and chest
- Details of belly and chest
- Shoulders, collarbones, head, the messed up hair part
- Sailor hat, lying arm, giving up lol
(Crazy that I never shared this anywhere)
Future sapient crabs: "Ancient humans must have worshipped these sea goddesses as late as the Cenozoic era. They carved these wooden figures as magical totems they could take with them, to remind them where they came from."
Nice work!