Making A Wavy American Flag Come To Life

In this weeks episode of A Sculpted Life, Jeff May takes us through the process of how he carved a Wavy American Flag from Basswood. The process starts by sourcing good quality Basswood, which is favored for its many qualities chief among them ... is light weight, even toned and carves well. The wood is processed by selecting the best pieces and sending them through the planer and the jointer to prepare them for a glue up... Its important that each board is flat from edge to edge. The boards are then glue laminated together to make one giant slab in which the Flag will begin to take shape. The 6" depth will allow for variation in the contours to emulate the wave action in a wind blown flag. The Flag is sculpted with a variety of tools from knives and chisels, to chainsaws and power carving tools like Makita die grinders with Saburtooth burrs, and Angle grinders with carving wheels, and gobs of sandpaper. The flag is then hand painted leaving the "white" stripe left as a natural wood tone and finished off with hand hammered steel stars. The overall size is 3ft x 5ft and designed for wall mounting.