without the bark which was pretty rotten anyway…

after taking off the bast, the layer of softer wood underneath the bark that some trees have; gave me a good start on working with the hatchet.

first steps: rounding the stump of that lower branch and taking out the rotten wood above the other branch; the cracks are just visible as darker lines

as forms started to develop I put it upside down to work out this pear-shaped form: from the outside with the hatchet, inside already with knife and hammer; the rain helped to prevent fast drying which could have lead to more cracks

still upside down, still raining – shaping the two main parts on that end like drawing a line between them with the gap

turned on its feet again – breaking through between the two with knife and hammer

starting to shape the outside in more detail with the small hatchet as well as knife and hammer – no clear switch between the tools this time

end of the day and end of the week

 

it still looks like this