Old Growth Western Red Cedar Sculpture

 I got some pieces of old growth western red cedar when I was up at the Hoh visiting my friend Sterling.  He had a big pile of straight grained pieces to split for shingles.  I brought a few pieces home and finished my first sculpture yesterday evening.

This is a picture of the cedar the day I started.  There was a really beautiful silver patina from sitting outside after it had been split.  There was a little bug damage, but nothing serious/inspirational. 

This is a shot of the back of the piece.  There was a bit of rot, so I scooped it out with a gouge and started from there.  I made a single piercing and carved from this point.

You can see there is an insect hole on the nose of the knot.