Carving a Hare


Colin Burlton carves a spring favourite

Wooden rabbit sculpture on wooden base.

This project is intended to be a snapshot in time when a hare lands having jumped over an obstacle. You will need a piece of wood 17cm long and about 7cm square which should be fairly easy to work on as there are some tricky bits to take out to get the basic shape. Lime or plane is fine – in this instance I have used willow (locally sourced and dried out). The base is half a log of laburnum.

Use the side view and plan drawings to cut a pair of templates from card so you can draw round on to the wood. You can always turn the plan drawing over if you want the hare to veer the other way. I realise the legs are far too thick but carving and keeping a hare with proper size limbs would make it far too vulnerable.

Rough cut wooden sculpture on white background.
1. Get a rough shape with a handsaw and coping saw. I hold the wood steady in a bench vice to which I have fitted apple wood gripping surfaces. You will note the head and front legs fit neatly into the original wood block but will go left and right depending which way you want the hare to be looking
Roughly cut wooden shape on white background.
2. The back legs are up or down depending on how they look best when fitted to the base. Leave the back legs until other processes have been completed, but now is a good time to get a base ready so you can shape the hare to fit on it comfortably
Unfinished wood sculpture with pencil sketches
3 & 4. When you have roughly cut out the head and legs, plan on how you round the body and the spaces between the ears and back thighs. I used chisels for these removals. Remember, you can always make another cut but you cannot put the wood back when it has been cut
Unfinished wooden rabbit carving on white surface.
4.
Unfinished carved wooden animal sculpture on stand.
5. Place the hare on the base and decide how it will fit most convincingly with at least two points. Use brass screws to hold it in place
Hare carving planDownload
Unfinished wooden animal carving in progress.
6. Mark out the position of the eyes, nose and cheeks. Take out wood, with space, around the eyes. Use a Dremel and a 1cm cylindrical burr at this stage. I found some 3mm wooden beads at a haberdasher’s, which make ideal eyes
Carved wooden rabbit, unfinished and rough texture
7 & 8. This is the roughed out stage with a hole burred out between the front legs and chest. Leave a good amount of wood around the top and underside of the front feet so they can eventually make a f lat landing. See photo 12
Hand-carved wooden rabbit figurine on white background.
8.
Wooden carved figurine of a running rabbit.
9. The hare can now be smoothed down using a Dremel with a 1.5cm cylindrical sanding tool. Finer details can be made with a 2mm cutter, e.g. around the ears and between the front legs
Two pieces of carved and plain wood close-up.
10 & 11. Mark a place for a hole to be drilled into the base for a brass screw, which will come up to fit into one of the back thighs. Get the hare into place and mark the direction the screw will need to go in the leg. You can then fit a 3mm drill into the Dremel and make a hole to accept the screw. You may have to make a larger, deeper hole in the bottom of the base so it reaches into the hare’s leg
Wooden rabbit sculpture stands on a base.
11.
Wooden rabbit sculpture with ruler for size comparison.
12. Once you have got the hare in place with one screw, check that the front feet will touch the ground. Drill another hole for a second screw in the top of the base where it will meet the opposite ‘elbow’ area of a front leg. Make sure the angle into the elbow will take the second screw firmly
Wooden rabbit sculpture on a log base.

13. Remove the screws. Give the base a coat of varnish and then, using various wood stains of your choice and a picture of a hare, get a satisfactory likeness. At this stage I finish the hare with a wax polish. This gives a different look to that of the base and means that anybody who takes the carving into their care will develop a relationship with it, as they will have to give it a wax coat annually. Refit the screws and use a two-part glue to keep them in place. When all is dry use a sander or file to get the front feet in line with the base. I finish everything by using PVA glue to attach felt to the underside of the base and the front feet

Hare running swiftly across green grass field

Further reading

Painted Carvings

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