- 1). Harvest walnuts when they first begin to fall from the tree. Green walnuts are generally soft and easy to carve. Once they turn brown and dry out, carving will be next to impossible. Check with your local university agricultural department--they usually know when walnuts begin to fall.
- 2). Rinse each walnut thoroughly and clean your carving supplies. Dirty carving supplies can introduce bacteria to the walnut flesh that can alter the way it dries and can give you undesirable results. Pat each walnut dry and begin carving your faces.
- 3
Dried walnut carvings are wrinkly.
Examine a doll face or a human face carefully. Remember while you're carving that you're leaving the raised areas and removing walnut flesh from the recessed areas. It might help to use a pencil to draw the places where the face naturally needs to go inward. The nose should stand out the farthest, and the eyes will be the deepest set. - 4). Drill a small hole straight through your walnut if you plan to hang it up in the garden. You can string it through fishing line and it should stay complete. If the shell begins to crack, hold it together with fishing line while it dries and dip it in an epoxy resin when it's finished drying.
- 5). Allow your carved walnut face to dry. As it dries, the flesh of the walnut will wrinkle and harden. To seal the walnut, dip it in epoxy resin or oil varnish.
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