Over the summer I started experimenting with wood "sculpting" using a bandsaw, i.e., a finished piece with curves in two or more planes.  It's probably better to term this as shaping rather than sculpting as the latter is generally understood to pertain more to wood carving.  Nonetheless, sculpting/shaping wood in multiple dimensions is something I've always wanted to try.  The process is really straightforward:  design a piece with pleasing shapes, transfer the shape to a wood blank, cut to shape with a bandsaw, and sand to smoothness.  The key trick is to save the scrap from the first cut and put it back in position with two-sided tape in order to have a flat support surface for the cuts in the other planes.  My first attempt is this trio of candlestick holders in red oak, which I was really thrilled they turned out so well.

 

I immediately wanted to make more of these, but for additional design interest I also started experimenting with inlaid wood patterns.  This adds additional steps to the process:  the inlaid shapes are first applied to the wood blank, and the blank is then cut following the pattern shape.  A thin strip of contrasting wood is glued in place, followed by reshaping the blank to square.  This step is repeated for each wood inlay that is desired (e.g., for a candle holder with two stripes showing on each side requires four separate wood inlay cuts.   After the wood inlays are in place and the blank reshaped to square, the shaping process described above is repeated.  Again, I had good success for my first attempt, a pair of candlestick holders in cherry with maple inlays.  More work involved, but wow, I really love the look of these!

 

The scrap pieces that result from these shaped cuts are beautiful in their own way and I hated to see these simply to end up in my scrap pile waiting for the fireplace.  So, using these scrap pieces as inspiration, I designed an elegant business card holder - same process, just smaller scale.  Again, a very nice outcome and it was satisfying to make use of the scraps in some manner.

In summary, bandsaw shaping is really a simple and elementary technique -- but new to me.  These small projects are very satisfying and fun and it's possible to make them through scrap pieces from other, larger projects.  Good hardwood is too expensive and special to simply burn, so repurposing scrap wood is something I always strive for.  In addition, I now have several new product lines in my Etsy shop and they have been really popular.