Hand Carved Heart Pendant

I've always admired people who can carve beautiful things out of a block of wood and I always wanted to give it a go myself. For this project I decided to challenge myself and only use a knife and chisels for the carving process. I've never really done any wood carving in the past so this instructable is pretty much just about how I made it and not necessarily how it should be done. So please if you intend to try this yourself, for your safety do a bit of a research before you start if you've not done anything like this before.

For this project you really won't need many tools:

• Hobby knife
• Chisel set (I can't say I would recommend this one, but it's cheap and usable)
• File set
• Pencil
• Hand drill and bits
• Nail polish (with glitters and a clear one)
• Glow in dark powder
• Sand paper
• Carbon paper

For the wood I used a scrap piece left over form an old bed.

Here and here is a couple of nice instructables that go into more details and techniques.

For the beginning you will need a template. I've decided to scan, enlarge and print a copy of an old necklace.

Place your printout onto carbon paper and trace it onto a piece of wood. With the help of knife and a chisel remove the outsides of the hearts.

This and the next step would be a lot quicker and easier using a jigsaw, so if you don't fancy a challenge, go ahead and skip these two steps and just cut it out with a power tool ;)

Carve the inside just like you did with the outside. Drill a few holes in the bits that are going to be removed, this will make the carving process easier.

Now that you have the basic heart shape, with a pencil mark along the sides the depth you would like to go to and slowly chip away the excess until you get the desired shape.

Sand your piece with sand paper (I used grit 80, 120 and 240). For the difficult to reach places use the small files. Drill a hole for a leather cord.

Paint the smaller heart with a glittery nail polish (two or three coats). Paint the small heart with the glitter nail polish again but this time do it in sections and add a sprinkle of glow in dark powder on top of the wet nail polish. Paint again. Apply a clear nail polish to both of the hearts once the glittery nail polish has dried.

To finish off fasten a leather cord to the heart, shorten it if necessary and sew the ends together.

If this is your first time working with chisels and knifes please take care. Take your time and work on your technique. Chisels and knifes are sharp (or so they should be), so don't do anything you don't feel comfortable doing. This is my technique and it might not necessarily be right for you.

Thank you for taking time to look at my instructable and have a lovely day ;)