A Basic Cartouche

I just chose a cartouche to use in my upcoming carving class at Marc Adam's school next week and did a runthrough yesterday to figure out how to approach it. 

This is the sequence of operations, documented sporadically as I made my way through it. The wood is 5/8" white pine, although the real one would be mahogany, and probably larger than this 9 1/2" sample.

First thing I do is decide where the deepest points are and try to find the bottom with a few cuts. Everything else will be somewhere between the deepest points and the surface of the blank and will be finessed as the work progresses.

I used a  3-30 to shape the three leaves in the center after cutting down into the hole with a 7-20. You'll find that the biggest tool that fits will give the cleanest surface with no facets.The outside rim on both left and right sides is a cove cut that is done with the 7-20 and later ribbed with an 11-3. This will be left alone until the end when the small rounded leaf shapes will be scroll-sawed out.

First the domed forms of the leaves are modeled.Then the details of the leaves are cut in with initial crescent shaped cuts to separate them. Sometimes a hollow cut will model the surface of the leaf as it transitions into the long approach stems or c-scrolls. Essentially the leaves just get divided up several times to the degree of intricacy desired. Mathias Locke was one of the early rococo designers who explained this in his instructions for carvers in the mid 18th century, and most rococo caring follows this practice.This is the closest thing to an illustrated 18th century carving lesson I've come across.

The last cuts on the cartouche are the detailed veins that I did with the 11-3.

The finished product is a little rough, and lacks the small veins in the acanthus rolls and the final "rope" on the on the base,but hopefully this quick "sketch" will help to give you a plan of attack when you think about your next carving.