I wanted to carve a lighthouse for some reasons. One of them is that I think it is a very cool project to carve. I searched for lighthouse pictures online and, surprisingly, could not find the real one that I very like. I think most lighthouses were designed to be practical, withstand severe winds and waves; so prettiness was not a consideration.

Online pictures still helped me a lot to be inspired and to pick the parts of the design from different real lighthouses that I liked. I came up with a lighthouse wood carving pattern that I will share below for you to see and download. I built three lighthouses using this pattern so far.

Lighthouse #1

I turned the lighthouse on a lathe and manually carved the top, windows and the door. I drilled the piloting holes to make it easier to carve the area under the roof.

Lighthouse

Carving the lighthouse cabin

Carving the lighthouse cabin was a challenge too due to a number of small details. This affordable housing is only 1 square inch. 🙂 I turned the roof and used my whittling knife to shape the walls. I used my chip carving knife to carve every log of the house. I used a V-tool (pictured) to wood carve the grooves on the roof so it looks like an old hey roof.

The base and cypress trees were carved from basswood too.

I am proud that this project won second place in the “turning and carving” category in one of the carving shows in 2015.

Lighthouse on a Cliff

“Lighthouse on a cliff” — this is my second attempt to turn and carve a lighthouse from basswood in 2016. Height with the base is 6″ (15 cm). Base diameter is 3 inches (7 cm).

The base is turned from a maple burl while still exposing its natural surface. Lighthouses were often built on the rocks so, I think, the burl original look fits the project well — it reminds a rocky cliff. Click on the picture to zoom in.

I painted the lighthouse stripes and the roof using acrylic paint diluted with water. Diluted paint allows the wood grain still be visible through the light coat. To preserve the wood and to highlight the wood grain I finished the project with boiled linseed oil.

I made a couple of changes in the design compared to the first lighthouse: I made the roof a little larger. I also replaced the “bricks” in the middle with “blocks” to split the middle area into five red-white stripes instead of four. I like these changes.

Lighthouse #3

It is mostly done. I will update this section a little later.

Lighthouse Pattern

Lighthouse Pattern

You may download the lighthouse carving pattern: click on the picture to enlarge it and use the “save image” feature of your browser.

Overall I enjoyed turning and carving these lighthouses from wood a lot! I think lighthouse is a great woodcarving project for carvers of all levels. Will see if I make more of them in the future.