The last of the three log benches at Sewerby hall ~ similar to the one which featured gannets, in that the carving on the back-rest had to be relatively simple so as not to impede the comfort of the sitter.
I decided to go for a pair of seals facing each other; I’d carved a seal on one of the monkey puzzle logs at Sewerby last year, so I had to make these different: this time they were swimming rather than relaxing!
The patterns on beech wood ~ the “spalting” ~ usually irritate me as they tend to interfere with the carving and make it difficult to see what’s going on ~ but actually with this “seaside” theme they gave the impression of water on several of the pieces, and it really worked.