Gurus and Grasshoppers - A plank of wood with twisty bits

Having spent a couple of days in the labs, I've managed to whip up a model for the project my gurus set me, and I have to say I'm relatively happy with how it has gone. Coming in at 789 tris, I managed to creep pretty close to my budget of 800 with still a few tris to spare. It definitely wasn't easy to make, probably due to my twirly wirly design you can see in my concept sketches, but nevertheless I wanted to keep that characteristic and so this is my attempt at trying to model my Art Nouveau style bow.

The renders aren't of ideal quality, but I zoomed in a little on the second so you can see the wood texture. Although it doesn't scream ART NOUVEAU, I'm happy with what influence you can see within it, and I particularly like the fact it gives of the sense that it's all made of wood, but that's just personal taste. The flower on the front was a particular pain. It was difficult to make it look natural within the tri limit that I had, and in the end I feel like you can just about tell it's a flower. The mesh is far neater than my building project's was, and so in that respect I couldn't be happier, since that was such an issue before. I used a bump map for the wood texture, but it doesn't appear to be particularly clearly visible. When I speak to my gurus next I'll ask if they can help me with my rendering so that more definition is seen on my images, especially the bump map. All in all I'm happy though, and I really did enjoy making this. I feel like I've come such a long way from when I modelled my bin, because back then I needed help at every stage but I practically did this project without consulting with anyone for help. This little project overall just made me feel rather independent and like I knew what I was doing, and I enjoyed that.