If you’re not familiar with Grinling Gibbons, you owe it to yourself to take a look at his work. Born in Holland in the early 17th Century, Gibbons moved to England as a young man. Rising from obscurity, he dazzled the rich and famous with his incredibly intricate and realistic woodcarving. Few people, if any, can equal his consummate skill. Here are a few photos from David Esterly”s wonderful book, Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving.
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hi jim,
that dutchman has marvelled me for quite some time. i can't help but imagine watching him and HOW he may have moved around his work. slowly comes to mind, very slowly. lots of small, delicate cutting. isn't it mind-boggling the way his work has survived? no doubt all who commisioned him took great pains to keep and preserve what he did for them. a while back i stumbled across a young fellow, on the web, who imitates his methods. can't remember who, though. thanks for sharing.
eef
wow
Gobsmacked, I am.
Sometimes, I listen to the radio and think "I can sing better than that! What have they got that I don't?". Then I listen to someone like Barbara Streisand, and realize that oh, that's what they have.
Now, when I see some carved junk being sold for 48 times what it's worth, and I think "I can carve better than that!", I'll just look at these pictures, and reel my bad ass back in.
You're right
He really did amazing work. The level of detail boggles the mind. Eef mentioned that someone was emulating his techniques. I'd love to find out who it is and see if he has any information he would like to share.
Jim
Jim,
I came across this in another forum:
http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5005
Look down at the bottom of the page, where the chap eventually figures out how to post pics.
******
Although I greatly admire the abilities of such carvers, I confess that I wouldn't want such edifice in the hoosey. I prefer those simpler motifs that even Jammer can do. :-)
But you have to admire the tremendous skill and patience of such carvers. If I was a C17th French aristocrat I woulda had the fellow appointed Royal Carver straight away. But I yam a C20th peasant.....
Lataxe, a philistine.
OK this just hurts
Amazing work indeed. Looking at the pear wood it is hard to believe it is wood at all. looks more like a plastic or such, no grain, no knots no nothing. Did you get a sense that he carves down in layers, and adds the detail as he goes, or is it rough carved and detail added. Engravers are different in approach.
Morgan
Been on vacation Lataxe?
Amazing
Lataxe,
Can you imagine looking at that Rubens and saying, "I think I'll carve that and see how it comes out". He is truly an artist. By the way, you're a 21st Century peasant now.
Jim
Peasant varieties
Jim,
Sometimes I kid myself that I have persistence but fellahs such as those carving men demonstrate the real stuff. How long to learn to carve that well? How long to produce such complex pieces once the skills have been got? Astounding application and ambition and probably no thoughts of vast profits; or celebrity beyond a well-deserved fame.
As to peasant-types: I am definitely C20th as much of the C21st so far has left me cold. What has happened to so many things, such as rock music, steam engines and public service? All gone. with much else my foolish heart held dear. I blame Mrs Thatcher.
Lataxe, probably heading for the pidgeon hole "reactionary ole peasant".
Right you are about the demise of so many things that we took for granted in our youth. I guess I could live without steam engines, but we seem to have learned about public service from the Russians. As for the music, well, it ain't music any more. Have you noticed that songs no longer have tunes?
Jim
Old Man, speaking as a dyed-in-the-wool (which is a problem, wool is itchy, but i digress) British Invasion guy, some of the new music ain't too bad, although the lyrics are definitely strange.
In the Modern Musicians For Whom There's Hope category, I find Great Northern and Rachael Yamagata. They're not Clapton or Sir Elton John, but then, who is?
There was a young diva, who was very proud of being a virgin, but then she had a kid, shaved her head, and lost her mind. Reminded me of the sixties all over again. She is the poster child for the Movement Against Virgin Divas. Thou shalt not sing until thee understands what thy song is about.
As for public service, here on the frontier, we've rounded up all of our youngsters who are civic minded, armed them, and sent them into combat. Their dedication seems quite sincere, since many of them serve quite literally for the rest of their lives. It turns out that there are millions of them.
One of the things I've noticed about carvers is that one of the reasons successful carvers can go so far is that they can cover the basics way faster than I can. They can spend their time on detail because they can rough that pear out in thirty seconds, where I spend half a day worrying it to death, then retire for the day thinking "well, that's not too bad for a rough-out."
I also noticed, Back In The Day, that carpenters who I thought were the best had habits that were astonishing. They could walk up to a piece of wood, pass their hand over it, and it would seem to jump into basic form, and then they would begin the work of refining it. I really can't explain it, and it turns out that neither can several of them. I used to ask them how on earth they did that, and can they slow down and show me? And they'd try, and fail.
I recall, from another discipline, the concept of four stages, centering around conscious - unconscious and competent - incompetent.
When you've never done something, you're incompetent, and you know it. That's incompetent, conscious. You approach the tablesaw with trepidation, you are very careful, you learn and follow every safety rule exactly, you must think through every move, make the move, then stop and think through the next move. This stage is very, very slow, but it's also relatively safe, because you know that you don't know what you're doing, you know that your only defense against your incompetence is thought, and so you spend the time to do the thinking, and don't move unless you know exactly what you're going to do. You concentrate on one thing at a time, and you don't even think about production or speed.
At incompetent-unconscious, you still don't know what you're doing, but you have basic safety "habits" down, and you believe that you're competent, simply because the tablesaw hasn't taken any parts of your body off. This is the stage at which people lose fingers. You no longer think about basics, and you try to do things normal, sane people would never try. A lot of people spend years and decades at this stage, and many people never progress beyond it. You don't know, but you don't know that you don't know. Apprentices need to be broken, hard, at this level, before they hurt someone important.
When you reach competent-conscious, you will know it. By definition. You understand how the saw works, you know how to cut wood into the shape you want, and you are aware of both your capabilities and your limitations. You understand the saw, what it can do and what it can't do, and you know how to maximize it's potential, both in production and speed.
At this level, if you get a good night's sleep, wake up early, without a hangover, eat a good breakfast and show up ready to pay attention and think hard all day, if you have the stamina to keep up, you can earn a good living. Most Journeyman live at this level. You may only spend a second or two thinking about the basics when you see a problem, but you must spend those seconds. You must think. Good Journeyman have learned to start moving while they are still thinking.
At this level, you've earned the capital "J" in "Journeyman".
The people I mentioned before, (and, I suspect, the carver under discussion) went beyond all that. They reached unconscious, competent. They reached this level that appears magical to the rest of us, even those of us who spent a lifetime in the trades, and understand what we're looking at.
They do the right thing without thought.
It's an amazing level of skill. They glance at the material, at the problem, then they reach out and their hands start doing the right thing, while their mind moves on to consider what must be done next, and they spend no time considering the basics that the rest of us are struggling to master. They do not think about safety, because they do things safely by muscle memory, and would have to stop and think about how to do something that wasn't safe. It is the same phenomenon as if you or I tried to pull away from a four way stop after looking only one direction. It is exactly that level of thoughtless, correct action. Every move counts, many of them count twice. The first moves are automatic, and require no thought. These guys can trim a window with the same level of efficiency that you and I use to change lanes.
If you take a guy who is at this level, and ask him how he does it, unless he is a trained teacher, who has sat down and studied both how he does it and how to explain that sequence to someone else, chances are very good that he won't be able to explain it to you. Teaching a skill like this is a separate skill, and requires the same level of dedication that the skill itself requires.
In fact, stopping to consider the question will interrupt the sequence, and trying to slow down to look at what his hands are doing can mess him up.
If you watch people work, (and I've been privileged to earn my living watching people work and evaluating how well they did so) you will soon see that moment of thought. It may be a flicker, it may be a glance, but if you're looking for it, you will see it. A J-man may start moving while he's thinking, (in which case it's usually time to hand out a raise) or he may actually stop, put his hands on his hips, and stare at the problem for a moment, lost in another world.
And the guys I'm talking about will stand right out, like shining lights.
They have more time and attention to devote to the problem than the rest of us have.
I am not one of them, and they amaze me.
P.S. Old Man, the "I digress" was just for you. I know how you enjoy them. :)
Jammer, excellent post indeed. I love it when you are in the 'zone' and you do things without knowing why and are plotting the next steps in your mind, so you just keep moving.
Teach that and you could make a fortune. I would like to say I could do that working wood, but that is not likely to happen.
Morgan
Jammer, that was nice.
When I see work like that, I feel cheated, for not getting the chance to perform at that level. Having the artistic skills and all the other where with all are worthless without the patrons to fund this kind of work.
It is a sad thing that most of the super wealthy now, wouldn't know the difference between those carvings and molded plastic, unless they were told, and then they wouldn't have the full grasp of it.
I think you should write a guide for educating potential wealthy patrons how to find and nurture budding talented artist.
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