Looking for patriotic carving patterns
Our weekly church bulletin always lists the members who are serving in the military overseas. There are currently over 30 young men & women serving, mostly in the middle east & Iraq. We have a bulletin board in the church front hallway for the purpose of posting photos, letters, of these folks, but it is sort of cheap looking, and way too small. I have an idea to build a larger bulletin board frame from mahogany, and include in the framework a patriotic relief carving of an eagle and flag or some similar suitable work. I have been carving only a few years, so nothing overly large or complicated. So far, a search of the internet has produced no carving patterns I’m satisfied with. (Checked the site with carving patterns from Lora Irish, found nothing I was real pleased with.)
Can anyone point me in the direction of something suitable, either from the net or a book with suitable patterns for a project like this? Would appreciate and thoughts. Thanks, Gary
Replies
Gary:
Stumbled across your question. Have you ever tried making your own pattern? Try finding an image you are pleased with, print it out or save as a picture if it is a jpeg or tiff or giff file. Print it out, and trace over it. You can resize the piece on your computer to fit the frame you are going to make. Print out and adhere or trace onto the piece to be carved. Hope this helps.
Steve
Steve,
Yes, I have considered doing what you suggested: finding a suitable image, enlarging it and printing it, then tracing over it with carbon paper onto the wood. That's what I did with my last project, a set of military flight wings. I have searched briefly under images and icons, but still can't find what strikes me as something suitable. I remember seeing a picture of an eagle with a "U.S.A." ribbon in its beak sometime recently, but can't find it again, now that I need it. Anyway, I'll keep looking. Thanks for the suggestion. Any other suggestions for books or sites to check would be appreciated. Thanks, Gary
Here are a couple of sites:
This site has hundreds of military and similar pieces - they're mostly ancient (Roman, Etruscan, and the like), but soldiers, battles, eagles, beloved ones away at war, etc. are timeless themes!
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/index2.html
It would also definitely be worthwhile to poke around the Smithsonian's site for patriotic images - here's one place to start :
http://www.si.edu/history_and_culture/military_and_war/
I find that the web sites of free 'clip art' with patriotic themes are usually both trite and quite poorly drawn - and there's no need to honor the ultimate sacrifice with bad taste!
Finally, try your local library for a book called "The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration" by Heck (or buy it at Amazon - I love mine). (I'm sure there are many others similar.) This is many, many hundreds of pages of non-copyrighted images, intended for this sort of use exactly. Then, when you find one you like, have it photocopied and sized correctly, and transfer the image straight onto the wood for carving - See the current thread on 'image transfers' in this carving forum for info on that.
I hope this helps, and please let us see what you end up doing - I can't imagine a more honorable cause.
Clay
Clay,
What a great site (the Smithsonian). I got so involved in looking over all the displays I forgot to check for carving patterns. I'll check again soon. Thanks much. Gary
Yeah, those shots of Marilyn Monroe in Korea will always get your patriotic juices going ...
Glad you liked it,
Clay
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