I’ve been checking this folder every day, hoping it doesn’t die and interesting discussions crop up. In the absence of anything else,….
Let’s say you’ve been interested in learning to carve for a while,..6 to 12 months or so. You’ve got a few carving tools, some old some new, different brands,…a few books,…you’ve done some letter carving, which turned out well,…you’ve done some shell and fan carving which turned out,…rather okay, we’ll say, for the sake of argument. Recognizable, at least. What next? What sort of carving projects did you start out with as a beginner that really got your blood flowing?….No, maybe I should reword that,….that really fired up the imagination and motored you up the learning curve?
Replies
Well, it depends on you.
I carve primarily signs and relief work for furniture embellishment. Flame finials, legs, etc.
Purer carving either in teh round, or relief has so many different ways to go.
Check out http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com to see some real inspiration.
The older I get, the better I was....
Hi ,papanick it is intersting question i think you have to ask yourself and answer for yourself you can't get an answer from any one else ,no body read your mind and knows what you think and what you interesting for think if you really interesting what to curv ask yourself the answer is in your soul. good luck
Edited 12/22/2005 11:00 pm ET by teddy
Hey, Ed,
On an eight-month cruise (aboard the carrier Forrestal), one of our RIOs wanted to learn to carve, and his project was a wood linked-chain that ended with a cage containing a loose wooden ball. (He wasn't married, so the idea of a ball and chain didn't bother him.) He carved the item from one piece of wood--no glue. I don't know whether he found the pattern in a book, figured it out, or whatever. I know that I was impressed with his work, and I would guess that he had excellent skills moving forward.
Bob
Fired up carving idea: After shells you must be pretty good. I believe one of the best exercises for a relief carver is practice on the classic VOLUTE. Depending on your tools(sweep) you can determine the volute and its shape. From there you can carve volutes in many proportions, depths, and surface textures. After carving rather high relief stuff, I got into kentucky longrifles and "low relief carving" techniques. Most of the patterns follow a roccoco design concept. The challenge is capturing shadows and light with features 1/16-3/32" above and below the curved surface.
If you enjoy viewing learning tapes in the carving field, I strongly recommend the vhs tape by Wallace Gusler(Colonial Williamsburg Master Gunsmith) set in a classroom presentation. It features design, tooling, sharpening, and carving a complete rifle. If you don't care for rifles, its still a great investment as it holds an enormous amount of information you won't regret viewing. I have shown this to countless carvers and they all gain some information they said is just priceless.
Tapes available with a Wallace Gusler search or American Pioneer Video search.
Good Luck
Dan O'S
After carving several low relief items, like shells, I carved an acanthus leaf: that was the most fun so far; the most challenging has been a Queen Anne stool with 4 cabriole legs, ball & claw feet, volutes on the knees & returns, and shells on the aprons.
I recently turned out a quick (3 or 4 hours) carving of grapes and grape leaves in walnut using a pattern from Nora Hall. It was fun and rewarding because it now hangs above the door to my best friend's wine cellar.
A friend of mine is carving a bust of a USMC hero - quite a challenge, both because it is three dimensional, and because it has to be recognizable as the subject under study. I'm definitely not ready to tackle anything that advanced yet.
Have fun, and good luck,
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled