---- Chris Pye: WOODCARVING - NEWSLETTER ---- September 2002 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com "Dedicated to the teaching, learning and love of woodcarving" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello Everyone - over 2000 of you, worldwide! Please forward this newsletter to a woodcarving friend, and anyone else you think might be interested. Thanks! This is an opt-in newsletter and you should only be receiving it because you requested it from the website, or were sent it by a friend. Subscribe or Unsubscribe easily on the home page here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/index.html or using the link at the end of the newsletter. ****Back issues here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/intro/pastnews.html including zipfile for 2001 newsletters ============================================================ Replying to this Newsletter? PLEASE CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE! ============================================================ CONTENTS: 1. Slipstones Woodcarving Magazine - September 2002 2. Website News 1) New Gallery of Carvings 2) New Website Inspiration 3. Quick Carving Questions 1) How to Carve Linenfold? 2) Lettercarving in Stone? 3) Corners for Egg & Dart Moulding? 4) Capitals for Celtic Uncial Letters? 4. Guest Article: Notes From an American Spoon Maker By Barry Gordon Website Bookmarks at the end. ____________________________________________________________ 1. SLIPSTONES WOODCARVING MAGAZINE - September 2002 ____________________________________________________________ Slipstones Woodcarving Magazine is like an invitation to my workshop where I share my experience of over 25 years as a professional woodcarver, and offer advice and support, along with that of other subscribers. WHY NOT JOIN ME? For full details of this invaluable interactive woodcarving magazine, go now to: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/index.html And get your FREE copy of '101 Master Woodcarving Secrets', exclusive to subscribers. Back issues of Slipstones now available without subscribing. ----- THIS MONTH: The next stage in the ONGOING PHOENIX CARVING which now appears in the new website gallery. (http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/gallery13.html) In particular: *** CARVING FEATHERS *** This is a large bird with a lot of feathers! In this month's Slipstones I show you how to carve very effective feathers, simply and quickly, straight from the tool. A professional touch. Have a look at the gallery picture: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/phoen3.html then find out carve feathers like these in this month's Slipstones. ----"Slipstones is worth the year's subscription just for this one technique of carving feathers alone!" - R.P. (UK) ---- *** MAKE A NIGHTWATCHMAN'S STOOL! *** Why? And what's a Nightwatchman's stool anyway? Well it's a sort of handy perch that's great for having around the bench for easing tired legs. Find out how to make one - and what it has to do with nightwatchmen (and bicycles) here... *** And more, including 'LINES OF LIGHT' and CARVING TIPS. Subscribe to Slipstones magazine. And get your FREE copy of '101 MASTER WOODCARVING SECRETS', exclusive to subscribers. Have you downloaded your FREE sample edition of Slipstones? Find it here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/index.html ____________________________________________________________ 2. WEBSITE NEWS ____________________________________________________________ 1) NEW GALLERY OF CARVINGS "Phoenix Rising from the Flames" Featured in Slipstones over the last few months and carved for a country house in Herefordshire, it's phinished, photographed, and here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/gallery13.html 2) NEW INSPIRATION This has got to be one of my favourite carvings, ever. Both it and the carver - Pedro de Mena (Spanish. 1628-1688) - are not well known. In fact I've yet to find anything else carved by de Mena, yet this is so deceptively relaxed and competent; an absolute masterwork. I won't say more; go and have a look: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/g_inspiration.html __________________________________________ 3. QUICK CARVING QUESTIONS __________________________________________ **** QUESTION 1: LINENFOLD CARVING? **** "What's the best way to begin carving linenfold?" **** ANSWER **** Have a look at 2 books: 1: 'Woodcarving: The Beginner's Guide' by William Wheeler &, Charles H. Hayward (http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/writing/recbks/w_recbk_wheeler.html) 2: 'Essential Woodcarving Techniques' by Dick Onians (http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/writing/recbks/w_recbk_onians.html) Both on the website and both have good descriptions of how to carve linenfold. Linenfold is quite easy really. Essentially you route or shape the longitudinal runs, then carve the ends. If in doubt about how they 'work', make a clay model of the ends. =================================== **** QUESTION 2: LETTERING IN STONE **** "Could you provide me a good reference on lettercarving in stone?" **** ANSWER **** This book: 'Lettercutting in Stone' by Richard Grasby has got to be the best I know. It is very clear and easy to follow. I have put details here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/writing/recbks/w_recbk_grasby.html =================================== **** QUESTION 3: EGG & DART MOULDING CORNERS? **** "In the layout of egg and dart mouldings, it seems that it would be best to turn the corner on an egg and match up that way. Am I thinking right? Or should it end and turn differently? I will have corners turning both ways - inside and outside?" **** ANSWER **** Neither the egg itself nor the dart look right when 'bent', either with inside or outside 'returns'. For this reason, egg and dart corners are normally done with a small acanthus leaf overlaying a sort of blob-like mass (something like an egg, but I wouldn't like to be the chicken that laid it). It's best if you do a bit of research and look at a few examples - picture frames are good. An alternative is to finish a corner with a square block, perhaps with a patera detail, stopping short of the moulding. =================================== **** QUESTION 4: CELTIC UNCIAL CAPITAL LETTER? **** "I am wanting to letter a Christening stool with name "Tegan", which I believe is Welsh. I have therefore decided to use the Celtic Uncial form as in your lettercarving book. However, your book only gives the lower case and I am at a loss on how to design the upper case and numerals - can you give me any help or advice please." **** ANSWER **** There IS no upper case in the uncials! The uncial was more or less complete by the 4th century AD and derived from Roman pen capitals. I never include capitals in my own uncial work, preferring a parallel string of forms, but you could go for a larger version of the letter if you must - perhaps as a 'drop'? ____________________________________________________________ 4. GUEST ARTICLE: Notes From an American Spoon Maker By Barry Gordon ____________________________________________________________ NOTES FROM AN AMERICAN SPOON MAKER By Barry Gordon I am in my 25th year of making wood spoons and other utensils (stirrers, servers, spatulas etc.) for preparing and serving food. I also teach spoon making and write about this craft and its material. My work is simple of line and I emphasize form and the idiosyncratic beauty of wood. My functional Table Tools are made with the intent that our "tools of daily living" can be attractive, well designed and carefully made. I also make one-of-a kind spoons that are typically seen as decorative objects. The Table Tools are made from kiln dried, rough sawn boards. Pieces right off the tree are used for the one-of-a-kind work and, for these, I usually do rough shaping while the wood contains a lot of water; subsequent shaping occurs after the piece has lost much of that moisture. I use locally available species, primarily hard maple (Acer saccharum and Acer nigrum) which, to our great fortune, is relatively abundant here in Central New York state and European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica L.) an invasive, small, non-native weed tree that contains strong, attractive wood. Although I have great affection for edge tools and thoroughly include them in my workshops, most of my work is accomplished with the aid of electricity and the use of abrasives. I speak of the "joy" of spoon making, referring to the process of finding an apparently "useless" small piece of wood and proceeding to fashion it into an attractive, well-balanced utensil that provides nourishment for body and soul. Spoon making can be accomplished with portable and stationary power tools but it can also be done by very simple means. One can progress from standing tree to finished spoon using only a handful of edge tools. Very little space is required and suitable wood can often be obtained at little, or no, cost. This means that the craft can be undertaken without great expense and that spoons can be made in a variety of settings. There are many wood spoon makers in the United States and a lot of them pursue the craft professionally. Work ranges from rudimentary and undistinguished to highly sophisticated sculptural interpretations made for collectors. Styles range from traditional to contemporary and from highly detailed (such as chip carved) to unadorned. The American craft market is really a multi-layered market with variation in audience, geographic range, quality and price. The largest part of the market is dominated by small operations employing up to a dozen or more workers. These businesses fulfil the role of producing functional utensils neglected by more conventional manufacturers of woodenware. At the other end of the scale are makers working individually and creating decorative spoons that may sell for more than $1000. A few of us have made preliminary attempts to create a directory of spoon makers and have even considered organizing an exhibition of contemporary makers' work but lack of time and financial support prove limiting. These tentative efforts have been focused on American spoon makers but we would welcome parallel efforts by spoon makers in other countries. ----------------------------------------------------------- (c) Copyright 2002: Barry Gordon Barry Gordon is a wood spoon maker living near Syracuse, New York in the USA. His work can be seen at: http://barrygordon.com. An article on wood spoon making that Barry wrote for the December 2000 issue of WOODWORK can be viewed on his website along with a Gallery of 12 spoon makers' work that appeared in the same issue. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ That's all for this month! Joy and success in your carving! Chris Pye ------------------------- PS: Another one to ponder at the bench: 'Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first BE who you really are, then, DO what you need to do, in order to HAVE what you want." - Margaret Young SOME WEBSITE BOOKMARKS ____________________________________________________________ * UK TOOLSHOP: Auriou woodcarving tools and other equipment http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/toolshop/ts_uktoolshop.html * UKTOOLSHOP Direct Link (missing out introductory page): http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/toolshop/uktoolshop/index.html * Slipstones Magazine http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/index.html * Learning to Carve Free - eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/learncarving/learn_ebook.html * A Guide to Safe Woodcarving - Free eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/safecarving/safecarving_index.html * Mistakes and Woodcarving - Free eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/mistakes/mistakes_ebook.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright (c) Chris Pye 2002 Chris@chrispye-woodcarving.com ------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Pye: Woodcarving Newsletter is listed in the EzinesPlus directory of newsletters and ezines. http://ezinesplus.com -------------------------------------------------------------