the making of
I never had any formal art class or training in carving, so I was pretty much winging it through the entire process. I did have some drafting background so I knew that I could draw with accuracy, and I am not totally incompetent when in comes to design. Or, maybe I am and this stuff is really just very easy. While carving the project went by the name Exodus.
One of the biggest compliments I always receive is when someone asks, "Was this done by computer?". Another thing I have always heard, quite consistently actually, is that I must have the patience of Job. I'd have to agree that I do have a great deal of patience. In fact I have never met someone as patient as myself.
I recently discovered I had taken pictures along the way - 10 years ago, with a point and shoot film camera. The prints are admittedly pretty bad, but at least they exist, eh.
During the process of drawing and carving, I had to problem solve and literally make up tools as I went along. Tools like a 3' long adjustable compass, anti-crossed eye glasses (Yeah, you read right), ceiling mounted positionable lighting, protection system, knives, and a XY task light. Some of these will be pictured on the tools of.
Grey is made in three major sections that fit together like a puzzle. I really don't remember where I started, but I know I drew each piece in it's entirety, and carved it, before I started on the next piece. Below you'll see a couple drawing tools and a small power eraser and the right hand side of Grey. The pieces fit inside a trough made to protect the edges during carving, and I used a dummy center piece to fill in the center cavity.
Below is my setup. I looked around for operating room lights so I can position light where I needed it, when I needed it. At that time, operating room lights were hard to come by :-) So, I made a complex pulley system on my office ceiling attached to pods that each held three articulated desk lights, pictured right. In both pictures you can see my main light that actually attached to rail that slide across Grey as an up close and personal light. It slide along both the X and Y axis, plus it was articulated, so it was really all light, *anywhere* I wanted it. Right side, you can is also see more of my drawing tools.
As you can see below, I carve much like I think, out of order, but precisely. There is no rhyme or reason to where I carve and when, it is more probably what part I find that I'd like to focus on that day. One thing about chip carving is that it is completely unforgiving. If you make it mistake, it's a mistake, forever. In other styles of carving, say relief, if you make a small mistake, you can make the leaf or branch a little longer, or shorter. In chip carving, there is so much symmetry, it would just not fit - it's like if a single piece of a puzzle is made wrong - you can tell.
So, I didn't make any mistakes.
Below right is the amount of the wood that was exposed at any one time. When in the field, I was pretty much laying on top of Grey. I was able to do this because I was very careful to completely protect the entire surface at all times. I used 3/32 thick dense paper sheets to bridge over the already carved portions while laying on top. There was NEVER any portion exposed unless I was carving it. When I carved close to an edge I used a knee chair when the angle permitted.
Pictured above right is the mounting system for Grey (this is all kinda out of order I guess!) After much thought, I went with a french shelf for several reasons. First, there was no where to screw through the carving. Second, it was in three pieces and I didn't want a lot of "handling" during any mounting or moving task. Lastly, seemed like it was the thinnest design I could come up with. The mahogany frame *is* the french shelf. So, besides Grey, the frame/mount is only 3/4 inch thick and mounts flat to the wall. Pictured is the carving side portions, permanently attached to Grey, that hang on the french shelf. I did a lot of testing on a lot of types of glues to find the strongest bond. TightBond II, at the time, was the winner. My only regret was that I should have tried harder to devise a frame that could have been dismantled for shipping. The frame is the largest single piece.
See, on right, why did I carve it that way? Seriously I left the middle field for last? You'd think I'd work outward or something... whatever. Anyways, as you can see I mixed a little relief carving in with all the geometric chip carving. I didn't want any still life, as that would completely clash (and I dislike still life carvings), but the patterns and contours work well in my opinion.
D
Reader Comments (1)
Great!
Embedded in http://www.facebook.com/intagliolegno