Today was a very busy day working with messy, dusty machines. If I know I have to use grinders, routers, or whatever it is, I try to do it all in one day to get it over with. I really could do without doing this part, but I guess it gets me to the fun part faster!

I cut out the ball and claw feet blanks on a bandsaw for the class this weekend that will be held at Roy Underhill’s - The Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, NC. There are still 3 openings (I think), so if you’re in that area, these classes are a lot of fun. You don’t really need any carving experience either.

Then on to grinding out a piece of marble with a diamond grinder to shape the little sculpted hand so I can complete the repair. My eyes are still gritty – even with goggles. Once I fit this snuggly on the original, so the wrist is the same size, I will then finish the fingers with a hand-chisel and do the finishing. The hand will be slightly smaller after finishing details.

Then on to routing out the background of a new project. I am working on a detail for a medieval table for a church. Andrew Gould, (www.newworldbyzantine.com) an architect that specializes in some amazing classical designs came up with this sort of rustic celtic/scandinavian design.

The background goes down about 1/4″, and then all the scrolls, celtic knots and creatures are hand-carved. This is quarter-sawn white oak, so I’ll be spending a lot of time sharpening tools tomorrow. I have videoed the process of doing the small corner design, so that will eventually be on the video school web site.

And after all this, I still have to finish the work for Savannah. And… I am continuing to work on getting the online school up. My aim at this point is fully publishing it for late June or early July. I will be spending the next month doing a lot of test runs and making sure everything runs without issues.

So…It doesn’t look as if sleep is on my list over the next few weeks or months. It’s over-rated…

I am in Savannah, GA working with master furniture maker and restorer, Greg Guenther (www.guentherwoodgroup.com). He is making a new altar table to match an existing one, and I am going to be carving the details. There will be 2 large capitals, egg and dart going around the entire table, and some leaf molding at the column base.

Today I worked mainly on getting the details carved for one side of the capital, so when I go back home tomorrow I can work on all 4 sides of 2 capitals, about 20 ft of egg and dart (over 200 of them!) and about 4 ft of simple leaf molding that will go around the base of the column. We went to the church today to take photos and get as many measurements and profiles as possible (photos above show us measuring with profile gauges and photos of original carvings). It would definitely be much easier if I had the capitals in front of me when I carve, but no such luck in this case. The originals are a cast stone, and very attached to the altar table. They aren’t going anywhere. We’ll go back over to the church tomorrow and put my first attempt up to the original to see how closely it matches. Many things to consider and many contoured shapes.

Tomorrow I will also make sure I am on the right track with the design of the egg and dart and leaf molding. Then when I get home, I’ve got a lot of work to do! I need to finish it within 1-1/2 weeks, along with lots of other work happening (and getting the video web site set up). No rest for the weary! But having fun doing it!

Speaking of the video web site, I’m going to video the process of carving this capital (once I get it to an efficient process and correct design) as one of the projects. I’ll also show how to make the leaf molding (already have one for the egg and dart). So basically, when I have a job that I am working on, the video recorder is running – dogs barking, roosters crowing, telephone ringing – most of which I will attempt to edit out. But these videos will be as real as life! Pimples and all!

Wayne Ferree sent me a photo of the finished carving of the Elmira College sign I helped carve back in December. I spent a week focusing on carving the building, and they finished the landscaping and tree carving after I left. It’s exciting to see the finished piece – lots of blood, sweat, and tears (literally!)

I’ve made some good progress on the acanthus detail in the center of the shell niche. I am happy with the way it is turning out.

Many times I will draw the design on paper first, but with the scroll design and the contours involved, I really needed to draw the design straight on the wood so the proportions will work with the shell the best. At the drawn-on stage (before starting to carve it), I traced the design on velum paper so I can have an accurate design repeated for the other 2 shells.

If you look at the first photo (the one that shows most of the shell), you can see little marks on the flutes of the shell. These were marked off with calipers at 2 locations down the length of these flutes to make sure when I take a flexible ruler (1/2″ wide piece of cardboard) I can get an accurate line that keeps consistent along the whole shell. Very easy for the lines to get wobbly or uneven. 2 of these marks down the length is really a minimum. 3 or 4 would have been better. I relied on my eyes a lot in making sure the lines made sense.

The scroll details still need to be carved, but I think I’m pretty close to finishing the acanthus leaf. I may lower the background a little more to cause the leaf to stand out more, but we’ll see. I should have it finished next week.

Lots of exciting work coming up – along with the video school!

God is good!

I had a fun little job the other day where I carved a tiny little rosette to match a rosette for an antique chair. It was about the size of a quarter. I got out my micro-tools, and it’s amazing after carving a huge thing like the shell niche, and then go down to something this size, you really have to concentrate on what kind of pressure you can (or cannot) put on this tiny little button.

I am working on one of three shell niches that I am carving for a historical home in Louisville, KY. These are quite a bit larger than the previous shell niches I did. These are 32″ wide x 16″ tall x 12″ deep. My husband figured out the measurements and band-sawed out much of the basswood before gluing the pieces up.

I’m getting a little wiser as I do more of these. I’m forgetting my purist carving attitude and actually taking advantage of some of the incredible technology out there.

I picked up a grinder from Woodcraft the last time I taught in Greenville, SC that really gets the wood away quickly and cleanly. Then I am taking an auto-mac chisel (sort of vibrates back and forth) so I don’t have to use a mallet to get the main hollows out when shaping the shell. I’m cleaning it up by hand, and doing the precision cuts with my gouges, but anything that is requiring brute force, I’m using machines! Sorry to all you that thought I was a die-hard traditionalist. My husband has been pushing me to take advantage of all the technology that hogs the wood away – well, I’m finally bending… my back is much happier for it.

My cat really wants to help…

Also, look to the right side of the blog and I have created a YouTube video as a little teaser of what type of instructional videos I will have on my on-line woodcarving school. I’m really getting excited about doing this. Any requests of topics would be greatly appreciated.

What an absolutely beautiful area of the country! Berea is about 30 miles south of Lexingon – real horse country. And not just country hobby horse farms – these are multi-million dollar horse racing farms. Berea itself is a lovely little artist community. There is an artisan center just off the interstate that sells high-end crafts and art. They have some amazing things there. I always love to see what people come up with when they want to start a little cottage business of selling things they create out of their own home – such creative and clever ideas – and so much talent. 

The class went really well. Kelly Mehler’s school (www.kellymehler.com) has a wonderful atmosphere – set in the country, relaxed pace, and the catered-in lunches were amazing! Oh yeah – and we also got some carving done! This was a beginning class with 11 students, and in 3 days we got a lot of learning and carving (and fun) - carved the camellia flower, an acanthus leaf, and a scallop shell (and how could I forget the donut to start out with?) I always find after a class a little sadness – you meet all these people, you spend several days getting to know them, and we all go our separate ways… and you wonder when or if you will ever see them again. Sniff… they are my friends…One day we shall meet again in the world of woodcarving or wherever… Farewell my faithful woodcarvers!

I’m off to teach a beginning class at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, KY. It’s my first time teaching at this school, and I have heard great things about it. I have driven through Berea, and it is a wonderful little artist community just south of Lexington, KY.

I have been working on my on-line woodcarving school where I will have all videos available on-line. I am considering charging $7/month and will probably start out with about 15 videos available, and then add another video every 1 to 2 weeks. The videos will either be an entire project from start to finish, or little snippets and tips for carving. I’m really excited about this, and have been videoing anything and everything that I have been working on over the past few months. At the moment, I am about 80% through figuring out how to set up the web site to include this. It’s the 20% that I desparately need help on. But I am determined to do this! And I really want to make it user-friendly. So…bear with me a little while longer. I also still need to edit quite a few videos to get started.

Finished the tax audit this morning – what a relief! Thank God it went well and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Sometimes I get some very interesting work. A client has brought a 4-post bed in that has a pressed acanthus design. I am not really sure how they did this, because it is very deeply pressed. Maybe this wood allows it. He wants me to touch it up to look hand carved. I never turn down a job! Not in this economy. He didn’t really want me to completely re-carve it, but just to put some hand cuts in and give it a little more shape. I could really go to town on this… but I had to hold back

Last year I scored at a Good Will store and bought a machine-carved rice bed for $100. It was actually a nicely carved bed, but I couldn’t have a machine carved rice bed! So I spent a week re-carving it and making the details more crisp and defined, and then refinishing it (I am definitely NOT a finisher). The one way you can tell if it is machine carved, or mass produced, is if the edges are not a sharp corner. In other words, if they use a router, there will be a softened look without much crispness, because the smallest router bit they usually use is about 1/16″. There will also be a general sanding over the whole surface which really makes the details all blend together.

I went to the Citadel College this morning and gave a slide show and carving demo to 3 art appreciation classes. I was trying to recruit for an apprentice (i.e. 7 years of slave labor in my workshop) but I was disappointed that there were no takers. What is happening to the youth these days???

Never a dull moment on these shores…