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Carving the Convex Newport Shell

November 17, 2011 / Mary May / Newport Shell, Wood Carving Education
Newport Style Block and Shell Chest of Drawers
Goddard Townsend Six Shell Secretary
Template of Newport shell

Page 2 of “How to Carve the Convex Newport Shell”
Page 1 of “How to Carve the Convex Newport Shell”

Rounding over the convex sections
Side view of v-cuts
Started to carve the v-notches with v-chisel

Shading in concave sections so they don’t get confused with the convex shapes
Re-draw lines that were carved away
Completed “general” shaping of shell

Lowering down surface of shell next to center fan with #3, 18mm
separating the center fan design from the shell with v-chisel
Redraw lines that have been carved away

Different view of rounded over edge of shell
Finished view of rounded over edge
Starting to round over the outside edge with a large flat chisel

Profile view of lower section below shell
Defining the bottom edge of shell with vertical cuts
Starting to lower down section below shell with v-chisel

 NOTE: Click on photos to get better detail

This weekend I will be teaching in Greenville, SC for the Greenville Woodworkers Guild. This is an amazing group of people. I think there are between 600 and 700 members and they have just recently acquired a 20,000+ sq. ft. building for their shop/auditorium/classroom or whatever their needs might be. It’s quite an organization.

Earlier this year I demonstrated for their monthly meeting how to carve a ball and claw foot in front of 250 people! I thought I was going to faint, because I think I forgot to breathe several times. The most I ever spoke in front of was 50 people, and that time it was dark and I was hiding behind a slide projector. I knew I needed to get over this fear of speaking in front of large groups, so who to get more comfortable with than a bunch of friendly, unintimidating woodworkers? It actually went really well, and the fact that I survived to tell about is kind of exciting!

The class this weekend will be 12 students. Most of the students have carved before, so this is going to be an “intermediate” class. Saturday we are going to be going over carving a shell on the knee of a cabriole leg, and Sunday we are going to go over carving the Convex Newport Shell. I generally need 2 days to carve the Newport shell, but we are going to pack it in in 1 day. We may only get half of the lobes carved, but at least we can get a start for people to finish at home.  

I have included some photographs of the process of carving the convex Newport shell up to the point of rounding over the convex sections and hollowing out the concave ones. I really have no idea why I stopped photographing at this point. Maybe distraction? Maybe camera broke? Maybe I never actually finished this one? I can’t remember because it was done several years ago.

I have also included instruction pages for how to carve the shell, and also a template. So any of the missing photos can be made up for by written instruction (I hope). I also have a DVD for sale for this if you are interested (www.marymaycarving.com) with a matching plaster casting that can be used for a physical example to carve from.

I have included 2 photographs of period reproduction pieces that I carved details for.

The first one is a Goddard/Townsend six shell secretary – the originals were built in the middle to late 1700s by the furniture makers of Newport, Rhode Island – John Goddard and John Townsend. This reproduction was built by Greg Guenther in Savannah, GA (www.guentherwoodgroup.com), and I carved the shells, finials and rosettes. One of the originals recently sold at auction for $12 million. Wouldn’t that be nice?

The other photo is another reproduction piece. It is of a block and shell style chest of drawers that was built by Monty Hinson, of Charleston, SC and I carved the shells. These originals were also built by the Goddard and Townsend families – each creating their own unique characteristics as the talents were passed on to the next generation of woodworkers.

These Newport shells are not very easy to carve. When you start to carve the concave and convex secions, there are some tremendous grain difficulties – especially if the wood itself is not clean and straight grained. I would recommend trying it in basswood first, just to get the technique down. And… I do use sandpaper on this to finish the final surface. Just be careful not to round over any of the sharp edges of the little ledge that is carved.

Happy Carving!

8 comments on “Carving the Convex Newport Shell”

  1. Gabriel Robb says:
    November 28, 2011 at 12:06 am

    Beautiful work, Mary!

  2. David Schuhart says:
    December 1, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    I am amazed at your talent and expertise of your craft and art.I see that your early teacher was Greek,though my last name is Schuhart,which is German,my mothers side was Greek,if she was still living today she would be so proud to know that you studied through a Greek master.Keep your your craft-art alive.I admire your work and would love to meat you in person someday. P.S. I saw your eposode of wood carving on the woodwright show on TV. KEEP SCUPTING. Dave Schuhart

    • admin says:
      December 4, 2011 at 8:18 pm

      Dave, thanks so much! I love my job!

  3. Tom McLean says:
    December 2, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    I just finished my reproduction cherry highboy and did some fan carvings and flame finials for the first time. Thanks for the inspiration. You have a very deliberate and methodical way and tons of talent. – Tom McLean

    • admin says:
      December 4, 2011 at 8:20 pm

      Tom, thank you for the encouraging words! Keep up the good work with the reproduction furniture! The possibilities are endless..

  4. Roy Almaroad says:
    December 15, 2011 at 5:47 am

    Mary: I’m a retired art teacher who has always had a love for carving since I can remember. I’ve carving a full size chimpanzee at present from cherry. When will you have a class close to Tennessee? Today is December 15, 2011. I would love to meet you and be part of the class. We can aways learn from truly talented people. Please let me .
    Thanks, Roy

    • admin says:
      December 15, 2011 at 9:03 am

      Roy, contact me at marymaycarving@yahoo.com and we can arrange a class in Charleston. The closest I will be to you is Greenville, SC, but it will be a focused class – either beginner or ball and claw carving. It sounds like you are wanting a more specialized class which will work better if you just come to Charleston and we’ll work on whatever you want to. I would be happy to help you out – sounds like a fun project!

      • Roy Almaroad says:
        December 15, 2011 at 5:56 pm

        Mary: I thought I saw someplace that you would be carving the Newport Shell–thought it was Greenville. Maybe not. Where will you be conducting that
        workshop? I’ve got to be here in TN till Mid-January or so. The pieces that I usually do are much too large to haul around. This Chimp used to weigh about 800lb, lifted the log with the tractor boom and tractor went up; had to drag the log (about 4-5′)
        in. After it has dried out and with some major work, it’s down to about 100lb. I started it about 6 weeks ago. Anyway, let me know about the Shell Class.
        Thanks,
        Roy
        PS–Have you even been to Italy? I’ve hung around Michelangelo’s stuff so much that I feel like I own it. My favorite is still the Nicodemus Pieta in Florence.

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