• From Gerald Leonard on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

    Watching the video, some of the cuts seemed to be against the grain Am I imagining that or was it the best / only way to make the cuts. They where on ends of the leaves, on the top and bottom the carving. Maybe a video on cuts and the considerations one goes through during a carving.

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    2014/05/08 at 9:40 pm
    • From Mary May on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

      I may appear to be cutting against the grain, but I am pretty confident (especially with butternut), the wood is going to split out if I cut against the grain. Sometimes it's difficult to picture this when watching a video. The ultimate test is to put chisel to wood and give it a go!

      I try to mention it on the videos when I switch directions to work with the grain. If I don't mention it, when I switch from hand to hand, or right to left, the grain issue is usually the reason.

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      2014/05/08 at 10:12 pm
  • From Gerald Leonard on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

    Just finished watching the two videos. Thought it would be nice to be able to toggle between the video and a picture of the finished carving to better understand how a particular step helped get to the end results.

    Loved how you worked a design in progress. Made me think of Marc's sculptural rocking chair class; where he explained to me that the wood would tell me how to sculpted it. Took me a while to get it; but wow! I can see the same idea in carving; and in turning.

    Have you ever carved in figured wood? Such as a flower?

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    2014/05/07 at 11:52 pm
    • From Mary May on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

      Might be an idea to print out the pdf file of the photo of finished piece (below the video) and have that in front of you while you are carving.

      No I have not carved much figured wood if I could help it. I have enough problem with grain in straight wood! That's would be a job for a dremel tool 🙂

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      2014/05/08 at 7:50 am
  • From Gerald Leonard on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

    On the serious side. High prof booze or rubbing alcohol should work as a release agent. If you are using the release agent; you should be done carving and deserve a treat.

    Loving the videos, watching the beginning videos made me think of your classes at MASW. Was telling my doctor about then and that I was felling you were in the room with me as a listening and watching videos.

    One feature that would be very useful is the ability to navigation the videos back and forth to review the lesson for us slow learners.

    Also I'd like to see your "other hand" during the lessons and not just the tool holding hand; I suspect there is a lot of information on subtle tool control.

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    2014/05/07 at 10:28 pm
    • From Mary May on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

      Glad you're enjoying the videos. On occasion I back the camera up to show both hands, but more of the cuts are focused on the detail of the actual cuts. I'll keep that in mind. If you drag the blue bar along the bottom of the screen you can scoot the video forward or backward as much as you want.

      Have fun!

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      2014/05/08 at 7:46 am
  • From Gerald Leonard on Carving a Fleur-De-Lis Appliqué - Episode 1

    Denatured alcohol ! Vodka, than you can lick up any spills; and improve your spirits !

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    2014/05/06 at 5:02 pm
  • From Jack Boggio on Carving a Turned Capital - Episode 1

    I would like to carve this exact piece for practice. Can you supply dimensions for turning the carving blank?

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    2014/05/05 at 5:09 pm
    • From Mary May on Carving a Turned Capital - Episode 1

      Hi Jack,
      I have a plaster casting of this carving. I don't have it on my store as an item for sale, but if you want it, I would be happy to sell it. That's even better than measurement! It would be $30 plus shipping of $8. If you want I can e-mail you more details.

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      2014/05/05 at 6:50 pm