Hello Mary,
I love all of your videos and teaching. Did you glue-up the wood blocks which was turned to make the blank which you carved? I'm curious if you have any advice to share about wood selection and gluing up the wood to make the blank, such as orientation of the grain, etc. Also, I noticed that while carving, a cut must proceed from one wood block into another (blocks glued together). For example, the seam between two glued blocks is in the middle of a leaf. How do you make successful cuts when presented with the change in grain and/or hardness between the two blocks? Or...am I worried about a challenge that really isn;t a big deal? Thank-you in advance for your answer.
Jim Maas in Seattle.
Hi Jim,
So often the furniture maker that I am working for prepares the wood, so I often do not have to deal with issues of gluing up the blocks myself. However sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes not. There have been times where I receive a glued up block where that area where the wood is joined caused the grain to completely switch directions. That is when I wish I would have done it myself. If you find yourself in this situation, the best way to deal with this is to work on the technique of cutting across the grain. It's the only way to do it. Going in one direction with the grain is fine - run into the join - and your going against the grain. Stop at that join and cut straight across the grain in a slicing motion. Even when you are not dealing with glued up pieces of wood, you will run across this where the grain decided to take a different direction. Again, stop and cut across the grain. It is probably the most valuable cut that I have discovered - it gets me out of a lot of those places where it otherwise would be impossible to clean out.
Mary, very confusing but good lesson. Haunted by the donut was a good way of putting it. One ?, what surface are you working on, your work bench. It has a vise or clamping system I do not have. Have you any videos discussing clamps, vices or various hold downs?
Must be rough running a school and carving..I hope it's still fun for you. I made a big purchase of Stubai tools on Wednesday, they came today. As excited as I am to have them, i'm very intimidated at the different sizes. I'm going to send you what I have purchased so far and if you have time, could you help be see what these are for on your list and what others I still need?
Tracy,
That's very funny! The more you play around with the tools, the less scary they become. After 20 years of carving, I can still say I love to carve - when I do finally get to the shop to carve, I sort of feel like "this is right - this calms me down - this fits - everything is right with the world". Can't get much better than that, can it? The video school is just another dimension, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
@Tracy, auch ich habe mit Stubai-Werkzeug aus Tirol eine gute Erfahrung gemacht, bin aber später auf die Schweizer Marke PFEIL umgestiegen! M.f.G. Siegmar
Translated: Tracy, I too have had a good experience with Stubai tool from Tyrol, but I am switched later to the Swiss brand ARROW! M.f.G. Sigmar
Hi Mary
Do you have any photos of a carved Fleur De Lis? I would like to include one in a relief carving with Acanthus leaf. I don't know where to start and the best tools to use. I joined your on line school 3 days ago and have already learned a whole lot about carving. Keep up the great work, thank you!
Steve
Steve, I don't have a photograph of one that I have done. Have you tried googling "Fleur Des Lis Photos"? Sometimes some pretty impressive images come up. That would be my best suggestion. I will also see if I can find any. If you find one that you like, let me know. It is a good project to do a video on.
I really liked the instruction, watching it go from block to hand was quite amazing.. thanks for all the great teaching.. you are an inspiration.... Papa
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