(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-20-18 Saturday
During the week, we had some bitter cold temps in the low 40s. I started a fire in the fire place to warm up the house and the flame froze. I started another flame. Both are shivering under a blanket, too cold to do anything.... a giant iceberg crashed into the Titanic and sunk her. At least that is what the fisherman said was the cause of the sinking of his row boat. It has to be gospel if it is from a fisherman. Traffic was really backed up due to slipping and sliding on the icy roads. It is either that or their normal driving style. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.
This week is the celebration of my starting wood working back in January 17 2000. Before that year, I was writing stories and building model houses for a model railroad layout. Dad kept asking me to take up carving, and I had no interest at the time. One day I decided to try it. I borrowed one of his knives and a piece of wood and carved a man with his arms down his side. The brim of the hat was supposed to go all the way around, but kept breaking. It ended up looking like Charles DeGaul. The french leader near that time.
Dad had gone through a period in learning to carve where you could see the shape of the wood he started with, as he was doing more like relief carving rather than shaping. I had made the decision that I would, instead, dig deep into the wood with my carvings. I still have my first four carvings.
Dad did a carving style popular at the time where you have like tall cowboys, their legs straight and arms at the side. The head might be made separately and stuck on, turned to a different direction. I wanted movement from the beginning, legs bent, arms crossing the body.
Dad had a really good way to teach me carving. “He would pat me on the head and tell me to do another.” is the best way to describe it. Other than having his stuff as examples and showing me how to make my own knives, Dad really never taught me how to carve. “A self made man is a prime example of unskilled labor”.
It was not until the last couple years of his life that I saw how good a carver he really was. He had taken classes from some of the best carvers in the world . He made some clay platters with 3D faces of my nieces and nephews. They were recognizable. Like with my fairies, I as lucky they looked female.
In 2003, I got a lathe and that took up a lot of my carving time. I would turn for many weeks, then carve for many weeks. Each time I swapped, it felt like I was returning to an old friend. In later years, I have done more turning that carving, though I did a series of vases with faces carved into them.
In my carvings, I concentrated on the knife. I avoided chisels because you had to have so many of them to do anything. I figured if I learned the knife, I could master it, and would fully understand when it just would not do the job. I did find that a chisel would solve a few of my carving problems, most of the chisels were intended for relief carvings with different sweeps.
I also used the dremmel or other power for much of my carvings. I am not a purist, where “all work must be by hand” or “Only use specific tools.” I worked from the idea that whatever gets the job done is to be used.
This year, I had a scheduling problem, health problems, a storm combining together to keep me from working wood. Some other projects also got in the way.
Right now, my mom’s awning, where I do all my work, requires repair. It was put up years before 2000 and many of the support pipes are rusted through and needs replacement. I have no other place to use my lathe. The lathe needs a repair too. Scheduling problems prevent me from just sitting down and carving some place, especially since a lot of my carving stuff is stowed away when it was picked up for the storm.
I am hoping this year will change. I have a life-time of wood that needs to be made into sawdust, with something to show from what is leftover. Both carving and wood turning will require retraining my body to be able to do it again.
Will see what happens in the upcoming times.
the left hand carving was the very first I did. The second from the left was my second carving and it was a cedar board. The left hand carving was one I posed myself to get the position right. Other than the arms crossing being done wrong, it is still a good carving. I also learned on that one that I hated sanding.... These are examples of carving deep and hiding the original wood shape.
