Monthly Archives: April 2012

Drawing some Gothic Tracery for carving layout

On April 28, 2012 by Badger With 2 Comments - books, carving, learning

I’ve always been fascinated with the carving examples of “Gothic Tracery”, and the intricate and delicate feel to them.  After taking the “By hand and by eye” class with Jim Tolpin, and the ideas I picked up behind laying out things with a compass, I was somewhat inspired to do a little research.  However, there is VERY little out there for the aspiring carver to pick up and learn from.

Gothic Carving example from a 15th Century French Chest.

I did finally find a book on Google Books that was of some help:  Practical wood-carving: a book for the student, carver, teacher, designer, and architect by Eleanor Rowe.  She touches on Gothic Tracery in some what obscure language in the book, and I sat down today to try and figure out how to lay this stuff out.

Starting with this (Page 99)

Layout starting point

I came up with this:

Sketching some Gothic Tracery…

I learned a few things, and actually feel pretty good about laying out this basic “quatrefoil”.  No measuring happened, just arcs and lines.  It’s a starting point, and I’m going to try and get some time down in the garage to lay this out, and try some carving.

This one was my favorite of the two, where I used a midpoint on the radius to base the circular lobes on.  I know that makes no sense, but putting compass to paper really helped figure this stuff out in my head.  The layout was fairly simple once I got started, it’s just complex looking to start out doing.

Shield shaped center quatrefoil

Let’s see what happens when the chisel hits the wood.

Badger

Bit of Pen Work…

On April 15, 2012 by Badger With 0 Comments - pens

Finished up a special order for a set of 10 pens to be used as a graduation gift at a ceremony.

This is for a repeat customer of mine, and I’m pretty pleased with these pens.  The Koa wood I used showed a lot of variation, and has some very nice grain patterning, as well as a substantial curl in some of the wood.   The Paduak looks gorgeous as always, and there was on in Rosewood by special request.

 

Special Order of Pens

I haven’t had a lot of work in the Pen department for a while, so it was good to get down to the shop and turn a bit of wood again.

I did have one blow up slightly at the last possible moment, so I had to make one extra in the 11th hour.  The wood near the tip pulled up slightly, and was noticeable.  It’s not terrible, just not up to my quality standards.  Sucks that it happened at the last possible second, when I would have to totally pull the thing apart (no easy task, and no guarantee of success either).

Badger