I read on Peter Follansbee’s blog that the attendance for his two classes at Port Townsend might get cancelled because not enough people are signed up!?!

“still hoping for students out west at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. Right now, it sounds like we need 6 more students for each workshop. Otherwise, these 2 classes will get cancelled. One is a week-long “make a joint stool” class… the other a 2-day class in carving. It would be a shame it we have to scrap it, the school and I have dedicated the time slot and can’t really make it up if it falls through. I know time/money/logistics are all a concern for all of us. But I often get requests “When are you coming to X,Y, Z?” – I only get to come if we get students. I won’t harp about it again, just one last nudge if you know someone out that way, or wanting to visit out that way…dates are April 22-26 for the joinery class, and the 27th & 28th for the carving http://www.ptwoodschool.com/ “

Hey MWA folks and any other PNW woodworkers, you should think about these classes! Peter Follansbee is one of the most knowledgeable guys out there for 17th century carving. If you have any interest at all, it would be well worth the time and money to attend, as I doubt he’s going to make his way out here again.

I’ve already signed up ages ago, and will be majorly disappointed if this gets cancelled. Please spread the word! Tell your friends! I’ve been hoping to get a chance to meet Peter and learn from him since I started reading his blog. It started me down the path of carving, and is a major reason why I’ve been able to figure out the stuff I’ve done lately.

Peter Follansbee

It’s been a bit since I’ve updated the blog due to a variety of reasons including a minor surgery that had a rough recovery.  I have been working the wood in the shop, just not posting here.  I have at least two other major posts I will be adding as I catch including one on my sons 6 board chest build, some finished carved boxes, and a couple shop made tools.

But for now, I want to share this bit of carving I did on Saturday which I think came out really nicely.

Completed carved panel with three heraldic roses

This is going to be the front panel of a traditional style nailed box, sometimes erroneously called a “bible box” that I’m making as a gift for someone.  The roses are modeled after heraldic roses from the Tudor period, and were new to me in terms of carving.  I studied a lot of period examples to get a sense of the form, and watched one of the recent videos from Chris Pye’s woodcarving workshop series in which he does a double-rose in a Gothic mirror.  (If you’re interested in learning carving, this is a very nice investment in your craft, Chris does a fantastic job of explaining and showing how to carve.)

I also took some step by step shots of the progression as a demonstration of how easy it really was to do.  As I worked on the first one I worked out the steps I needed and then captured a shot of the tool used to do each of the dozen or so steps to complete a single rose.  Then I put them together “Kari Hultman Style“.

Steps 1 – 3

Steps 4 – 6

Steps 7 – 9

Steps 10 – 11

Some of the shots were blurry, sorry about that I was grabbing these quickly with my iPhone and getting back to work.  If you have any questions about which tool or want to know more about a step I took let me know. I hope it’s somewhat self evident what each step is.

badger