227. Tools of the trade. Two small Chinese knives.
If you love crafting, carving, wood working of any kind you’ve got to love tools. I doubt these two knives are for wood carving, but they are minor works of art in and of themselves. The bone handle and the small pieces of metal remind me that in a pre-industrial age tools were not that easy to come by. I love the personal touch of decoration on the wooden handle. How have you decorated or modified any of your tools?
Shalom.
“Do not speak to fools, for they will scorn your prudent words.” Proverbs 23:9
225. Wood from other places, China. Tiger maple box??
A friend has this stunning piece in her desk. She has often sat doing her lessons looking at its exciting and interesting color and pattern. It’s symmetry and delicate beauty is attractive. Again, one is thrilled with the careful craftsmanship it took to produce such a piece. How carefully are you working on your hobby? Your own work?
Shalom
“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.” Prov 23:12
224. Cottonwood bark. Rustic Cabin
I still like carving bark. This piece was finished early 2018. The richness of the coloring, the rugged feel of the uncut bark, the flow of stairs and arches, and the quaint cottage crowning the piece all add up to a pleasing presentation.
Pictures five and six, closeups, are included to give a better view of the cracked and creviced surface of bark. At times one has to glue chunks back on in order to maintain some of the work completed or the flow of a piece. At other times pieces fall off and one is forced to rethink design to the improvement of the final piece.
Shalom.
“Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.” Prov 22:29
217. Other art as ideas for carving. Christmas flowers.
Another post to draw attention to creative inspiration for carving or any other hobby. Here the steps for creating home-made Christmas gifts or greeting cards. Card stock used, along with colored pencils.
Steps: 1. Deciding weight of stock to use, purchase, cut stock. 2. Practice design ideas. 3. Draw initial design on stock in pencil. 4. Go over design in ink, adjusting rather than following pencil lines slavishly. 5. Erase pencil lines. 6. First layer of color is a light one to establish color patterns and placement. 7. Begin darkening all colors, leaving highlights. 8. Final coloring step is difficult to see here, but a dark color such as purple or blue is used to create shadows. 9. Piece is now ready for a note or name. 10. Give as a gift. 😊
Shalom.
“It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.” Prov 20:3
205 Places to go, blogs to read
Found this site which recommends list of blogs for wood people. The list has some good suggestions which might catch your attention. Full carving, turning, chip carving, spoons, decorative arts, and tools were represented.
Do you have an other links you could share?
Shalom.
This carving, my own, is not in any of the blogs cited in the site, but it’s a sight. I like “Ed”.
“The greedy bring ruin to their households, but the one who hates bribes will live.” Prov 15:27
199. Wood work from other places, China. Boxes.
In the ages before plastic, glass, and cheap metals, where did one store food stuffs, how did you measure grains? Wood. Here a box crafted for mundane, everyday purposes. And yet, pre-industrial times gave one a chance to add a personal touch.
I like the craftsmanship and the decorations here. One can only image the process, the labor over long hours as the craftsman search for wood, cut slabs and lengths, seasoned the wood, planned the design, cut out and assembled pieces, and finally painted and decorated the piece.
Shalom.
7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not upright.
“The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not upright.” Prov 15:7
192 Carving in the Round. Not just Vegetables
Some of you will recognize the faces. Some of you will know these are eggplants. Many of you might know they are made out of basswood. Most of you will not know that these carvings were once considered scrap wood, salvaged out of a junk box.
In a way they make a strong statement to me about life, about the lives of many people. They are seen as scrap, the world sets them aside, considers them unimportant, value,es. And yet, in each is something beautiful. Can you imagine what our world would be like if we all found the beauty, the value, the spark in each person we meet. Imagine that as you work on your next project.
(In case you missed it, this is a tip of the hat to Veggie Tales and their creativity.)
Shalom.
“Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.” Prov 13:10
189 To market, to market to sell…Carvings to sell.
Carvings shown here will be offered for sale by a friend of ours back in the States while we reside here in Beijing.
The first picture shows an array of bark pieces, houses, churches, and a light house/sailboat. It shows the kind of variety I try to have at a sale. For me, this is a combination of what I like and what kinds of pieces have sold in the past, always a marketing challenge.
The second shows event more variety. Here a larger lighthouse, a book carved out of white pine, a sparrow and a related verse from the Bible, and a basswood relief of a recognizable viking.
What would you consider a good variety for a sale? How many carvings would you bring? How do you go about pricing your pieces?
Shalom.
“The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.” Prov 14:8
187. Spotty posts for a while. Overseas internet a challenge.
Notice anything in the picture. Right, no carvings. This is in a royal garden of the Qing Dynasty in Beijing, China. I will be posting from here for most of the next two years. We will be looking for interesting carvings and even a few carvers while we teach and live here.
That said, posts may be spotty, as you may have noticed. Internet and Internet speed is not always as reliable as in other parts of the world. We will try our best. Meanwhile, do keep carving, drawing, painting, potting, knitting, or whatever creative avenue you use. Do it with joy and integrity. Perhaps even ask yourself where our creativity comes from.
Shalom.
“Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” Prov 13:20
167. Carving Recycled Wood. IKEA bed frames 5
Posts 145, 152,156, 160. Those are posts where you can find cabins 1- 4.
This one has its own unique and interesting qualities. First the large knot in the base. Its location is not an accident. The wood was turned and viewed from every angle. Finally, given the limited number of tools available at the time of carving, it was decided that the knot needed to be in the base.
Then, how to incorporate it into the base? The result, a large rock which allowed for very limited carving to the knot itself.
Another pleasing feature is the roof. Both the wavy carving lines and the wavy growth rings make an attractive top to the cabin. And these lines offset the chimney well.
One choice I am not so sure about is the size of the smaller wall rocks. Should they have been larger. What do you think?
Shalom.
“The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.” Prov 10:14
166. Woodwork from other places 19, China. Qîngzuò. Please sit down.
I know, it isn’t really wood carving. But, there is wood work done. This stool is more than 150 years old. It captures my attention for several reasons. First is the hand labor involved. Rounding the seat must have taken some time. Shaping the legs as well. Did you notice the slight curve to them. A nice detail. And then there is the work done to slot the legs into the seat, terrific.
A second reason to like this piece is the recycling done. The owner believes the seat was a wheel of some kind, hence the square hole in the top. The seat reminds me of ancient Chinese coins with their square or round holes so they could be threaded and carried on a string.
A third reason to like this stool is the character of the wood. Holes, unfinished edges, color, cracks, and growth rings make this an eye-pleasing object. What do you think?
Shalom.
“Those who are kind benefit themselves, but the cruel bring ruin on themselves.” Prov 11:17
139 Woodwork from other places 12, China. Im”press” me.
A few more Chinese press molds. (See Post 128) These would be used to make moon cakes. The cakes are served most often at the mid-autumn festival, a lunar holiday. It is one of the four most important holidays in China.
The top molds imprint the words for happiness and a wish for more money. I like the two-part mold which must make disassembly much easier for the baker.
The fish is also a cake mold. It means “more and more happiness, more health and more money.” This information from a Chinese friend.
While we are far from the next mid-autumn festival, it is never too late or too early to wish you well. May you find the eternal source of happiness and well-being. Shalom.
135. Carving ideas – flowers, colors, and design.
One can not take wood carving and carving tools everywhere. This is especially true in big cities where one depends on mass transit. Mass transit requires safety measures such as metal detectors. Metal sectors find sharp metal objects such as carving tools. Said tools would then be lost to confiscation.
So, one needs to find something creative to take on mass transit. Pencils, markers, and colored pencils work, for now. In preparation for times when carving can be done, flowers. Design and color continue. Here are a few sketches and ideas. Some are copies of other artists work. Some are originals. Can you tell which is which? Shalom.
“For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth, over and around us lies… this our hymn of grateful praise.”
83 Wood carving: Big Mouth 1 and 2
I have been showing the work of others for the past while. Thought it might be time to show something I have carved. These two pieces were begun at the end of last summer. They are now finished and hanging in our house. The work in progress is shown here. Will show the painted pieces soon, after I take a few more pictures. The carvings are roughly 18 long x 4 wide x 2 inches thick.
Both carvings are done in cottonwood bark. Last summer I revisited a lightening struck tree while on a family vacation. For years small sections or pieces have been falling off the tree. This past summer the tree’s entire bark skin came off. The morning we were to return home, while I still had an empty vehicle, I loaded up as much bark as would fit in my small SUV. I found some storage for the bark and was even able to squeeze a few pieces into the load returning home from vacation. Good thing we ate our way through some of supplies from the incoming trip. That left room for some bark.
I found inspiration for the pieces in a carving magazine. One picture gave the idea. The challenge was to get the correct cuts to recreate feeling of the photo. My dentist liked the pieces. Perhaps I will have to replace the bad spot in Big Mouth 1 with a gold filling.
Enjoy. Feed back is most welcome. Inquiries about purchasing pieces also.
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- Big Mouth 2
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- Big Mouth 2
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- Big Mouth 2
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- Big Mouth 2
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- Big Mouth 2
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- Big Mouth 2
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- Big mouth 2
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- Big mouth 2
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- Big mouth 2
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- Big mouth 1
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- Big mouth 1
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- Big mouth 1
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- Big mouth face
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- Big mouth 1 face
“If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.” Proverbs 29:12
#65 Other wood: Reuben Margolin’s Kinetic Wave Sculptures
Okay, so you might be wondering why I am posting yet another artist’s work. You might be asking, why isn’t he doing more of his own carving? The truth is, schedules and duties do need to be kept and the hobby carver can’t get all the time in that he would like. So, checking out a few web sites and receiving info on other artists via the net is far faster than completing a carving of one’s own.
That said, what Reuben Margolin’s has here, what he has done with wood, is really cool. I know you will enjoy seeing his interpretation of wood. His work, far different from mine, is still fun to watch.
Amazing all the different things we can do with wood. Have you found any other web sites what artist “do wood?” Care to share them with us? Thanks in advance.
Enjoy.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/03/reuben-margolins-kinetic-wave-sculptures.html
reuben-margolin-double-raindrop1
“Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” Proverbs 17:9
John Klompmaker Carving 