[JJireh]

When it's too cold to work in the garage or you have had injury/surgery what do you do with your time to keep your chops up?

Suggestions besides 'looking for reference and inspiriation" aka surfing the web

Draw! This is a missing component of many a carver/sculptor. Drawing does several things, it trains your brain, gets ideas on paper and aids in final concept. You learn shapes and flows through graphite that is erasable before putting it to wood.

Sculpt, get some clay (a hard clay is preferable Chavant Med or hard) get a feel for forms, harder clays you can cut with tools. This give you an idea of what you are going to carve as well has hand training.

You can get reference materials by surfing and make patterns. References are very important to help an artist with scale and proportion, and to give a realistic touch to your work.

Any other ideas?

 

[cobalt]

When it's too cold to work in the garage or you have had injury/surgery what do you do with your time to keep your chops up?

Suggestions besides 'looking for reference and inspiriation" aka surfing the web

Draw! This is a missing component of many a carver/sculptor. Drawing does several things, it trains your brain, gets ideas on paper and aids in final concept. You learn shapes and flows through graphite that is erasable before putting it to wood.

Sculpt, get some clay (a hard clay is preferable Chavant Med or hard) get a feel for forms, harder clays you can cut with tools. This give you an idea of what you are going to carve as well has hand training.

You can get reference materials by surfing and make patterns. References are very important to help an artist with scale and proportion, and to give a realistic touch to your work.

Any other ideas?

Think you hit it on the head there

What do you do?

One of the reasons i have been looking at my books again

Looking for ideas and inspiration.going through the books i got when i first started carving bot so long ago.

The light quality is bad just fed up with winter just try to prepar for carving

 

[Rad]

I can't carve even with two good arms -- so what then?

 

[cobalt]

Take your good lady out, if your anything like me i am fed up with winter.

Just been up to the local market keeping myself fit , not many aboutup there even , place losing its character used to sell cows ,sheep etc long gone .town center been modinised still a few 13century buildings about and still worth visiting

Kennerdy father (JFK) has done quite a lot for this town,help set up a preservation trust in 1935, and was of the main resons why the town managed to save some very historical buildings.,even donated a painting of one of the main founders of Boston Mass, not a very good one ,but another link with the US. Some of the buildings he was interested in are getting on for a thousand years old ,The prison still inside the Guild Hall where the pilgrim fathers where jailed when betrayed by a dutch captain.

The local church just over 700years old have some brilliant carvings underneath the seats of the pews.They poke fun at the local gentry .There are still bullet holes in the walls where cromwell army during the civil war use the church for musket practise and stabled the horses..

So one or two interesting features around ,The town was even bombed by zeplins during the 1st world war. so keep busy even during these cold dank days by walking around the place not much else to do, other than attending local meetings with friends.

Dont know if you have a organisation over there called U3A(university of the third age) it has large membership over here.Its a self help group that members teach others there skills and interests.

The group i belong to have approx 60 activities per mnth and more being added.They activities includ walking groups/dancing/ commputer studies(quite a few different activities in this) gardening/film groups/history loads of others quite active.

which keep me out of mischief lol

So you must have quite a few thing in your area

You do have some amazing country side and lots of it

me still cant find my dam glasses, the print on this screen is a bit difficult to see at time and pretty sure these keys move on the keyboard

 

[gdenby]

I've been staining and tinting and waxing and oiling various all-but-finished sticks. The house sometimes reeks of drying tung oil.

The art museum I worked at had a program for young children aimed at blending art with art history. The museum has a spectacular collection of Meso-American ceramics, with a very large number of figurines. I found that the kids were using something called "Paperclay." Non-toxic, easily formed, and air dries to moderately hard. Easy to make inscribe fine detail. Takes paint. I've read that once set it can be cut w. craft knives (which the kids were not allowed to use.)The woman in charge of the class made a very good approximation of one of the more complex terra cotta figures. It was good enough that when I saw it sitting in the middle of a table, for a moment I wondered who had removed it from its display case.

I haven't tried using any myself, but seems like a good material for fast proto-typing.

 

[cobalt]

It is a good material for a protye,but i use plastercine it dosnt dry out ,but its useful for making a quick example of what your trying to achieve.when

i was happy with it i would make the real thing , throw the plastercine back and reuse it, its easy to use and you can get good detail by using potters tools..the air drying stuff does allow you to paint it plastercine dosnt.

Handy to use you can make a model up in mins.

 

[JJireh]

I can't carve even with two good arms -- so what then?

There is your problem, you don't carve with your arms, you carve with a knife...

I'm telling you, anyone with the desire and working hands can draw, carve, and sculpt. If you can type on a keyboard, you can do these things. Some are more naturally gifted than others, but that shouldn't stop the attempt. That said, some people shouldn't be given sharp objects

Paper clay is good and fairly inexpensive. Super Sculpey is good also, like cobalt said, I like to be able to reuse the clay. Chavant is rock hard at room temp, but softens up in your hands.

 

[cobalt]

I stated carving by someone giving me a book

A good book to start carving with all that is needed is common sense and a few tools

There is no referance to any tools in the book or how to carve its just a pattern book

the book is called "Decorative Decoy Carvers Ultimate Painting & patterns" by Bruce Burr

This is a book that takes just common sense as long as you can use a chisel or knife its a good starting point. theres something like 21 patterns of diffrent Dabbling and whistling ducks.All you need do is to cut the pattern out in wood shape it to the pattern it even tell you how to paint it,how to mix the colours.

This is for decoy carvers gives diffrent views of the bird ,front view ( at the time i found this useful as its diffcult to get a exact front view of any bird) .Most of the ducks have different shaped heads so when starting to carve it was useful,Even gives the pattern for the drake and duck where differences are there..The painting and how to mix the paints was no good to me as it was for use on a american paint type i cant get here and the colours that was suggested just didnt work

But theres no reason why it shouldnt work in the US as its based on US artist paints.

So its a good book for stickmakers as i just started by using the head and adjusting the scale of the patterns to suit the stick.

The ducks/drakes are mostly l american spieces so most of you should know them,and they make good toppers for hiking poles.

So anyone interested in carving wild fowl toppers or decoys /decorative duck this is a good starting point.

sould have put this in the book section

Still havnt found the glasses

 

[CAS14]

I can't carve even with two good arms -- so what then?

Drink! ;-)

 

[cobalt]

A lot ;-)

 

[Rad]

I can't carve even with two good arms -- so what then?

Drink! ;-)

OK -- ya got me there -- I don't drink either!

 

[cobalt]

looks like nobodys carving or doing anything at the moment.

so when you cant carve contribute here

Just prepared the duck for dinner smells good comfort food ,with a apple crumble, keep looking at the whiskey i think its about to be served just before dinner

still looking for glasses got to get a pair.cant carve withouy thoses

 

[CAS14]

Cheers!

 

[cobalt]

Sorry CAS no rye just a 15 year old whiskey single malt

A least youve had afruitful day CAS .it s slow here everyone needs motivating

 

[gdenby]

Not carving much, except food. Made a classic mistake, and tossed one of my better knives into the kitchen sink. As I was pulling it out of the rest of the utensils, bumped my index finger into the blade edge. Sliced it nice and clean. Not deep, but right over the end joint, so I won't be bend that for a few days.

Guess I'll go ogle some tool vendor sites. Saw a few Japanese carving knives yesterday with an Rc of up to 67. Made me want to open my wallet right away.

 

[cobalt]

arrgh done that.

i to like japanese tools but there pricey but very good

Got back into playing backgammon now with friends always a good game to play against experianced players.

Hoping to start a league up with members of the university of the third age ,and no were not old ,j ust a load of blokes going into there 2nd childhood.

Hoping to build a soapbox for my grandson looking for old wheels at the moment, but i will race it down some hill in the wolds 15 miles away no hills here ,old chum of mine says he has a soap box that he built for his son its still in hs shed,and of course we will race it when no one is looking just for the hell of it..

i put the imature behaver down to not getting caught doing it and blame my friend for bragging that his would be faster, i just tell people i am watching out for him as he is recklessif we are caught.We will just check theres no livestock around or anybody elese for that matter , i know he will blame me if we are caught doing it, so got to get in 1st. after all i have been called accomlished idiot by the better half

Saw a picturs of a gun,this is cpmpletley out of character for me as i belive they all should be banned as you know, i think you call it a peace maker, and a old dueling pistol ,it suddenly dawned on me these would make good walking stick handles the shape of them is perfect,the colt 45 was still in its holder i think thats what its called? .It would take some carving but i think it would work,so another project to draw up to scale

i cant carve a snowblower as i have never seen one thank goodness and we never have need for one , its never that bad here, was it as much fun as a soapbox?

Time for a tipple just the usual

have fun

 

[gdenby]

arrgh done that.

i to like japanese tools but there pricey but very good

...

Saw a picturs of a gun,this is cpmpletley out of character for me as i belive they all should be banned as you know, i think you call it a peace maker, and a old dueling pistol ,it suddenly dawned on me these would make good walking stick handles the shape of them is perfect,the colt 45 was still in its holder i think thats what its called? .It would take some carving but i think it would work,so another project to draw up to scale

My 1st encounter w. Japanese steel tools was a carpenter's saw, a Ryoba nokogiri, that a home builder friend of mine had. I was immediately impressed, and bought one for myself. As I became more interested in cooking a few years ago, I started buying some Japanese kitchen knives. Expensive, yes, but once well sharpened, will cut easier and smoother than any other knife I've used. So a couple gouges are very tempting.

A pistol grip should be quite comfortable. There are saws and a few culinary knives with so-called pistol-grip handles. However, I think some people might become more than a little uneasy if they saw someone holding a pistol handle attached to something that might be mistaken for a 36" long barrel.

I don't know that a Colt .45 was ever used for dueling, but are often shown being used in in Western movies during shoot-outs. They were nick-named "The Equalizer." From what I have read, the early ones were quite inaccurate, probably because most bullets were hand made, and very irregular. The best way to win a gun fight was to get within just a few yards before slowly drawing and firing very deliberately. The quick draw, or a quick turn and fire wasn't worth much.

And they are placed on holsters.

 

[CAS14]

Back in the late 1960's, I qualified not only on the rifle range with an M-14, but also with a .45 caliber pistol. Today, the official pistol of the Marine Corps is the Colt 1911, although I don't recall the model that I qualified with. Even with a modern-day .45 caliber pistol, it takes a lot, a LOT, of practice and a huge ammunition budget to be reasonably accurate, even at close range. That's why I am uncomfortable with letting a lot of amateurs carry pistols in public places. I generally scurry out of there, if I expect someone other than law enforcement is carrying a sidearm. Still I do admire those Colt 1911's, they are nice. With grandkids often around the house, I can't have that sort of thing laying around. But I think I have a good chance of disarming an intruder with basic hand-to-hand and pugil stick tactics. My shillelagh-style stuck sits near my bed at all times.

I don't know that a Colt .45 was ever used for dueling, but are often shown being used in in Western movies during shoot-outs. They were nick-named "The Equalizer." From what I have read, the early ones were quite inaccurate, probably because most bullets were hand made, and very irregular. The best way to win a gun fight was to get within just a few yards before slowly drawing and firing very deliberately. The quick draw, or a quick turn and fire wasn't worth much.

 

[JJireh]

We always have a cat on the bed, intruders would be getting a face full of fur and claws followed by an alarm clock and a man with a heavy stick.

People with pistol shaped anything automatically draw attention. Don't try to take it through the airport.

I have yet to use any Japanese blades, but have plenty Chinese

Here is a Tagua nut skull I am trying to work on and some sculpts.

 

[cobalt]

The gun would purley be for the sake of carving and mouting on a stick ,it just seems a challenge to carve it inside a leather holster and mout it on a stick.As for a dueling pistol just checking them out ,it would have to be a old flintlock type.

As for the peace maker dont think it gave much peace as you say they dont seem very accurate.

Likethe modeling JJireh been playing around with ,it always seems a good idead to develop a idea.I have just been playing around with pencil and paper rough crude sketch of the female form and dragons heads with celtic script on them

As for the Tagua nut skull no idea what that is? will check it out on the net

I have 1 Japeanese carving knife and use it when needed before any other knife i think it was good value even though i paid quite a bit more for it.Just quality comes 1st.

Now you guys have mentioned micro chisels been looking for them, they sound ideal for the small detail i need in some of my stick toppers ,would the be better than the rotary tool? or is it another boys toy?

If i need to buy chisels i go for ,British ,german or american tools all seem to have a good reputation.but i am immpresed with the japanese tools

The thoughtof intruders is unpleseant but it has never crossed my mind ,living in a backwater has its advanrages

Hope to see the reults of the Tagua nut