[Woodcarver] new projects

[Sylda]

Dave, I understand your dilemma completely.  It hasn¹t been that long since
I was there.  Where in Texas are you?  If we know where you are maybe we can
direct you to some classes in your area.  Bill can probably help you.
Sylda


On 1/26/05 3:13 PM, "Dave_Kratzer at sil.org" <Dave_Kratzer at sil.org> wrote:

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> 
> I have been puttering with carving off and on for maybe 10 years. Mostly off.
> I have been lurking on this list for a year or more. I am very impressed with
> the comradery, quality and variety of work shared, concern for each other and
> willingness of the listers to help each other in all manner of issues. Your
> fund raising efforts for Marnie were "over the top". From reading your posts I
> feel like I almost know some of you personally. Maybe someday I will attend
> one of the "gatherings" and put faces to the names and get to know some of you
> better. As I near retirement I hope to be able to do more of that sort of
> thing in the not too distant future. I also am pleased that our list owner
> runs a tight ship keeping the list on subject and free of what some of us
> consider unnecessary content. My desire is to participate more but my
> introvert's nature restrains me. Unfortunately when I do open up I get kinda
> long winded as this post demonstrates.
> 
> Unlike Maura I have NOT been artistic all my life. In one of my careers I was
> a draftsman and I can draw most anything with a t-square, triangle and compass
> but curved lines and artistic stuff has always been very difficult for me. I
> have always envied people who could "draw". I am a very left brain
> "craftsman". I know and skillfully use tools of all kinds and have done lots
> of wood and metal working projects from furniture to houses, automobiles to
> airplanes. Give me a set of blueprints and I can probably build it.
> 
> I have always desired to find a way to express that small bit of right brain
> artist in me. I would love to do this in wood. I love wood and working with
> it. The joy and satisfaction of the varied smells, the textures and the feel
> of a sharp tool making a cut are hard to describe. I'm sure you all know what
> I'm talking about.  In keeping with my straight line mentality I completed a
> few small chip carvings using a Wayne Barton book. My attempts at "in the
> round" have been complete disasters. I have one I call my "pin head duck"
> because the head is so completely out of proportion to the body. I then
> discovered Bill Judt's books on relief carving and said "I want to be able to
> do that."  I crave to able to express myself in wood as he does. Also, I
> started working on the exercises in "Drawing on the Right Side of Your Brain".
> That has been helpful but I have sooooo far to go!
> 
> I have completed the  "God Bless Our Home" carving from the "Inspirational
> Relief Carving" book with a fair degree of success. Note this carving is
> mostly straight lines or lettering. So I plunged into his "Wolf" carving
> depicted on the cover of his other book. Well, I'm in trouble. I call it
> "Carver's Block" (pun intended). I put a verse around the border instead of
> the foot prints. That part has gone fairly well but now I'm trying to do the
> wolf and have no confidence at all. I set the levels with the router as
> indicated on the pattern but I am at a loss as to how to get from the various
> routed levels to the finished product.
> 
> Now for my question(s) for Bill or whomever:
> 
> Do you model and carve the whole image with regular gouges before defining the
> hair or do you use the hair defining tool to do the shaping?
> If you shape before defining hair do you leave extra thickness to carve the
> hair? 
> The ears seem to me that they should be deeper than the plan calls for. Is
> that a misprint? 
> How can the nose, eyes and forehead be at the same level? The nose needs to
> slope to the eyes and the forehead back to the ears but the photo dosen't
> appear to slope much at all? What am I missing?
> How do you start blending all the levels together?
> The picture shows some levels with sharp transition and others blended. How do
> you decide which to do one way which to do the other?
> I'm afraid to remove any wood for fear of removing too much. I am so used to
> measuring and then cutting that working by eye is very difficult. I need
> something concrete to reference to. How do I get past this hang up?
> What tool do you use to define the hair? "V" parting tool? "U" veiner? What
> size? 
> Do you put the jagged edge on the hair before or after you define the hair?
> 
> Enough questions. Sorry I rambled on so long.
> 
> Bill I wish you had done a "step by step" for this carving. I didn't realize
> how difficult is was going to be compared to the "God Bless Our Home" carving.
> If you weren't so far from Texas I'd be in your classes. Maybe after I retire.
> I always wanted to see Canada. The north side of Lake Erie and Niagra Falls is
> all that I have seen of Canada.
> 
> I have a web site but have not posted any carvings yet but you can find out a
> little more about me If you are interested.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> /Dave
> 
> Dave Kratzer  
> 2421 Oak Tree Lane
> Midlothian TX 76065
> Dave_Kratzer at iname.com
> Phone: 972-723-0623
> Cell: 214-923-3135
> FAX: 305-489-0320
> http:// www.kratzerkomments.com
> 
> 
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