[Woodcarver] Waterleaf or egg and dart moldings

[Joe Dillett]

Hi Joyce,

Susan Irish has some very good advice. It really shows her experience in the 
art of carving and her experience in her art of writing.

One of the first things my apprentices learn is good fundamental chisel 
techniques. There is nothing better than molding designs to teach this 
because they practice the techniques over and over again. They start with a 
simple chase molding and work up to more complex designs. They learn to use 
the chisels, both right and left handed. They must work the molding clamped 
to the bench without unclamping and turning it. Some designs like the rope 
molding is carved right down to the bench top. They must carve the molding 
flat on the bench without scratching the top of the bench. This assimilates 
conditions when moldings can not be turned or when they meet a finished 
surface that can't be scratched.

Egg and Dart molding is one of my favorite learning tools. We learn 
different techniques to achieve the same results such as making stop cuts 
with V-tools and than using tool-specific technique to plunge cut the stop 
cuts. They learn to use just the corner of large chisels to cut the darts. 
They learn how to make a uniform design so each one looks the same.

One of my talented apprentices thought she would never carve egg & dart in 
the real world until we got a job requiring a ton of it to be carved on 
walnut all on different curves (about 8 large curves from 2 to 4 foot 
across). The layout was a real challenge because they were all different 
curves. Making it tougher the exposed splines in the joints had to line up 
in the middle of the eggs. All the curves were a different radius so the 
challenge was to come up with the spacing that would look uniform for all 
the pieces. Each piece ended up with different spacing but they were close 
enough so they all looked the same. She also found out that carving egg & 
dart on a curve wasn't easy because every spot on the curve had a different 
grain direction plus the mitered joints with exposed splines were a whole 
new challenge for her. The customer was very pleased with her finished work. 
She gained a lot of confidence in her carving ability from that job 
especially to make clean finished cuts that don't need sanding.

You should have no problem with copyrights if you use your own words and 
your own photos, especially if you put away the class notes like Susan Irish 
suggested.

You said, "It is the rest introduction, information about which furniture to 
use the moldings on, bits of advice, etc., that has me nervous." The 
introduction is easy, just tell them who you are and give them a little 
background about yourself that pertains to carving. Don't forget to give 
credit to the class instructor and acknowledge their class notes are being 
very helpful for this article. Information about the furniture? I don't know 
how much information about which furniture to use the moldings on because, 
as you said the audience knows a lot about American period furniture. Let 
them choose when and where to use it. I would show one example of its use 
and let it go at that. The bit of advice, etc. would depend on the length of 
the article. Many times space is limited and there isn't much room for 
fluff. Some magazine editors limit article size and some will allow the 
author as much space as needed. Most editors have much more material than 
space so it's a good idea to not put in too much fluff and unnecessary 
information.


Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552
(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.com
jdillett at thecarvingshop.com
http://www.carvingmagazine.com Carving Magazine web site and Readers Forum
http://www.carvingmagazine.com/chat/chat.shtml Live Chat for Carving 
Magazine.
http://community.webshots.com/user/joe_dillett
http://www.citizenactions.org
**************************************************


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joyce Hanna" <joycehanna at gwi.net>
To: <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 7:43 PM
Subject: [Woodcarver] Waterleaf or egg and dart moldings



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> Hi,

> I hope someone can help me out.

>

> I received a "scholarship" to attend a class on moldings taught by Chris 

> Pye.  The conditions of the scholarship were that I write an article 

> explaining how to make one of the moldings.  The class was excellent; 

> Chris is an extraordinary teacher and great person, and I learned a great 

> deal.  Problem: the article is due soon, and the audience is people who 

> know a great deal about making- and carving- American period furniture.  I 

> feel totally inadequate to the task! Everytime I try to write, I feel as 

> if I am copying people who have already written excellent articles on this 

> subject, such as Chris himself and Fred Wilbur.  The class used writings 

> by Chris Pye, so those were my  "notes".  Also, the tools I bought to make 

> the moldings are the same ones as in his article, as was the router bit. I 

> can't afford to buy all new gouges and bits to vary the molding so it 

> becomes "my" molding. I plan to photograph the carving stage by stage with 

> instructions, so that part I am ok with.  It is the rest- introduction, 

> information about which furniture to use the moldings on, bits of advice, 

> etc., that has me nervous. I plan to choose either egg and dart or 

> waterleaf moldings to describe.  Can anyone refer me to some written 

> material so that I have more than two sources of information (Pye and 

> Wilbur) to rely on?   After the long discussion of copyright laws, I am 

> intimidated by not only the audience but by writing itself.  Maybe one of 

> you carves these moldings and could share some information that is not 

> copyrighted.

>

> The other problem is that I have dial up internet service and I can't use 

> the web as a resource because I pay by the hour and it crashes or doesn't 

> work most of the time. It's fine for email; but it is way too expensive 

> for me to get direct service.  So I am limited to stuff I can order via 

> the library interloan service,  or buy at the bookstore.

>

> If you have not tried carving moldings, it is great fun!  I plan to use 

> some on a bookcase to dress it up.

>

> Joyce

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