[Woodcarver] How about some basic relief carving techniques?

[Bill Judt]

Fran:

For me, relief carving starts with a full sized master pattern -  
accurately drawn. Then I make two copies which will be used when  
transferring the pattern to the wood in various stages of defining  
the carving.

I work in layers. Each area of the carving is assigned a layer - that  
is, a certain depth in the carving. I separate my layers by 1/8".
If you take a look at some of the carvings on my website, you'll get  
the idea. For an example of a pattern:
http://www.wwwoodcarver.com/ChristianCarvings2/JesusKnocking.html

My first book, Relief carving Treasury, contains patterns and photos  
of finished carvings, and will help you think in layers.

When the pattern is TRACED onto the relief panel, routering takes  
place. The layers are routered to depth, and islands of wood are  
removed. Routering begins in the lowest layer and works forward.

The layers then need to be trimmed to their boundary lines, from  
foreground to background. As each layer is trimmed, that layer is  
carefully cut out of the pattern copy, and the pattern then drops to  
the next layer down - which is then traced and trimmed.

Modeling begins at the TOPMOST layer and proceeds towards the  
background. Same with the finish tooling. Start at the highest level  
and carve each layer in succession.

Hope this is helpful to you.

Blessings and Peace,

Bill

My books are for sale at: http://wwwoodcarver.com/Books/index.html
W.F. Judt,
46 Harvard Cres,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
S7H3R1
PH: 306-373-6649
bjudt at sasktel.net
Website: http://www.wwwoodcarver.com



On 31-Aug-07, at 8:19 AM, Fran Hill wrote:


> Hi, I have done a woodburning of an old stone fireplace, and it  

> turned out very nice I thought.  But I think it would make a great  

> relief carving, with maybe some burning for additional shading.   

> However.......I transferred the whole thing and started  

> carving....Well, of course, I carved away most of my whole  

> pattern.  I am trying to figure out how far to go because this  

> fireplace has things in front of it like the old pokers and a small  

> bucket of wood.  At first I thought the mantle should be the  

> farthest thing to the front, but now, I see that the things in  

> front should be out farther than the mantle.  Anyway, you can  

> imagine what a muddle my board is in.  Does anyone have any sort of  

> 1,2,3 beginning steps for planning a relief carving?  I think my  

> original plan is now pretty much beyond salvaging.


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