Blogs

We will be touring the USA June 17th thru June 29th

Friday 18th June UWIC play USA U20's,

Colorado School of Mines, Golden CO, 12.30pm KO

Saturday 19th June UWIC -v- Glendale Raptors RFC

Infinity Park, Glendale, CO, 7.00pm KO

Wednesday 23rd June UWIC -v- Louisiana Select XV

Pan American Stadium, New Orleans, 7.00pm KO

Saturday 26th June UWIC -v- Tampa Bay Krewe RFC

Skyview Stadium, Tampa Fl, 2.00pm KO

ALL WELSH SUPPORTERS WECOME

T oday I'm stepping away from the cerebral stresses of lovespoon design so that I can get back to the more elemental pleasures of playing with wood and heavy tools that go 'thwack' when you use them!

Laura and I are on the prowl for a nice piece of wood for the Eisteddfod spoon so I thought I would have a look at some broadleaf maple I have been storing for a couple of years.The wood is still in log form, so I am going to split out some little planks with a mallet and froe.

This is the same method used by roofers to make shingles and shakes. Basically it involves whalloping a sturdy steel blade (the froe) with a lead or heavy wood mallet to drive it through the block and split off slabs.

Sometimes it is easier said than done... especially if there are hidden knots inside the block. Ultimately though, it gives the best slab of wood for carving as the direction the piece splits shows exactly how the grain of the wood is running within the tree.

If things go to plan and the block isn't harbouring any unwanted annoyances, the slab will separate nice and neatly and you will be left with a fairly tidy piece of carvable wood!

With the board nicely planed, I can get a really good look at the grain and check to see if there is any figure to it or anything of interest. Most carvers prefer to have pretty plain and uniform grain so that the wood will be more predicable and the carving goes easier. Because I have always been obtuse, I like it to have some figure and some zing to the grain pattern. This generally means I get a bit more of a fight from the wood, but the end results are generally worth the tussle! In this case, the wood is fairly uniform in its grain orientation and there isn't much in the way of figure, but it has some spalting (fine dark lines) which might go well with our design. We'll see how Laura feels about it and will compare it to some nice pieces of myrtle wood she has just been given. Although I am a big fan of maple, the thought of myrtle wood for a spoon destined for Oregon has some allure too. Stay tuned!

And please also consider making a donation to the Left Coast Eisteddfod. Your contribution (no matter how big or small) will help produce this exciting Welsh cultural event and will give you the opportunity to win the completed spoon!!

- Dave

I've got to hold my hand up and confess - two days ago I upset an American .

How you might ask? Well, I dared to point out on a blog that Bob Dylan took his stage name after our own Dylan Thomas. Oh dear, to even suggest that there was a creative genius before Mr Zimmerman who was apparently the only influence on everyone from The Beatles to The Cheeky Girls. There's more on our blog and plenty about Dylan and Swansea

So many drawings, so many features. After some consideration, and putting off the actual size/arrangement of daffodils, Dave liked version E, I liked version E, and others also mentioned liking version E. Dave and I both, however, felt like there were still some thin areas. (and we still want to change the flowers!) So, I stared at the drawing some more.

It isn't that I don't like negative space in a design. In fact, negative space is a great tool, and I think it contributes a good deal to the delicate look in a lot of my designs. It can contribute to the carving difficulty, too - long, thin, unsupported vines will have a tendency to want to break. That, I definitely DO consider!

So, now, all things considered, a thought entered my little head, and I started to drawing again. I realized, if I had vines stemming from above the twist, why couldn't I have them stemming from below the twist, as well? It might even-out one of the thin areas. Another thin area seemed to be inside the top of the "frame". It occurred to me that I could play a little with that vine, and somehow tie it back into the lower vines. This would also create separate areas for each daffodil. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I also wasn't quite sure how the daffodils should really look, either. Big? Small? With leaves? Without? Hmmm... so in this first drawing, I drew two small sample daffodils.

A quick e-mail from Dave suggested larger daffodils And, I agreed with the comments about the flowers in last week's "F" design... if I liked any arrangement of flowers, I liked the arrangement where one was low, and the other higher. So, I tried to enlarge the flowers a little bit, and drew another arrangement. This time, I didn't see room for leaves, so - no leaves. Now the design is feeling more balanced to me. I think my only reservation is with the flowers. It may not even be a reservation, in fact; it may simply be that there are so many possibilities, not yet explored. That is often the problem with designs - deciding when to stop. Maybe Dave will have the idea for that final adjustment that makes us both say, "that's it!" We shall see!

Enough for now...

- Laura

I found myself very much in agreement with Dave's new, more tapered shape. It also left a little more room for me to play in the top part. My only regret is that the dragon was seeming a little small to me, and the eagle looked especially big. I had been having another problem, though, with my flower ideas for the top. I really like the little flowers like I'd been drawing - I had recently completed another spoon, in fact, using little flowers.

However, as you can see, these flowers are scattered upon a natural central vine structure in this design. I did not like the idea of creating a web of vines simply to support small flowers within the top area of our Eisteddfod spoon. Also, while these little vanilla flowers (both figuratively and literally) can symbolize gentleness and affection, I found myself yearning for a little bit more Welsh symbolism in this spoon. After this train of thought, and missing the prevalence the Welsh Dragon in the design, my mind went to daffodils.

So, I made some designs with 2 daffodils - I thought it could be fun if Dave and I each made a daffodil. To begin, though, I would need to establish a vine structure to tie the eagle into the rest of the design. I wanted to get that to the point where we were both happy with it, and then we could finalize two daffodils. So, I went about some vine-drawing again, this time deliberately leaving some space for daffodils. A quick email exchange with Dave revealed that he liked the 2 daffodil idea, as well. We had always wanted to have some part that we both do together, and two takes on essentially the same subject would satisfy that desire.