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Continuing where I left off with the Celtic knotwork, the first image (4845) shows clearly the little ramp that I am developing to form the over and under structure of the knotwork. As mentioned before, the key at this stage is not to go too deep. Until I am satisfied that all the cross-overs are in order and there are no doubles, I'm not going to commit to digging too much out.
Again, the paper pattern glued to the spoon blank comes in very handy as it lets me clearly see where the overs and unders are and lets me find out in a big hurry if I have messed the sequence up anywhere! This image shows how shallow the ramps currently are and that I have lots of depth to play with if there is a problem. To follow all these little ramps around and dig them out, I make use of a nice, little Japanese 1/4inch wide chisel. These chisels are only about a third the size of a regular carpenter's chisel and allow me to manoever in these very tight surroundings without struggling to control a big handle and long blade.
To really ramp the knotwork and set the overs and unders off, I start digging in a bit more substantially with the gouge. First I repeat the stabbing action whereby I cut straight down at the intersection of the knot, then I progressively increase the depth of the ramp, all the time working to meet the low point of the stab cut. If I meet up cleanly with the ramp, a nice chip pops out and the intersection area is nice and neat with no cut marks or bits of uncut wood messing things up. Ultimately, I want to work the ramps up so that they curve gently over the intersecting section and there are no flat spots through the curve. (Flat spots can be seen as the slightly duller coloured sections between each ramp) What I'm after is a nice domed effect where the ramp rises up from one side, crosses over and then dips back down on the other side.
With the knotwork ramping nearing finished depth, I make sure to get a nice fair curve along each section and then I put a light chamfer (the slight easing of the edges you can see in this photo) to make the knotwork look more finished. I'm careful not to overdo the chamfering as a too round knot starts to look a bit too 'soft' and more like a shoelace than a wooden knot. I find about a 1/16th of an inch worth of chamfer is about right to soften the knot without making it mushy.
Occasionally, if the wood is presenting a troublesome grain, I will run a file or even sandpaper over things to even everything out just before I apply the oil finish. However, I NEVER sand while I still have carving to do. The grit which breaks away from the paper and embeds itself in the wood while I'm sanding makes a great abrasive which then plays havoc with my nice sharp knife blades. I always leave sanding until I'm are positive that I won't need to carve any more....it saves me a ton of time in wasted sharpening!
Next week I'll start shaping up our Draig Goch ( or in this case our Driag Gwinau). This will bring another series of challenges trying to get a nicely rounded body that retains lots of vitality and vigour! In the meantime, Valentine's Day is coming and if you neglected to get your sweetie a lovespoon I would suggest you hang your head in shame.. OR, consider donating a buck or two to help sponsor the Left Coast Eisteddfod in its first year! Your donation could win you this very lovespoon, show you for the romantic you are and get you out of the doghouse!
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I've neared the half-way point carving the front of the Left Coast Eisteddfod lovespoon. The bowls are shaped, the vines have been formed and the leaf/star section is more-or-less complete. I'm now going to move into the Celtic knotwork section which the dragon surrounds. I just realized that the pictures in the last few blogs have all been close-ups, so I think it is a good idea to include a picture of the whole spoon to show where I'm at with it.
As you can see, having the paper pattern glued directly to the workpiece makes life so much easier than messing around with pencil lines or carbon paper tracings. Although paper can be a bit hard on the tool sharpness, I find that the odd extra trip to the sharpening bench is a small price to pay for the convenience of being able to clearly see the design as I work!
So, onto the Celtic knotwork. Once the knotwork has been sawn to rough shape (which can be a long and tedious process in itself) the actual carving is not particularly difficult. What can be a problem though is getting the overs and unders wrong and messing up the flow of the knots. To overcome the possibility of an error at this stage, I make shallow cuts which barely define the knot pattern, but leave me plenty of material should I need to reverse a section. Believe me, there is nothing more annoying, frustrating and embarassing than getting to the end of the knot and discovering there are two overs or two unders in a row. If I've cut them too deep, I'm up the creek and you can guess what kind of creek it is!
This picture shows me using a small chisel to cut a straight groove of aproximately 1/16th of an inch depth where the one section of knot passes over the other.
As before, I resist the urge to cut too deep too quickly. I then use the same chisel to cut away a small wedge-shaped slice which creates a little ramp down to the bottom of my first chisel cut. If all goes well, a little chip pops out and my cuts meet at the same lowest point.
Again, getting carried away and cutting too deep at this point of the game can have dire consequences later.
Once I have repeated this procedure throughout the entire knot and am satisfied that everything is in order with the overs and unders, I commit to deeper cuts which bring the knot to vibrant life!
Next week, I'll show how to clean up the knots and get them looking nice and smart. In the meantime, I hope you will help support the Left Coast Eisteddfod's inaugural year by donating a few dollars. Each dollar you donate will give you a chance to win this spoon but even better than that, you'll be proud to know you were right there on the ground floor, helping to build a really worthwhile cultural event!
To donate, simply click on the box next to this blog, its easy, safe and spiritually fulfilling!
Calling Any and All AmeriCymru Members or Welsh Persons in the Great State of Florida!
By gaabi, 2009-01-29
From the South Wales Argus :"AS the United States' first black President was sworn in, a Newport-born man had a ringside seat to history being made."Musician and artist Jon Langford, 51, a founder member of the punk band The Mekons, had played at a Washington DC ball to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration the night before, and had a seat at the event being watched by millions of people around the world."..."Mr Langford performed six hours of country-punk with his current band the Waco Brothers in a sell-out event celebrating Obamas links with Chicago."'The concert was incredible and an illustration of how things are changing. I performed with blues singer David Honeyboy Edwards, whos 94. God knows what things were like when he was a kid,' said Mr Langford."Read the rest of this really fantastic article and what Jon Langford says about the experience HERE .
