[Tom H]

Okay, I'm not a beginner. But my carvings are "beginner." Seldom can I produce a nice clean carving. I can visualize the finished carving, I can draw and render how the finished carving should look, I can (and do) keep my tools sharp, and I know how to make the various cuts necessary in carving. I practice and practice, but may have practiced the mistakes until I am pretty good at them. But then I am thinking that the sequence of the carving cuts must be the part I am not really tuned into. I think I am making too many "inflight" corrections/adjustments. This is one of many things that I do (or do not do) that causes a messy carving. Hence, my question.

"Is there a method of determining this carving/cutting sequence?"

Maybe it's a dumb question. Maybe this isn't my problem at all.

Tom H

[Eddy Smiles]

Good question Tom! I'm hoping that someone else jumps in because I often get in the same perdicament. I start out with a plan but somewhere between Point A and Point B the plan goes out the window. In fact, Ha! Ha! I thought "inflight" corrections was the plan!

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Well, first you need to file a flight plan and then remember you are on IFR LOL

[gene messer]

Tom ... To my knowledge .. what I have seen of your carvings on you website .. I really dont know what you are talking about ..

Your Santas are very good and I dont see as much of a unclean carving as you might see ...

Forgive me for not seeing what you see ... but I know we are our worst critics ..

Ia'm certainly no expert at this .. but I think your work is pretty good ..

Iam not making excuses ,, just observing your style ...

Sure .. we all need to improve .. but who doesnt ..

Look at me .. Ia'm hung up on a style that very few people do or understand why I do it ...

I just think you being a little to hard on yourself ...

Please keep up the good work ..

Gene

[susieq]

Just my own person observation here......
It seems to me that a common mistake new carvers make is to try and carve details way before they are finished roughing out the piece.

The roughing out of a piece is probably everyone's least favorite part of the carving process. It certainly is my least favorite. We want to get to the fun, detailing. But prematurely carving details before the roughing is complete, is going to cause you to put more time into the piece than you should have to, because you will start carving a detail only to find you need to carve it our completely as you hadn't taken off nearly enough wood yet.

During the roughing out process, you decide how everything is laid out on the carving, then roughly carve it there. After everything is in place, then you start refining it. In the carving group I used to attend, this seemed to be a difficult thing for some folks to grasp. I hope this made sense and that it helps someone.....
susieq

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Tom....I just went to your Yahoo site and checked through your photos. I can't really see any thing wrong with your technique. You have some really good, clean carvings there. I can offer a personal observation in that it appears you might be stuck in a Santa rut. I find when I carve a lot of the same thing I start to lose interest. Years ago I did a series of limited edition Boots. I had ten different designs and I did 20 of each design. Well, I was really having fun for a while but after about 30 sets of boots I had totally lost interest and said the hell with it. I could only imagine what would have happened had I completed the full 200 set. I probably would have given up carving completely!

My suggestion to you would be to try something completely new. Something you can develop from scratch so that when it's done you can say "I did that! It's completely mine! There isn't another like it or even similar!" When I do something thats new my interest really picks up and the project moves along at a much faster pace than when I do something I've done before. As an example, today I finally figured out a way to put lenses into a spectacle frame. I spent the whole afternoon making them while the pithy wrangler I've been working on sat glumly by waiting to be finally finished. So now I have the glasses and a neat head to put them on and I'm really looking forward to starting the body tomorrow cause I know it's going to be a real classic.

You probably thinking I'm rambling but I think it's really important to be not only challenged when we carve but we should also be excited about what we're doing. That's when we do our best work!

[susieq]

Tom,
I just did what I should have done before posting....which was go to your website. I agree with the others, I don't see anything wrong with what you are doing and my answer was just an answer in general about carving sequence.. Your pieces are lovely and you don't need my help.
susieq

[Joy]

Susieq, you hit the nail on the head for me. I never take off enough wood to begin with. I think I am afraid I will take off too much. But I do try to work all over the piece and not get into detailing too soon.

[mark yundt]

While "inflight",,carvings can, will and do at times look somewhat messy.That's the roughing in part,finding levels ,form and surfaces.Even smart bombs are on target only twice,,when they're released and when they hit,,along the way they are off course and constantly make corrections,,just like us. We start with an idea,,and end up with a carving,,corrections along the way.I have always thought what SusieQ stated is correct,,that many go after details way too soon.Partly so they have something to look at,,or they know that section well and can finish it off.That hurts your flexability further on,forcing you to either add wood,or make compromises,,lastly,,because they don't want to carve off a section they worked so hard on finishing.Your pieces appear to be finished very nicely,they won't look this good as you're doing them.Sometimes how you get there isn't pretty,,just so it ends up looking that way.I do feel though,,making clean cuts along the way does have it's benefits.

[Mitchell]

Susieq did a pretty good job of describing the steps. I like to follow the following steps: 1)rough out, 2)block out, and 3)detail.

Rough out the general shapes and "flow" of the carving. Block out where details will go. Detail is pretty much self-explanatory.

Lynn also provides an excellent way to learn and develop your skills.... try something new and different. I will often "doodle" - taking an odd shaped piece of wood and trying to make something recognizable from it. I'll even make the odd shape from a square piece just to play with. Take it even farther - start a carving with the intent of throwing it away when finished - maybe that's a stretch, but don't worry about messing something up.

There is no real perfect way - each carver will have to develop their own methods that work for them. It does help to start out with good basic fundamentals though.