Ever see a carving that suddenly got better between shows?On a horse,for example, the legs got longer/shorter .The fetlock managed to get carved out of wood that wasen't there. The secret is EPOXY, or some other filler under the paint. And the stuff will tell you it is there by tapping with a real silver coin(pre 64)..A matter of sound,the wood not as sharp as the filled material..Larger areas will work with larger coins.. Now, you find a sound difference,what to do? Of course,the owner will say it ain't so.. X rays at a hospital will show the 'repair',(new name for cheating ) as a white blob compared to the wood shadow..The fillers also tend to sand smoother than basswood,so a strong glass might be found in the judges pocket ,to observe the paint. Thank you for your time,cordially nad

lnaddy
what the heck are you talking about?........ art olver

??? :

[AlArchie]

On the other hand, if you're carving large pieces from glue-ups, it becomes necessary to use fillers in the joints and for knots, punky spots etc. I've repaired a few broken carvings with epoxy, filler and paint. Can't really say that either of these 'efforts' are cheating, but I suppose if you want to you can!

If competitive carving rules prohibit the use of fillers, that is entirely a different story.

Al

sorry,I did not make subject more clear.It is one thing to repair,or even modify a carving with epoxies,polyesters. However,I consider it wrong to use the materials inorder to win ribbons, or prize money.. I have seen several carvings that took best of show.I am not talking ducks,carousel horses, or any item that requires blending .Now, if you consider it proper to make major modifications with filled materials on show pieces ,just because the rules don't exclude them,winning may damn well be a matter of pride,or a lack of it.I sell cutters for copy machines, and am working on two carvings that I may enter in shows.Thay will be totally hand carved , if they win something,fine.If not,that too is fine. In the latter case,I will probably learn something from the carvers that placed ahead of me. I don't get to many shows but enjoy all the games played to gather ribbons. At one show,a friend said 'beat again'.I told him no,about half a pound of epoxy filler.. His reply,was how sad......cordially nad, and, if I offended you with the origional thread, I'll probably do it again in the future. that's why I'm not in Congress.....

[AlArchie]

Offended????? Hardly! Open discusion here ain't offensive, it's productive! Now, congressmen, some of them ARE offensive!

What does offend my sense of fairness is the 'hand-carved' items in some galleries, that are marked '1 of 250' or '7 of 250' dated '2002' or whatever. I've even seen some marked and dated as '1 of 1000'. Now, I'm not the world's fastest carver, by any stretch of the imagination, but I doubt if any one person could hand-carve AND paint 250 to 1000 of any one gallery item in a year. Mostly I carve fish and aquatics, and it's a real good week when I can finish (carve, burn, prime, paint and mount on a decent display) even ONE!
Some of those have GOT to be a corroborative effort. I mean, those 1 of 1000 items have to be 'artistically' turned out at a rate of almost 3 a day, and the 250 series items have to be done at almost one a day, unless the poor soul carving them works every day of the year!

On the other hand, the folks doing these are probably earning a living with their work, and I'm not (just a hobby)......big difference here!


Al

I carve cottonwood bark 30+yrs and I've been to hundreds of shows. I'm not interested in ribbons myself.
Using the word 'cheating' in the competition for ribbons is a p poor name to begin a thread.Childish actually.
Art

Sorry Nad, but from here it looks like you are upset over not winning? As for fillers or epoxies...don't know that I have an opinion, if they have to fix a break or glue something on, so be it....Lets give them credit for the creation in and of itself, the making of it, the original idea and the fortitude to go ahead with the project...there are too many projects sitting gathering dust in some peoples heads! The fact that you apparently are a perfectionist and will not use those materials in your work, speaks highly of your principles...but it also tells me, that you have a pretty good size firewood pile LOL, because I have rarely, not had a mistake of mine or a flaw in the wood or ??....but God bless and keep carving!

[Kenny_S]

I have a hard enough time just getting a carving done let alone using fillers. I tried it once or twice on ducks head to body to eliminate the line of the two pieces(I usually don't paint decoys.

I guess I am not smart enough to tell epoxy from wood.
To each his own! Live and let live.
Not in to it for ribbons but pure enjoyment of carving in itself!

[don]

I don't carve for competitions but I think I would agree with Nad if I did. If I understand him he objects to someone making a carving,probably to the best of their ability, finding out why it isn't good enough to win and then adding to it.This, to me, isn't the same as carving another,better copy of the same figure and entering it in competition. For me at least that is just as hard as carving the first one and there are likely to be new mistakes in it. I have tried carving the same pattern twice and the differences are amazing. Don