Jointed carvings

[Ike Ickes]

Hey All, I've got a question and the question is this. Has anyone out there done any jointed carving? I been kinda caught up in this for last several months and have found it to be a real challenge. Here's what I'm running into. First the wood for the dowels thru the shoulder area. The wood I have been using is either too soft or too darn hard. Realizing the shoulder dowel takes a lot of stress when moving the arms. I have used butternut,pine, basswood, cottonwood and many others. The best is maple or birch dowels but here in south central Montana kinda hard to come by on a daily basis. Secondly, does anyone know a better way to make joints than by hand carving them. Hand carved joints is extremely time consuming and not that exact. I have been using a jig I made and that helps speed things up a bit but.... The reason I'm asking is that I've shown a couple of my last pieces to a few tourist shops and they are interested but I need to bring the price down and the jointing is where the time is wasted. The last two pieces I carved have over 80 plus hours in each piece. If anyone has an answer I would be happy to hear it. Thanks, Ike

[Claude]

Hi, Ike.

Keoma is one os the carvers who has done quite a few jointed carvings. Go up to the green bar, click on Search, and then enter Keoma doll and you should find quite a few, including lots of photos of how she does it.

Claude

[Ron T]

Hi Ike,

You can also send her a pm.

[Kenny_S]

MarciMN and Wildhare also do Jointed carving.Both on the board here. I have seen Wildhare's jointed carving and they are very nice work! But I haven't seen postings from them lately. May be to busy

[Marci MN]

Hello Ike, what kind of jointing are you wanting? One dowel going across and keeping arm movement in tandem? Or seperate joints for each arm to move individually? And then theres joints that the arm can swing back and forth and then outwards also. There are also joints done with either wire or elastic going from wrist to the inside of the doll so the whole arm is positionable.

Do you have a picture to share on the doll / carving your wanting to work with?

Dolls ARE expensive, and jointing and originality makes them so. Think twice about lowering your price.


Marcia.

[hwallen48]

Does someone have a Basic pattern for the jointed dolls??

[wildhare]

Hi Ike,

As Ken said, I started carving jointed Santa's and then turned to jointed dolls.

If speed is the desire, there is always what is referred to as power carving, like with a dremel , foredom or Master carver. You can shape the entire doll that way, (with practice).

If I get a short order for a doll, I cut a blank on the bandsaw, carve the facial features with a detail knife that Thomp made then power carve and shape the rest of the doll.

Joints can be pegged, strung with wire, or strung with elastic. If you post a picture of your doll, I can tell more what you are looking for.

I totally agree with Marci. Don't lower your price, be proud of your work. The gift shop wants to resell your work to make money for them, not you.
Wanda

[cut up]

"The Best Of Fine Woodworking" from Fine Woodworking magazine(November 1990) had a Nutcracker in it with articulating arms. The article was by Fred Sneath.
It is just a ball and socket joint held together with an elastic cord.

[Ike Ickes]

Refer: Jointed Dolls. I want to thank everyone for giving me all of this wonderful advise. I'm sorry it's taken me awhile to get back on here to reply. My wife has been having some medical problems and that has been my main concern for quite some time now. I have posted all of my so called dolls ( their not really). They all are jointed santas. I have tried to describe what I have done along with some of the photos. I really like the plans cut-up sent and I will study them to see if I can improve on them. Once again thanks to everyone and God bless. Ike Ickes

[Marci MN]

HI Ike, I've been wondering how it was going with you , and if you found a joint you liked working with. I sure do hope your wife is getting better.

Marcia.