Small carvings

[arfer1943]

The request to find small tools for small carvings reminded me of carvings I once saw in the British Museum that might make us all weep. They do me.

These were carved in boxwood around 1500 in Holland or Germany, without modern tools.

This is a prayer bead or portable altar that folds on itself to a sphere. The scenes are the Cruxifiction and Annunciation.

No-one knows who carved it, or how. My theory is that the finest detail was scraped with broken glass or similar.

Go, do thou likewise...........

[Dan Wegiel]

What a beautiful work of art! Truly amazing! Do you know the size? Thanks so much for sharing the pics with us, enjoyed it very much.
Dan

[arfer1943]

If I remember, the sphere is about 5 inches in diameter.

[draft51@aol.com]

What a wonderful piece, a true masterpiece, thank you for sharing. fred k

[Rook]

Now THAT is attention to detail!

I find myself falling into the micro-pieces. And, from a technique standpoint, it's killing my success. I might be able to make a figure you could recognize after I told you what it was in a 4" high bust, but much smaller and my knife doesn't work in the tight areas and it comes out looking like pure junk. My detail knife comes to a keen point, but it's still too big for my skill level to do eyes, a mouth, etc. unless all I'm after is just a suggestion. My interest run more to 'realistic' rather than caricature, so only having a rough assumption of an eye or a mouth, it's killing me. I'm waiting on some basswood that's supposed to contain larger pieces, I sincerely hope they'll help me get out of this 'oh, there's a 3/4"x2" piece, I'll carve a face in it' mode.

On the above piece, I've seen documentaries on the makings of high end 'collectible' shotguns, ranging in price from $4000-$25000 a piece. On the episode I saw, they showed how to do the engraving in the gold inlays on the receiver. It was a guy with very specialized tools, a good lighted magnifying glass, and the steadiest hands ever. I'm almost sure it'd take the same three things to do the detail work in the pictures that are in this thread! You'll certainly not carve them with a Flexcut Detail knife that has a tip that's actually wider than the entire body of the model that's being carved. I'm picturing some itsy bitsy tooling there.

OR, a less likely alternative, I know how coins are made using a duplicator that scales way way down while a much larger 'blank' is being carved. That may be it. In any event, the carver there, he'd be the fella I'd want digging a splinter out of my finger!

I'm almost certain the artist, he'd likely have my houses value in specialized tools. Not to mention, finding a piece that could withstand that detail, that's not going to be easy.

Could you imagine what a person with that attention to detail could do with a BIG piece? Maybe 20"x20" square? It'd likely take 25 years to carve, but I'm sure it would be simply breathtaking.

And to think, they likely didn't have epoxies and CA glues to stick on pieces where the tool slipped!

[SlowMover]

Thats a remarkable carving no matter what the size, I absolutly love it. I love small carvings, but that level of detail is so far beyond my current abilities I might as well cut off my hands as claim to be in the same class as that unknown carver. Tools are importnt, but I am convinced that a truely gifted artisan can carve no matter what he uses for tools, and the opposite is unfortunatly true as well. My hat is off to those who have the gift of making realistic carvings of any size.

[whittlinJim]

Wow! That is stunning! I am amazed!

Jim

[bigEd_H]

That is true artistry. The detail is truly captivating to look at. Thanks for sharing.

[carverswoodshop]

wow , awesome, thanks for posting it

[BrandantR]

Wow!!! I'm awstruck.