Irish "Claddagh" plate

[Steve Reed]

9 1/2 inch basswood plate with stylized Irish "Claddagh" symbolizing Love, Friendship and Loyalty. Border is a series of celtic knot "triquetras". Finish is deft and Minwax antique maple gel stain. As always, comments are welcome.

[carver33]

Beautiful job - very clean and elegant!

[Colin-Partridge]

Steve love the plate my friend. Some questions for you. Firstly love the attention to detail and really well sanded if I may could I pick your brain on how you got it so smooth. Secondly in the centre of the plate the symbol seems like a crowned person with the hands cupped to the face. Is it sybolic or just a "Claddagh" design. Regardless love the whole concept very well done
Colin

[Steve Reed]

Colin, as for prep, I use an orbital sander with "fine" sandpaper, then follow it up with 400 grit in a sanding block. I then carve the design, and go over it again with the orbital and the same 400 to remove any remaining pencil marks and the like. I then start spraying with Deft. After 3 coats or so, I use a maroon scotch-brite pad to smooth down any lumps and bumps. Then 3 more coats of spray deft. I also rotate the plate with every coat so as to get the finish into the cuts so that the stain doesn't bleed. Then hit it with the gel stain and work to get as much out of the cuts as possible.
As far as the design goes, it is a stylized version of the Irish "Claddagh" symbolizing as above. Most of the time you see this in rings etc. It is indeed two hands (friendship) holding a heart (love), surmounted by a crown (loyalty). In this case, the heart is formed by another celtic knot, like the triangles (triquetra) around the border. Celtic knots and other Irish designs really lend themselves well to chip carving. This was a great project to research and execute! Unfortunately when my wife discovered it was a "For Sale" piece, she said, well, I guess you'll have to do another one for me!
Thanks for looking and sorry for the long post. Happy carving my friend.

[Mark N. Akers]

Steve:
Very nice job on the Chip Carved Plate.

[Iowa Carver]

Steve, i didn't realize you were such a good chipper! Nice! Steve, do you ever come on Saturdays to the club? You should, Rhon is doing a really nice job with it.

corey

[Steve Reed]

Corey. I try to make it to the club, but most of the time I have classes that I teach on Sat mornings from 8 - 10. By the time I can get there, folks are packing up. I try to stop by for a little while each month just so folks don't forget who I am! :-)
As far as the chipping, I've been doing it quite a while, have won some awards etc. Even used to teach it at Metro CC. Currently teaching out at Midwest Woodworkers.
Thanks for the kind words!

[Kadiddle]

Very nice Steve. So neat and clean.
Carve On,
Kadiddle

[Thor]

I really appreciate Celtic designs, and this stylized version is wonderful done in chip carving. I have tried incorporating bits of chip carving before into mine, and it just made me respect your work even more. It is so clean.
Christina

[Steve Reed]

Christina, thanks for the kind words, and for looking! Thanks to all who commented as well.