what a humbling experience...

doris · #1 12-15-2007, 05:00 PM

i carved some strings of beads, for exercise of carving accurately, oh well, and today, i was trying again to carve just a simple egg and dart, but not only one, that is "easy", but three in a row. my only goal was to make them look same... oh well. i carved more than 3 hours on these 3 little buggers, and they turned out totally ugly....sigh... each one for it self, might pass as nice (really?), but together they look truely disgusting... i even did resharpen all the gouges i used for the project, since i know sharpness is an issue, but i recognise even more how much mastery is in carving rows and rows of the same pattern, like gadrooining, waterleaf, or egg and dart, and make it look pleasing for the eye. we all pass these, i think, since these patterns look easy, but they are not. a single yes, but not in repeating. i came to believe in these meditative hours, that carving a face, or even a figure is a simple exercise, compared to doing these accurate carvings which i love looking so much in curches, which give me calm and peace, and which i so much would like be able to create ... thanks for listening to these rambling thoughts ...

chuckt · #2 12-15-2007, 06:56 PM

Heh heh - I've not tried any of this Doris (heck - I've not carved anything for 4 months). But it kinda makes sense that trying to take something "simple" - like that - but in a consistant repeating pattern and make it all look the same would be a lot tougher than it seems on the surface. There was a thread on "the other" board - where someone mentioned about carving the same thing repeatedly (they were talking more like an in the round object) and get them all to look the same was VERY hard. Each one is unique, even if you don't want it to be. :-)

Keep at it though Doris, I am certain you will be able to get there one day. Look at how you've grown in your carving over the last year. Now if only I can get past all these "life" interruptions so I can get back to what's important. ;-)

ChuckT

Eddy Smiles · #3 12-15-2007, 08:27 PM

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." - Confucius

doris · #4 12-16-2007, 09:13 AM

thank you both for encouraging words :-) ... yes, i not give up. at least not so easily... hope you will find time for carving soon, chuck, maybe christmas holidays is good for that... ah, eddy always wanted to ask you that... what do the kanji in line under your name mean ? it looks like japanese, since the hiragana there, but i cannot remember the last of the four is a kanji...

Irish · #5 12-16-2007, 10:38 AM

Doris,

Are you carving one, then the next and then the third or all three at one time. Many furniture carvers need long runs of repetitive designs. They do it by doing one cut on a pattern then moving to the next repeat and doing the same cut until all of the repeats have that one cut completed.

They then return to the starting point and make one new cut through each and every pattern repeat.

This process will give a more uniform impression for repeated patterns then when you completely cut one design then try and repeat all of the cuts in the next.

Susan

doris · #6 12-16-2007, 03:28 PM

hi susan :-) yes, i tried this procedure, but i also did many intermediate cuts, when i noticed the cut was not exactely like i wanted it be... i will try again, and also i think now, i need make the pattern more agree with the gouges i have, i mean that the curves of the blades fit better for the design. that was, i think, main point why i did need so many correcting cuts... thanks a lot for your sharing of know how :-)

Eddy Smiles · #7 12-16-2007, 04:23 PM

Doris... More or less it means "woodcarver", but since my lack of expertise in Japanese is only exceeded by that of my carving it might stand for "lousy carver!" Ha! Ha!

doris · #8 12-16-2007, 04:44 PM

i dont think it means that :-) ... but maybe the last is not a character in japanese ... yes, to my poor knowledge, the first means tree, the second is hand , the third is like "of" (so a grammatical word without meaning in it self), and the fourth, i never have seen, but would make the meaning of the whole, and thats why i asked ;-) ... anyway, very cool writing under your name :-) i like :-)

Eddy Smiles · #9 12-16-2007, 08:19 PM

Doris....

So desuka? I went back and changed it just for you. To the best of my knowledge this is the kanji for wood - ki and carve(s) horu...but as I said I could have just ordered a large pizza with anchovies! I believe that my original might have been hiragana. I can't tell you what the & sign is except that I may have picked it up by accident when I did my cut and paste. Anyway....

domo arigato gozaimasu!