art deco mouldings

[mark yundt]

This job just hit the shop. It's a piece of moulding an Architect got from a historic art deco building in Philadelphia. He is having a kitchen built and wants to use this pattern as crown moulding around the cabinets.It was originally used as a chair rail on top of a wainscot wall with the points facing up.The pieces I make will be with the points facing down. At first glance it looks a bit odd but the more I'm around it and looking at it,,it's pretty neat. The geometric pattern is deceptive in it's simplicity. Another woodworker was going to start it,,but got lost in figuring it out and how to stagger the pattern to fit specific runs and handle the inside/outside corners around all the cabinets.

The sample I did here is in basswood.The whole job though is to be done in 2 inch X 8 inch Walnut as you can see the pile I have with the original laying on top of the stack.The original was 5" wide but the new pieces are to be 7" wide,so I had to expand the pattern and made some adjustments for a better balance overall. The pattern repeat is 5 inches which works out well for the number and length of the different runs I have to carve.Should be quick and fun.

[Thor]

I have never seen a moulding like that. Very interesting cross between sharks teeth and zig zags. I take it the shark's tooth portion is undercut? I appears so in the photo, but just needed to ask. The angle on the edge adds such dimension to it as well.
Good to see something so new.
Thor

[Mottles]

Mark this is fantastic, and your carving from the original model is, well just great! I like the points facing down, boy I bet it's going to be beautiful when installed. I love walnut. Please share when finished.
Kathy

[RUssL.]

Hey Boss!

Your basswood piece looks machine-cut. How *do* you do that!?

Are you gonna give a step-by-step on this one?

You know I wanna end up as your apprentice on this type of stuff, don't ya'? ;-)

Thank in advance,

RussL.

[mark yundt]

Thanks Kathy ( Mottles) I will show it.

No Thor,,I haven't seen one like it either.But it is growing on me. 'Course I'm a swirling Acanthus leaf,grape vines,flower carving sort of guy. Geometrics to me are out of my norm. Nothing on this has been undercut at all. Only straight sheared sides,,the shadows probably make it look that way. I'm not a fan of undercuts as I'm sure you know.to me they add very little and can get you in big trouble a number of ways.
I do like geometric type designs. To me what makes them work is they have to be handled very accurately to look decent and provide a wow factor. Precise carving is the key..a glitch or two in the lines and execution shows up immediately unlike carving a bunch of leaves or something like that where it won't really show up. Anyone doing Celtic Knots knows the same thing happens there. I did dozens of them covering the back of an almost 10 ft Celtic cross,,,8 inches square and they looked really neat in their layout as long as they were super accurate. A kink or an error,,misplaced cut anywhere kills it for me since there is no way to hide it,,,so this will be fun to do.

OOps ,,,sorry Russ,,was typing this as you were posting,,didn't want to miss you. I dont' know if I'll be doing a step by step. It's fairly straight forward to do. I do have neat plans for turning the corners though. Going to turn pieces for the outside ones,,and carve pieces for the inside ones.
I'm really glad to hear you think it looks machine made. That's what I was suggesting in the previous paragraphs. The key to carving flat angles is to not use a flat chisel and expect to keep it clean. What you see is only a light pass with 220 away from the chisel itself. Gotta' carve clean.

[mark yundt]

Things are going well so far. E-mailed the client these pics and they loved it. Guess I'm on my way.

[doris]

wow ... so differnt from all what i have seen from you, straight lines, mathematical geometry .... but, given my own latest expereinces, i can no one else imagine to carve these so well , since , as you pointed out, and i learned now, a tiny glitch, a unwanted slip of the chisel, in a pattern like this, destroys all...you have the confident hand it needs to carve it successfully. looking forward to see these wood pieces carved,,,,, :-)

[Fred Zavadil]

This is sure different from the "normal" stuff - very interesting, hope you will let us see it finished.
Fred

[gene-messer]

Mark .. how you do it , I dont know .. but the match is astounding ..

Unusual molding .. but decorative in look ..

A carving challenge for us .. but in the hands of a ole pro .. you have mastered the look ..

great carving match ..

gene

[mark yundt]

Thanks everyone,,Yes,,this is unusual moulding,,especially for me and the stuff I usually do.That's the nature of this business. I wouldn't have ever thought of designing something like this let alone carving it, but here it is and I like the various challenges it presents. How do I get this to go around a corner,,or make an inside corner ( 8 of each ,inside and outside) How do I space the repeat considering it's 5 inches and not one of the 12 runs is a multiple of 5? With a small repeat it's much easier to shrink or expand any given run and not have it be noticeable,,,what do I do here? Somehow I'll figure it out and come up with a solution.Hopefully it'll look decent and noone will see the differences. We'll see. Thanks for your comments.