Gothic chip carved cross

[gene-messer]

Roger .. That is beautiful .. It really is .. your chip carved pieces have become one my favorite's to see on this board ..

Excellent piece ..

Gene

[CarverRog]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments thoughts.

[Mottles]

Your cross is really nice, somehow I feel the center design need something a little more. I almost feel like the outside design would have been more interesting in the center. Nevertheless it's a super carving.
Kathy

[mark yundt]

Hello Roger,
The quality of the carving ,as usual ,is excellent. Since you have some doubts about the design itself that's all I can comment on.
To me it seems the overall shape of the cross doesn't lend itself very well to the style of carvings that have been applied to it.Most tracery is found on long ,straight ,linear spaces. For example the end of pews,organ screens,dividers etc. The shape you used has a more "modern" 60's look to it as crosses you find done in that period. Possibly if the arms of the cross were straight and terminating in a shape that would compliment the tracery might help instead of the tapering arms. This might give it more of an "old world" feel where the tracery is usually found.
The other thing ( gee,,I hate to sound like I'm ganging up on you ) is the shapes of the tracery itself. I'm not familiar with the reference you used,,or how much you modified it to fit your space,,but some things are happening here that take away from the TYPICAL look. I say typical,,because none of this is set in stone and designs do often change. With that being said,,I think what might help is where the design looks like a sphere cut in two,,I think it would help if the design terminated at the spring line instead of continuing in a circle. Then from this spring line,,the linearity could continue down the arm of the cross and then finish in a tracery design in the center. The outer ends of the cross could also have been cut to mimic the shape of the design,,or left square and filled out with additional cuts. I do think that if you fill up the center as the piece now stands it will only add to the bulkiness and give it a cluttered look. Tracery should have ,I believe ,a lighter airy look to it. Though the designs can look intricate,,they can also be pierced as they often are to lighten the look as in a screen for example.
I've included just a couple of examples of tracery and you can see how most all of the samples are long parallel lines finishing in a tracery style.

Please don't take my observations as a criticism of the piece. Since you asked I offer them only in a constructive way and they do only represent my personal opinion.

[CarverRog]

Spot on! Mark you hit it on the head with the fact that I was trying to marry two different styles of designs, Celtic and Gothic. You know when I was trying to get the design before I had trouble and that should have been the clue for me. Oh well, do over. Thanks Mark!