African Mask Low Relief Carving

[Irish]

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I am using my chip knive (bench knive) to cut off the excess wood, running it along the pencil line. My wide sweep round gouge is perfect for freeing that cut from the background area.

With that point now square I am using my straight chisel to begin rounding the upper edge of this headdress area. I like to start with a 45 degree cut then go back and shave along both sides of that cut. This creates the smoothest edge that is as close to a half circle as I can work.

Once one side of the upper headdress is done I move over and repeat this for the second side.

Susan

[Irish]

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The point on this level of headdress has been reset, both sides have been rounded over into a half-circle roll along the upper edge and the inner area has been smoothed.

OK ... Off to feed the Voracous Runtling Gang, do a good bottom wiping and maybe give them their morning bath, more feeding and once they settle back to sleep I'll be back with more photos.

Susan

[Irish]

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While I wait for the kids to go back to sleep ... they are wandering around under my feet right now getting their morning exercise ... I thought I would show you my new 'in the house' work table.

In our old house my work table was simply a very small table that was mine to use if no one else needed it or if it was not under some 6' tall pile of stuff.

My son calls my new table "Mom's ghetto table' but I love it. I took three small book shelves that I picked up at Staples on sale. They are 12" wide, 28" long and 28" high with one center shelf. I placed two back to back with the shelf area facing out towards the room. Then I placed the third shelf 36" away facing towards the two back to back shelves.

On top of this rests a 3/4" x 24"wide x 72" long sheet of plywood - nice, heavy and strong. On top of the plywood is a 3/8" sheet of masonite board. I drilled six holes through the masonite and plywood into shelves - one hole on each side of each shelf - then set screws through the masonite and plywood into the shelves.

So now I have three book shelves for storage, two of which face into the seating area, a seating area that is 36" wide with lots of leg room, and an extra heavy table top that I can just abuse to my hearts content without worrying about damaging the table. In a few years when I have throughly worn out that masonite sheet I only need to take out six screws and lay down a new one.

The masonite is not glued down to the plywood ... it simply lays on the plywood so that I can easily take it up and replace it if needed.

And ... since I decided to cut the two tops only 24" deep and the shelves are 28" deep I have a space behind the table above the seating area that has an opening of 4" so I can push the table against the wall but still have easy to use room to drop my computer and lamp cords through to the outlets.

The shelves, on sale, cost me about $15 each, the plywood was under $25 because I did not need clear or high quality and I can't remember the masonite cost ... but I would estimate under $100 for a 6' x 2' work space with three storage shelves. I can clamp, hammer, paint, spill, tarnish, sand, carve .... whatever and I know my "Mom's ghetto table' can take it.

And it's MINE ... ALL MINE! ... Well, except on laundry day.

Susan

... What you are seeing on the table are my two camera lamps - one is sitting to the left and the other is on a tripod. In front of the table is the tripod for the camera with the extention arm resting on a paper mache box and some paper back books so that the camera remains at the same height for every photo. Our carving, the African Mask, is sitting on the table between the two lamps. The white plastic basket to the left holds my carving tools, ruler, pencil - whatever I am using during a carving session. In the inside shelves are my plastic storage boxes of paint, colored pencils and finishes.

[schaf]

Thanks Susan, photo's are up and running now.

Terry

[Irish]

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Got a lot to post today so begin ....

I want to move into the eye brow area and the first thing I want to check is that the eye brow v cuts that we made with the chip knife are even - that they are the same depth, same width and end at the same point in the face. I have set my ruler so that I know it is square with the pencil rectangle guide line I drew when I traced the pattern. I can make a pencil mark on both eye brows where the longest v cut ends.

My top and middle eye brow on the left side of the photo need to be extended almost 1/2" towards the mouth. So I grabbed my v gouge and recut both eye brows.

With the eye brows even I can use my bull nose chisel to work the smoothing steps on the inner headdress area. Since I am working close to the ends of the eye brows I am in an area that rolls downward in two directions from the eye brow point.

The upper part of the headdress in this area rolls down towards the point at the top and the lower area rolls down towards the crease near the eye. So I need to turn my carving and work the lower section with the grain - down towards the eye crease.

Susan

[Irish]

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I am still not satified with the joint line between the two headdress so I am recutting the line with my v gouge.

While I have the v gouge in my hand I have reset the joint lines between the eye brows and the headdress and along the decorative v-shapes ornament in the center of the headdress.

The v gouge is most often used to create v troughs between joints but you can also use it to shape and shave an area. By laying the v gouge on its side you can use one side of the tool for shaving. It is especially good in tight areas as between the decorative v ornament and the upper eye brows.

My medium round gouge has the right tight curve to reset the curve at the end of the eye brows. I am rolling the tool along that ridge to make it more circular ... it was sort of a lopsided oval.

Susan

[Irish]

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You can see how the smoothing process is progressing. The headdress areas are about done with more rounded edges and lots less rough out ridges. The sides of the headdress where it becomes the outer eye pad area of face, just above the eye crease has a much better roll. The area in the center of the forehead has been worked smooth ... but I think I still need a little work on the curve at the bottom of the eye brows as it still looks too oval in shape.

Susan

[Irish]

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I am moving down to the eye lids next and start the work with a very small round gouge. I need to drop both outer eye pad areas into a downward curve so that they match. After I have the downward curve roughed in I reset the joint line between the eye lids and the lowest eye brow and along the upper line of the top eye lid using my v gouge.

I have stepped back from the carving and taken a few moments to look at where I am at in the carving. That let me see that the inside angle or line of the left eye lid did not match the line on the right eye lid. So I have made a pencil line on the left eye lid where I want it to be and then recut the line using my v gouge. (Sorry - lost that photo!)

Susan

[Irish]

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Please read through this area before you begin work ... I am going to do a few steps then you can see me 'change my mind' to do something else

To work the inside of the upper eye brow ridge I grabbed my bull nose chisel. I am using it in an up-right position ... up ending it. A gentle straight down push shaves the rough edges left from the chip knife and v gouge.

Irish_131.jpg shows where we are at around the eyes. Both eye pads now curve downward, are the same depth and stop in the carving at the same point. The eye brows still need a touch of work to even them. I am using my chip knife to cut a two stroke v gouge in the area between the eye brows to deepen the v and to bring the ends of the v to the same point in the carving.

Irish_132.jpg shows the first cut of the chip v and Irish_133.jpg shows the second.

Susan

[Irish]

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I need to taper the ends of the eye brows into the sides of the forehead so I am using my bull nose chisel to shave from the middle point at the v down towards the face on both sides of the eye brow lines. While I have the bull nose in my hands I used it to round over the edges - inside and out - of the eye brow lines.

I really am making lots of fine slivers, lots of little chips and have lots of loose fuzz bunnies floating around my carving so it's time for a hard, vigorous scrubbing with a nylon brush.

Susan