I have done a number of commissions over the years. It is a very different process to carving for an exhibition of carving because I have an idea that I want to develop and explore. It starts when I am approached and asked if I will carve a specific form or a particular piece of wood.
My favourite was a beautiful piece of wood from the branch of a tree that the customers mother had been very fond of. The wood had been found in the attic recently, could I make anything from it. We looked at many pieces of sculpture to help me understand the customers likes and dislikes.
I then made a plastercine maquette of an abstract sculpture based on the shape of the wood and thinking about the relationship between the customer and the mother. I invited the customer to come and view it and discuss the details and some possible options and the limitations and characteristics of the wood. I gave the customer a quote and time to think about the project.
Once all was agreed and a 50% deposit paid I started to carve the form, this was very daunting. It was a unique piece of wood that I could not replace if anything went wrong. When I am doing a commission there is the additional pressure of meeting the customers expectations. I try to manage this carefully by making a maquette and discussing aspects of the sculpture in advance. You cannot be sure of exactly what you will find inside a piece of wood in terms of cracks and imperfections that might alter the course of a carving. I invited the customer in a couple of times to see the carving as it progressed and to discuss details of the finishing process.
Once completed, oiled and waxed the commission was ready for its final viewing, payment and then to go to its new home. So far customers have loved the work I have produced for them, and for me a great sense of relief of completing a commission successfully.
My last few posts have been about carving a Wave Form from the start of an idea, making it in plastercine, carving it in lime and applying oil and wax to finish. I have called the piece Oceanic. I guess it will evoke different memories for different people. For me the Mobius strip at the centre reminds me of the welling strength of the sea when we went surfing as children, and sitting listening to the rhythmic sound of the waves on the shore.
Make a maquetteand refine itPrepare a templateDraw it on and start to block out the shapeand continue roughly forming the shapeDevelop the waveRefine the spiralImprove the shape and finishApply oil and wax
Once the carving is fully formed the process of smoothing starts. This often takes me nearly as long as the actual carving. It starts by using a variety of chisels to gently take off the uneven surface from the whole carving. Whist I do this I check for bumps to remove and sharpen and smooth the edges. This is followed by using a variety of scrapers with different curves to create a really smooth surface. As this happens my eye is drawn to any irregularities that still need correcting. I do this over a few days as each time I look I see a new slight imperfection that needs correcting. I look at pieces from all angles and often use touch to check the smoothness and regularity of the carving.
Seeing the smooth shape is very satisfying the the actual process is really time consuming, but necessary if a smooth shape is desired rather than a chisel finish.
All that is left is the application of Danish oil and bees wax.
Today I drew around the templates onto a piece of kiln dried lime so that the outer edge of the sculpture from the top, bottom and both sides were outlined. Then I removed the wood that was outside the outline quickly with a number 5 16mm gouge and my trusty mallet. Getting rid of the surplus wood leaves a rather unattractive shape, but it is ready for refining and the actual sculpture being carved from it.
Before I start to carve I often make templates from my maquette and scale them to fit the wood that I am going to carve. For this carving I drew around the base of the maquette and drew the outline from the side. The maquette needed scaling up by x1.8 so I used my printer to make a 180% copy the drawing. Then I cut the outlines out to make the templates.
The templates allow me to transfer the outline shape accurately onto the wood. Then I can quickly carve the outline shape and redraw it on if I carve away the outline.
They look a little weird, but allow me to remove surplus wood quickly and efficiently.
So after a nights sleep I have modified the maquette, I think it is a bit better now. The left hand side seems to lead into the wave and there is a greater sense of balance as the piece starts, builds up and breaks over the top.
So I’ll sleep on it and then start carving if I am still happy.
I have been thinking about the forms I want to use in this wave sculpture for a while now. I really like the sea and the work of Barbara Hepworth.
I often develop my initial ideas in plastercine. It allows me to keep developing ideas as I go along, even once carving has started. This is a scale model of what I am going to carve, about half the final size. The Mobius strip is fine and I like the rolling nature of the wave form. I am less sure about the left hand side (it reminds me of a slug on this model), to I may play around with that over the next day or two. It is important to get this right as it will affect the initial cutting of the outline of the shape in wood and once this is done I will be committed to a certain shape.
I like the Mobius strip as a form, its sense of flow, the way it creates light and shade within a sculpture and the symbolism relating to love and infinity. Creating a wave from the edge if the strip works well and gives a sense of energy and the power of the sea. I nice combination of ideas.
So now its time to get serious. Thinking about what to carve is a combination of the ideas I have in my head that have been mulling around and developing for a while. Today the one which is surfacing is a development of a wave form combined with a Mobius strip. This type of form enhances the wood with lovely areas of light and shade and a sense of swirling movement. I am thinking about whether to carve it in lime and paint some of the faces to create contrast, or to do it in spalted wood and let the grain come through.
I will have a look at some of the pieces of wood from my wood store!!
Then I can start to develop my initial concept in a more real way………
My workbench is back in my workshop and my chisels are sharpened ready for a new year of carving. I am so excited. I always take a break over Christmas and New Year and come back with loads of new ideas for things to carve. The next few posts will be short and look at the process of carving from start to finish.
Carving really helped me during lockdown. Suddenly I went from a busy schedule of carving, jewellery making and family life to all the restrictions of the covid lockdowns. In March 2020 I got back from an extended holiday feeling as though I made it back to the UK by the skin of my teeth. The coronavirus pandemic was causing increasing concern around the world. I got home, bought in a big food shop, bought a turbo trainer for my bike, went to the last pre covid meeting of professional woodcarvers at Michael Painters studio. We chatted about what was to come and how uncertain everything felt.
I tried to buy kiln dried lime from two of my normal suppliers but they were having problems with their supplies, but after a short delay I was able to procure the much needed wood.
By 23 March 2020 the first covid lockdown started! Aprils weather was superb, sunny and warm, just a fabulous spring. Events were all cancelled, shops were closed. There was no Wirral Open Studio Tour or Liverpool Summer Art Market. So I filled my time with my allotment, exercise and wood carving.
During the first lockdown I had carvings to finish and new ones to begin. I was half way through the carving of Female torso which I had been working on at Michael Painter’s studio. I had made a maquette out of plastercine, and so could complete the piece from it.
I was also half way through an Elven face which I had been working on at the professionals group. The aim was to free up my carving style and enjoy carving a humanoid face without being a slave to trying to obtain a perfect human face. My plastercine maquette was useful to help me obtain the correct proportions, depth to the features and anatomically correct details such as eyelids, lips and facial musculature. I am always working to improve gaining facial expression as I want it. The carved piece is as yet incomplete.
The time came and went for Wirral Open Studio Tour and I submitted some pieces for their on line exhibition. During the early weeks of lockdown I had been experimenting with the idea of making some more functional pieces, and had made a number of bowls inspired by natural forms.
The sun continued to shine and I continued to carve a small acorn pendant that a friend had asked me to do and a smaller version of my Eagle’s Head for another friend. Both are sill packed away in storage boxes awaiting the time that I can see my friends again.
As the summer progressed I returned to a piece that I had started over a year earlier – the head of a staffie. I had completed the obligatory plastercine maquette. I started to carve the staff in a piece of hawthorn with a beautiful grain, but such a hard wood. Never again!!
Whilst the weather held I continued with a series of semi human faces which I had been doing just to entertain myself and did a new “Tree Spirit” face.
As the summer drew in I left carving out in the garden to return to my studio.I completed male and female torsos in deep relief carvings to consolidate my proficiency in carving the human body. Doing carvings of the male and female forms together made me concentrate not he differences between anatomies and the differences in proportions, musculature and form. I used photographs of dancers as source material because they are well proportioned and the musculature is clear.
As we moved into the second lockdown I was asked to make three “Spiral on a Stone Plinth” for a friend who really likes the symbolism of the spiral representing our journey through life and our personal growth. The symbolism seemed poignant in these covid times, they were to be gifts for people who had seen much during the pandemic.
It made me think about doing some wood carving in response to the pandemic and this led to a “Tree of Life” carving and a Mobius Strip carving called “Eternal Love”. I was thinking about our need for strength, resilience, and new beginnings.
More recently I have returned to a recurrent theme of the female figure and have carved a female torso in the round, a younger woman than the first one. Again `I started with a plastercine maquette and created a slimmer form and started to play with the form, cutting away and changing the shape of part of the limbs.
Over the last year or two I have been improving my skills with regards to carving faces, and so I challenged myself to carve a portrait of the character Gollum from Lord of the Rings. As always I started with a plastercine maquette and spent a few days correcting depth of the eye sockets, the shape and size of the eyes, the cheeks and the expression created by the shape of the mouth, facial muscles and eyes. Once this was complete I started to carve a block of lime, gradually creating the nose by dropping back the cheeks, forming the eye sockets and then forming the mouth and chin. My work always goes through various stages. Initially I block out the overall form, and then start to form the features and think “how will this ever look like Gollum?”, then I re-carve the cheeks and jaw line and think “this is rubbish!” Further adjustments are made and the nose shape established, “maybe it looks a bit like Gollum.” Then I worked on the bulging eyes expressing fear and excitement and finalised the nose shape, “Um, getting closer.” Next the mouth was roughed in, wide and grinning uncertainly, “can I capture this expression?” Still a way to go!!
I have just been asked to carve another heart bowl, the third lockdown looks as though it will come to an end soon. Perhaps the end is insight and this will close the circle on what has been the strangest year I have ever known. How would I have ever survived it without carving to occupy my hands and to keep my mind busy.
