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.
Exhibiting my work is an exciting part of producing and selling it. It gives me the chance to chat to people who are genuinely interested in art and sculpture about what inspires my work and how it is produced.
The first stage is to choose the type of event and the location that will be most suitable to showcase your work introduce not to the public. This can be anything from craft fairs, arts fairs, open studio tours, exhibitions, online events or art shops. This decision matters. Different people will visit each of these venues and they will have different expectations of the type of work they wish to see and perhaps buy. I have found open studio tours and art fairs to suit my work better than craft fairs. I also like showing my work in shops and at exhibitions. Generally I enjoy events where I can meet and chat to the public.
Once the decision is made and events identified I try to get onto the mailing list so that I am notified when the event is inviting applications. This is often months in before the event. Application forms vary greatly, but generally ask for photographs of work, dimensions, prices and information about the artist and their work. I am nearly always developing and making new pieces and try to have new work available for exhibition so that people always have something they have not seen before.
If accepted I always spend sometime updating my website with event information, new works and images. My next exhibition is with the Tate Aisle Gallery at Birkenhead Park Visitors Center 6th-20th August 2022.
As the event approaches it will advertise itself, but I always share information on Facebook, distribute flyers and let as many people as I can know about the event. The events I attend are usually exhibiting the work of a number of artists, so it benefits everyone if it is well publicised.
During the last couple of days before the event I check that all my work is ready to exhibit, labelled, priced and packed ready to go. I then deliver it and either set up or oversee the display of my work. If there is an event launch I make every effort to attend because it is fun, a chance to chat to other artists and to the public.
At some events you need to be present throughout, at others you may be asked to be there a couple of times to greet and chat to visitors. Sometimes there is an opportunity to run a workshop or give a presentation. These a great opportunities as people love to have a go and love to see how work is produced. This can lead to commissions and to people asking for tuition in my workshop at a later date.
At the end of course unsold work needs to be collected and safely taken home. Generally I find the experience very positive and really enjoy being involved as fully as possible.
Wirral Open Studio Tour is on 11-12th June 10am-5pm this year. Artists from across the Wirral will open their studios to anyone who is interested and wants to drop in and chat about how they make their art, some artists may be at work in their studios so that you can watch them work. Their work will be on display so that you can view it and get an insider explanation of what the work means to the artist. Many artists will have works for sale, and whilst there is no pressure to buy it is an opportunity if you are after a special and unique piece of art.
I have carved two new pieces especially for Wirral Open Studio Tour which are ready for their first viewing along with other recent pieces.
I experimented with ‘Orca’s Tail’ carved in lime and mounted on slate. The whale traditionally symbolises wisdom, knowledge and strength. It has been a lovely piece to carve and I have experimented with introducing colour, something I will continue with in the future.
I have just completed carving ‘Ocean’s Embrace’ in lime wood. It is a variation on a Mobius strip which symbolises eternity and love. It is carved as a wave form and I imagined it hugging a wild swimmer or a surfer. Light and shade flow through the pierced areas giving it a sense of rhythm. Another piece about the sea and its sense of freedom!
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.
A maquette is a scale model made as an initial draft to help planning before starting a sculpture. It is used to help to visualise the overall form, plan the proportions and add details. It can be a rough model or it can be actual size or a scale model of the final piece. It is best not to scale up or down too much if it is being used to create exact measurements as it can lead to inaccuracies (perhaps no more than X2).
When I first started to learn about woodcarving I was encouraged to use maquette, but in my enthusiasm to carve I did not make the time to make maquette and just got on with my carving using images in my head, my drawings or photographs as source material. This I think was most significant beginners mistakes I made in my early carving days.
These days I always make maquette for complex or unfamiliar forms. They are always worth the time and effort and make carving easier, faster and more accurate. There are many ways of making maquette. I make mine from plastercine supported on a wooden base. The plastercine can be formed and reformed repeatedly improving the proportions and finalising the relationship between components and the details. As plastercine can be both added and removed (unlike wood carving) it can be used to refine and develop ideas and as the basis of discussion with friends, tutors, or those placing a commission with you. Maquettes are important in commissioned pieces to help to finalise the the form with a client, aid clear communication and ensure that the client is happy with the final sculpture. You also get to keep the maquette when a sculpture goes to its final home as a unique record of the piece. I am thinking about doing some maquettes in clay to create a more permanent record.
Making a maquette
To make a maquette I start by mounting a piece of dowling onto a wooden block. The size of the block and dowling depend on the size of the maquette that I am making. In this example I used 10mm diameter dowling. The length of the doweling depends on the height of the maquette. I then drilled a 10mm hole into a left over piece of wood with dimensions 7cmX 5cmX 5cm. It just needs to be big enough to make the maquette stable.
Then I glued the Dowling in place with wood glue and left it to dry overnight.
I then stuck drawing pins into the dowling to make it easy to apply the plastercine securely so that it will not twist around as I make the maquette.
Before starting to model with the plastercine I usually warm it overnight in the airing cupboard or in hot water (not in the microwave, this can go wrong!), knead it and apply it to the dowling post. Think about the dimensions of the the final piece and of the maquette and add enough plactercine to create the overall shape.
You can then start to model it with clay / plastercine modelling tools, kitchen utensils or modelling tools you have made yourself.
It is well worth taking your time with the modelling, refining and improving it until you are satisfied that it is right. I often create a maquette starting from a photograph or drawing and then make it over several days, building and rebuilding it. I measure the dimensions to make sure that they are correct and then model the details. The advantage of working over several days is that you can take long breaks and then return with a fresh eye and then adjust the maquette. It is also worth looking at it from different angles – front, sides, above etc. so that you have all around accuracy. It is surprising how direct things can look from different angles. A face can look right when viewed from straight on, but the nose may not be long enough when viewed from the side. You should also think about where the final piece will be displayed and viewed from as this changes the perspective. Many human figure sculptures in churches as mounted high on the walls and will be viewed from below. Consequently the feet should be carved a bit smaller and the face a little larger than normal to talk account of the effect of distance.
As a last thought, always work in good light, daylight is best for this kind of work.
Scaling Up and Down
If your maquette is the same size as the final sculpture (1:1) then transferring the dimensions onto a piece of wood is very simple. However maquette are often smaller than the final woodcarving and so scaling up is necessary. There are many ways of doing this. I frequently take a simple mathematical approach. For example, if my maquette is 2/3 of the size of the final sculpture then I will need to increase all dimensions e.g. maquette height 6cm : final woodcarving height 9cm, maquette width 4cm: final woodcarving width 6cm. The positions of all the features will be scaled in the same way. To calculate these you can take the final woodcarving height and divide by the maquette height to gain the scale i.e. 9/6=1.5 The scale is 1:1.5 Each dimension needs to be increased by multiplying by 1.5.
This principle can be applied to any scaling e.g. if the maquette height is 9.4cm and you want the final woodcarving height to be 15.2cm then the scale is 15.2/9.4=1.6, and so all dimensions need to be increased by multiplying by 1.6
The same idea can be applied to scaling down.
There are other ways of scaling up and down. I sometimes use a printer to increase or decrease the size of images used for relief carving. Be careful with images for carving in the round as dimensions may the distorted.
My love of sculpture started when I was 18 and studying for my A-level in Art. As part of this I did a project on a sculptor called Ted Roocroft who was a pig farmer turned sculptor. He produced beautiful concrete sheep finished with pebbles, and specialised in woodcarving. Pieces like “War and Peace’ left me awestruck. It seemed like another world, one that was far beyond me, as I had no tools, no experience of sculpture and could not see how I could gain the skills.
Many years later an opportunity came my way to do a night school in woodcarving with Wirral woodcarver and sculptor John White. I have been carving with him for over 10 years. I started with the basics of using chisels safely, basic cuts, understanding the grain of wood and completing simple projects such as a relief carving of a leaf. He continued to guide me through a variety of projects, increasing the depth of the relief and the complexity of the subject and building up to three dimensional pieces and specific skills such as incised writing. I gradually grew in confidence and built up the range of tools I felt comfortable using. He taught me how to develop my own ideas, and the process of going from an idea, research, drawings, modelling and carving the final sculpture.
Recently I have. been lucky enough to be able to spend time carving with Master Woodcarver and Sculptor Michael Painter. In September 2017 I spent two days carving with him on a course he was tutoring in Penrith. I wanted to start to learn about carving the human face and Michael is second to none in this skill. He first ensured that all of the small group of students could use chisels safely, but we were quickly able to go onto individual projects. I carved my first human face with carefully structured guidance from Michael.
I am now lucky enough top be able to go and carve with Michael about once a month. To date I have carved a number of faces with his help and am now able to carve faces with gradually increasing proficiency. I still have portraiture and the rest of the body to learn about! Oh and so much more.
I have just started to produce some lovely, very individual, necklace pendants in Thuya Burr and finished with Danish oil. They are hung on a 60cm necklace made from waxed cotton cord. Each of the designs shown here is priced at £20.
Spiral Pendant 45mm approx
Spiral Pendant
Ivy Leaf Pendant 50x40mm approx
Please email me if you are interested in finding out more about them or purchasing one.
