Medici Auricular Picture Frame WIP.

[Adam W.]

Off we go then time for a new architectural carving project, I thought I'd make one of these for a little mirror frame.

Working out the strapwork and the rake of the carving.

Chop,chop, chop.

Once one side is roughed out, the other three sides get the waste removed with an axe and the largest roughing gouge available.
It's all about chopping it off as quick as possible so that the carving can continue.

Lovely straight grain on this cheap spruce from the DIY shed.

 

[Dee J]

Fascinated by the motifs used in historic decorative carving. Do you have that 'vocabulary' in your head while carving? Leaf/strap/boss etc

 

[deema]

I have to say, you are an exceptionally talented person. I love reading all your making threads. Just wanted to say, brilliant.

 

[Adam W.]

Fascinated by the motifs used in historic decorative carving. Do you have that 'vocabulary' in your head while carving? Leaf/strap/boss etc

I do, I guess it's the language that I work in. I try to be as accurate with the nomenclature as possible because I have to speak to people who are much more knowledgable about this stuff than I am. Plus the language sometimes gives little insights to methods and materials, although a lot of it has been thought up by the antiques industry, so it's worth being mindful of that.

I have to say, you are an exceptionally talented person. I love reading all your making threads. Just wanted to say, brilliant.

Thank you, but I don't think I'll get close to matching your attention to detail, not ever!

 

[Jorny]

I love seeing stuff like this. I am also fascinated by the use of spruce and not linden (is that what is called basswood).

 

[Adam W.]

Yes, but it gets overused and used out of context. Pine and spruce are common framing woods in Italy, whereas lime is a Germanic carving wood. I'm sure that you would have access to some fantastic pine and spruce in Sweden Jorny. I think the stuff I'm using comes from Scandinavia, possibly Norway or somewhere close. Here's the mark of the producer.

It's nice wood, but the carving tools need to be nice and sharp for a clean cut.

 

[clogs]

wow......

 

[Jorny]

Yes, but it gets overused and used out of context. Pine and spruce are common framing woods in Italy, whereas lime is a Germanic carving wood. I'm sure that you would have access to some fantastic pine and spruce in Sweden Jorny. I think the stuff I'm using comes from Scandinavia, possibly Norway or somewhere close. Here's the mark of the producer.

It's nice wood, but the carving tools need to be nice and sharp for a clean cut.


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I live up north, so we have A LOT of pine and spruce. Up here oak is fancy (and expensive!) southern wood. My father in law brought me a part of a spruce log from from his forest that is very dense. And if you look for it you can usually find some nice boards among construction lumber. However even the best stuff you find nowadays pales when you look at preserved old buildings. I mean, floorboards of spruce with extremely dense growth rings that are 50-60 cm wide... I have to ask some of the building antiquarians at the local museum about the more locally made carvings in churches around here and what they are made out of. The medieval wooden statues are almost always lime and were often carved by german masters. The later and larger stuff might be made from local materials though. There is an amazing pulpit in a church in a city north of me that is in a kind of provincial slightly naive baroque made by Swedish craftsmen. One thing I love about it is the clusters of what is supposed to be grapes but looks like pine cones. Which is not that strange when you think about it, the guys carving the grapes had absolutely no idea what grapes looked like and probably had to work from descriptions and whatever images of grapes they had seen in other churches.

Anyway, if I ever carve anything it will be extremely vernacular to put it mildly.

 

[Adam W.]

@Jorny It's like the frankentulips I carved on that oak chair, very strange, with weird stuff popping out of the tops of them. Once you realise it's carved from a description, it all falls into place.

I'm long overdue for a visit to the north, I'll have to look at getting an inter-rail ticket and go on a safari to see some of this carved stuff.

 

[Adam W.]

Found a whole host of inspiring things today, which I am considering getting involved with.

You don't see many archives like this of 18th century interior design from a merchant quarter in a Jutland town. They are squirreled away and mostly ignored.....shame to let it all go to waste.

 

[J-G]

A regular 'Aladdin's Cave' !