A Little Background

I haven't had a lot of time lately to work on my carving I’ve been pretty sick but getting better. I did begin to add an oval border to the background which will later be filled with 5 roses and vines representing the 5 decades of the rosary and later I'll be adding 4 lily’s to the 4 corners of the board representing the 4 mysteries of the rosary. Roses and lily’s are symbolic of the Virgin Mary so there is kind of a double meaning for the symbols. I've also thinned out the face trying to bring out the cheek bones and sink in the eye sockets a bit. As far as the face goes I think I'll only be doing some smoothing out and deburring. I hope to get a lot of the background completed tonight and tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Signs

Here’s a Sign I lettered with my Father-in-Law also for Malvern Retreat House. He was redoing a shrine for St. Joseph the Worker and asked me to design a sign and do the lettering.
He made the panel and I got to hand cut each letter, these are some pictures of the sign in the shop and mounted on top of the shrine. I also included a picture of the Workbench/Alter we made for the inside of the shrine (I know it’s not a woodcarving but it is some really nice woodwork!). We are very proud of it and I’ll have to find some pictures of the inside of the shrine that was totally redone by my Father-in-Law.

Grapes are done

Here is the finished grape bas-relief carving. I experimented a bit with texturing the background using a Dremel tool with a detailing bit. I’m working on making some stamping tools. The instructions for making these tools are on Bill Judt’s website http://wwwoodcarver.com and more detailed instructions are in his book Relief Carving: Revelations. I don’t plan on using the Dremel method in future projects. I used sanding sealer and wax to finish the grapes, the “SSW method” also from Bill’s website.

 

 

Virgin Mary Woodcarving in progress

So I’m still working on the Virgin Mary carving for the Men of Malvern podium and it’s still going a little slow. I’m concentrating too much on one area and then finding myself having to remove more material than I was planning on. I keep on trying to shape the eyes, cheeks and mouth and then the veil sticks out too far so I have to shave that down as well, now the torso is too far out…UGH! I’m trying to achieve a look where she is looking downward so the top of her head is out further than her chin and I’m working out the proportions. The close up photo shows this a little better but once you look at the full picture you can see the chin is too wide and it doesn’t create the desired effect. I’m confident I can get it right, I think I’ll start working on the border and background and then return to the face a little refreshed. Until next time. P.S. I will soon be using a high quality camera rather than my cell phone camera.

My first commision in progress

I am a proud member of the Six-Three group of the Men of Malvern. Every year on Father's Day weekend, I make a retreat at the beautiful Saint Joseph's in the Hills retreat house located in Malvern, PA. My Father-in-Law has done a lot of work for the retreat house and is now working on a new podium for Our Lady's Chapel which he will donate and has asked me to do a relief carving of the Virgin Mary for the face of the podium! The laminated panel is made of basswood and is convex. The design will consist of Our lady with a rosary surrounding her and a decorative border of roses and vines. I am hoping to have the piece done by the end of may or early june just in time for my retreat. So far I have about 20 hours into the piece because I'm trying to get as much detail in as possible. I'm having some trouble with the eye's and there are many linenfolds I am trying to perfect. I know this may seem like a huge undertaking for a beginner, but I have been drawing and painting all my life and like W.F. Judt says in his book Relief Carving:Revelations "If you can draw it, you can carve it".
If you would like more information on Men of Malvern please visit

http://www.malvernretreat.com