Carving on Picnic Tables at the Memorial Park, Padiham 2012
The friends of the Memorial Park, Padiham asked us to carve something from nature on the ends of some new picnic tables
Archive for month: August, 2020
DOLPHIN CARVING REPAIR BY RICHARD HIGGINS
I saw this carving at the local rubbish tip and quickly grabbed it before it was thrown away. The thought of all that hard work that someone has put into this carving just for another to discard it because it needed a simple repair!
1 The following photos show how I went about the repair and returned it to its former glory. I hope you enjoy the transformation.
2. A simple levelling of the broken area for a good seamless join and use of a small biscuit joint was all I needed to glue on the piece of lime wood into the position, which I presumed was the original shape.
3. Having allowed the glue to set I went about carving the shape and correct thickness to make it appear as the other tail fin. My only other problem was, `how to disguise the grain` as it was running at 90 degrees to the dolphin carving to allow for strength.
4. After a good few hours of rubbing down with several grades of sand paper and with a little experimenting of colours and fine line painting to replicate the wood grain of the opposing tail fin, I managed to restore what was a dry, broken and tired carving of a pair of dolphins to its former glory. It now resides in my lounge on display for all to enjoy!
Some carvings by Phil Palmer
Here are a selection of work carved by Phil Palmer, our long suffering treasurer and my goto for answers about the club website. I hope that they will inspire some one to have a go at something new. If you want your work to displayed on the website, please send me pictures, title and wood used to john@jawoodsculptor.co.uk
The Wizard, carved in basswood, acrylic paints
tulip lovespoon, carved in basswood
The happy wood spirit, carved in cherry
The Dragon, carved in Lime by Phil Palmer
Lovespoon carved in Lime
Riding the wave by Phil Palmer
Sunflower carved in Lime
Daily Journeys by John Adamson
This is my 4th attempt at this project over the last 20 years or so. I started it when I was studying for a BA in Sculpture in Preston about 1997. It was my answer to a one day’s brief of “Do something in plaster”. Any one who has seen me at Saturday club meetings, and shows will have seen my 3rd attempt. The idea is that a group of people, take the same bus morning and afternoon. The day has changed how they feel and how they sit on their seat. The seats face one way in the morning, and the other way in the afternoon. For easy comparison of their states of mind each person sits by the side of their morning / afternoon self. I hope that make sense. If not you will have to come and see it next time we have a meeting, whenever that is.
Daily Journeys 3rd Attempt
It had started to go wrong some time last year and I patched up what I could, but now have come to the conclusion that some problems were just not fixable. The problems stemmed from mistakes at the design / planning stage. Because the sculpture was long and thin, and I had some lime of the right shape, I went right ahead and used it. The grain runs from left to right and the necks became a weak point. When leaning on a figure to carve the next, the inevitable occurred, and heads fell off. Then there was a problem with the seats. I tried to take short cuts, as they seemed to be so easy to do: a saw cut down the back. and a drill under the seats to allow me to get the waste out easily. Did not work out and I had to patch, and some were impossible. For my 4th attempt, I have the grain running vertically, and am carving 6 pairs of separate figures rather than 2 rows of 6. Seems to have worked out so far. Nothing has broken and the seats have been easier as the back can be done on a bandsaw. The 3rd attempt may seem like a waste of time and wood, but I learnt a lot, and thinking positively I don’t have to think up a new project for the foreseeable future.
As they will be in the finished sculpture
Before the Yoga / Pilates class
After the yoga / Pilates class
This a woman who attends a Yoga / Pilates class and has suffered. The last pilates class I attended, I left in an ambulance with a dislocated shoulder. I am told by Richard Colbran, that this is not the universal experience and that he felt better after the class. The work has to have a final finishing cuts and a coat of polish, but that will have to wait till I have all 12 figures finished so that they can all be brought to the same standard.
Details of the individual figures follow
Before class
Before Class
Before class
After class
After class
After class
If Boris can have his bus art, there is no reason why I cannot have mine
Boris Bus Art