September 2016 News

I have been using some of my Balinese mask carving skills and trying out carving  some green wood for a mask.  I got this wood from my friend Susan Koenig from a large tree branch she had to remove.  It was quite wet and easy to rough out.  

I find the inside of the mask almost more interesting than the front.  

These two really old African pieces came into the studio for repair last week.  I was so honored to be trusted to do the work.  On the Male headpiece it had a very old nail attaching one of the horns. I had to gently pull it apart, scrape away the old glue, cut down the nail and slightly enlarge the hole enough that the pieces could meet cleanly.  The female piece had the neck of the baby broken and it was really challenging to get it back together.  There was no way to clamp it.    

Got a picture of the pieces before I repaired them but didn't get one of the completed pieces. 

Lorraine finished up this wonderful Chinese Elm abstract piece.  She used the existing cracks to guide her design.  The dark heart wood is exposed in some of the creases and makes the whole piece quite dramatic.  

Here are some finished projects from the past month.  George and Amelia both finished up carved basswood flowers.  Dave finished his lovely St. Francis sculpture that was inspired by a Benny Bufano piece.  Rise completed this stylized bird carved from African Mahogany.  It finished to such a lovely sheen but I think we all agreed that African Mahogany is REALLY difficult to carved and to sand.  Best left for cabinetry rather than carving.  

Welcome to the new Grapes and Leaves Graduates, Brian, 13 year old brothers Jacob and Gabriel and Alison.  A special welcome to Ellen Crouch starting her Grapes and Leaves.  Ellen is the daughter of Al Crouch, the wonderful carver that taught me how to carve letters.  

Even though her due date was yesterday, Tracy made it to class today and finished up a beautiful Walnut stirring  spatula.  Two weeks ago she put the final finishing touches on the second of her candle holders.  Dedication.  

A Look Back to 1984

Back in 1984 I carved the presidential seal for the podium of the Democratic Convention.  That was the year that Geraldine Ferraro ran as the first female vice presidential candidate representing a major American political party.  Check out some of the pictures below.  

Back when I first started teaching woodcarving I carved the Presidential Seal for the podium for the Democratic Convention that was held in San Francisco that year.  That was a few years ago.  

Here are my woodworking and woodcarving partners for this project.  Al Croutch carved the letters.  He taught me letter carving.  He is still going strong at 90+ years.  Jon Lopez was the founder of the woodworking school were I taught my very first beginning woodcarving class.  He painted and installed the plaque.  The paint needed to be exacting and specific colors to "read" correctly on the TV screen.  

August 2016 News

Here are the results of the final days of the from both of the Bali mask carving workshops.  Everyone got far enough along to finish on their own.  Lots of diversity this year. 

This year I came up with a portable and adjustable workbench that allowed some of the carvers to successfully work sitting on a chair rather than sitting on the floor in the traditional Balinese style.  

Art decided on a clear wax finish for his smiling fisherman mask.  Patrick's mask is a portrait of his dog.  He will add some leather floppy ears and he woodburned the nose and eyes.  

Madeleine attended both of the workshops and came away with the laughing sister masks.  

Elena is finishing up her female Native American mask as a companion piece to her male mask from a previous Balinese Mask carving workshop. 

In spite of my goofy smile I had so much fun.  Both of the masks that I worked on in these two workshops had smiles.  

The mask that I carved for the first workshop has a maroon acrylic wash on the back that comes through to the front for the lips, nostrils and eye lids. I worked really hard on trying to maintain the symmetry of this mask as I worked on it.  

My mask from the second workshop was more playful.  I didn't have an image in mind when I was carving but was trying for a peaceful smile.  I had lots of fun making the feather duster hair.  I actually took apart and reassembled a duster that I had been keeping for the feathers.  

Welcome to Grapes and leaves graduates, George, Jasper, Serenity, Niki and Cara.  Nice job!

Angel finished his Grapes and Leaves and a sweet little exotic wood heart for his very soon to be wife.  Congratulations!  Art finished his trout carving.  The low relief basswood fish was smoothed and the background left with a tooled texture and then colored with  diluted antique writing ink to get a cool watery background. 

More completed projects.  Jasper, (Simon's visiting cousin) completed a incised and wood burned letter.  Amelia shows off her Pterodactyl walking stick carved from alder.  Dave completed these lovely salad tongs from a log of Chinese elm he saved from the fire wood pile.  Good save Dave.  Tracy completed and put finish on her French Horn inspired  Cherrywood bowl.  

DC Bill's Granddaughter, Josie, carved this beautiful deep relief carving as her second basswood carving.  

DC Bill with his Big Boot.  A hard project to clamp but we now have it secured to the bench with a strap clamp.

Camille hand carved this base of Kiri wood to hold these glass "ribs."  Each piece has a small hollow recessed to locate and prevent the glass from rotating.  It is almost impossible to see the hollow so the glass appears to be sitting on a completely flat piece of wood. 

July 2016 News

Don't miss the talk by Master carver IDA BAGUS ANOM SURYAWAN. (http://www.balimaskmaking.com/about/) JULY 1 7-9 PM at my studio. The suggested artist donation is $20. I know I go on and on about this but really folks, this man is magical and you will learn so much.

Here is this last weeks outdoor set up.  I rigged up for some shade and the new wood top made a great work surface once I got it off of the truck. 

Some of the campers carved the name tags. i don't know how many name tags were make but at least 50. Big project.

David of course did the grapes and leaves but for his second project worked on a carving sampler with letter carving, shell, and texture samples.

Sandee carved a walking stick for her second project. Here she is making used of two crossed tree trunks to hold her staff for rounding with the spoke shave.

A close up of the top of Sandee's walking stick.

The first part of my week was to help folks to carve or stamp a name tag. Sharon used punches and markers to come up with a really fun and memorable name tag.

Here is a view of my accommodations. The mosquito net worked great up until the last night.

Sandra worked on an Inuit inspired bear carved from Jelutong. The pink buckets contained some woodblocks for printing fabric carved by Doreen. They were soaking in mineral oil to protect them from the ink. They were carved from end grain maple and Doreen was able to get some fine detail.

Here is our group at the group show on the final day. I have to say it was a lot of work but the carvers were fabulous and the atmosphere wonderful. Great Fun!