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Layout: size, shape and arrangement of the letters, the words, the lines...
There really isn't a 'right' or a 'wrong' here. Rather, layout either 'works' or it doesn't. It's all about your eye, your feeling, your sense of balance between the various parts and the wood. It's about how it 'works': the effect your layout has on the viewer. When successful, the result is a solution to needs or problems, and it must add to the poem, not distract or take away. (Otherwise, what's the point?) And there can be many 'solutions'.
I'm using a 'rustic' Roman alphabet. This is a bit 'looser' than the more formal Roman we are used to. As you will see, the straight parts narrow in the middle and the diagonals curve a little. I'll add notes to the download.
What's essential here is that you work at the layout. And you keep working at it until you feel you have the best 'solution'. Here's a fact: It usually takes longer to lay out the letters than it does to carve them. Remember you can't delete or erase them once you have incised them into the wood!
| 24 June 2019 18:41
To share an alternative that has served me well: Ordinary blue painter's tape to cover the wood and then use a gluestick to fasten the paper on to the tape.
| 20 June 2019 16:13
Chris and Carrie, your inclusion of the detailed process is brilliant. It is refreshing to see the iterative process as it progresses and the "art" behind the carving.my little brain struggles at times during the process of my own and it's nice to know that someone like Chris, a professional, plays with his brain as the process proceeds. Sometimes it feels like everything should just be straightforward, but it's not. Showing the whole process makes it more real, more than just the carving. Thanks, Eric
