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A moulding is the profiled strip of wood you find around table edges or picture frames, for example. A moulding can be plain, or decorated - carved. From the elegantly simple to the richly decorated, carvers have turned their gouges to ornamenting plain mouldings for centuries.
We'll be covering some of the classic carved mouldings in Woodcarving Workshops in the future but, in this lesson, I'll start at the beginning and introduce the genre. Next to lettering, the discipline of carving mouldings is the best way to learn good woodcarving technique. So, even if you are not particularly interested, have a go just for the exercise!
There's a lesson on rope moulding here, part of the Sea Chest project.
For good overviews and techniques of carving several mouldings, see my books: Woodcarving Projects & Techniques (GMC Publications) - p.54, and Chris Pye's Woodcarving Course and Reference Manual (Fox-Chapel) - p.66
| 08 January 2014 06:57
Harry - All excellent points! You are right about corners - few moulding 'units' can be bent around 90 degrees. You'll see me address this point in the Thumbnail series, and if you study picture and other frames you'll notice the corners are always worked differently. Egg & dart usually has something like a fat egg covered in acanthus leaves. We will be returning to mouldings when we can - so much to do! - and I'll certainly bear corners in mind.
| 06 January 2014 16:53
I recently used your book to reference making egg and dart moulding. I wanted to make a picture frame for a photo my new born 1st Grandson, Walden. I have to tell you...... I found making the molding extremely helpful for developing gouge control and the fine light touch needed for making clean, crisp cuts. I also learned how to put that extra little something in the edge of my gouges. I must have heard you say a hundred times how important a sharp tool is. Now I really get it!
Something I found challenging was addressing the corners. I sure would like to see how you approach that area. I'm sure other students would would get a lot out practicing moldings as well as seeing a video of ways to approach corners.
Thanks for all you do!
