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Why practise? The Germans say: Übung macht den Meister - practising makes one a master. Not perfect, just good at something, familar; or at least good enough so you don't mess up the actual work!
I often see students go straight into a project without adequate preparation, not just in the concept but in the skill level they will need for something. Don't do that. Practise a little first on spare wood; make mistakes, check your tools, relax. I do. And even if you feel comfortable with the carving here, have a little go on waste wood first anyway; if nothing else it'll give you a warm up for the real thing.
| 24 February 2016 03:25
I really like your comments about practice! Too many "Projects" ended in the woodstove for lack of practice. Since I don't carve as often as I would like I have a set of "warm-ups" that I do including checkering with a v tool, shaping a boss, and a long running cut with slow slicing right to left and left to right. The billet of wood lives under my bench and gets pulled out first before I do anything else. My goal is always "no TFC"---tears, frays or crumbs!
| 20 June 2014 12:55
Peter - I'm not sure what you mean here. Carrie filmed cutting the centre boss as close up as possible right from the start, then at 1:59 panned out so you can see the same action with my body movement. Then close up again at 2:29 for rounding over the boss, and out at 3:55 for the wide shot. Close up at 4:08 for the leaf ends exercise, then out at 4:35 etc. I don't think we could get closer. And the good thing is that you can watch again and again until you fully grasp what's going on. We could indeed do voiceovers but it's far better for me to talk through my carving as I do it. Have you had a look at the Surface Decoration > Ornamental Corner Leaves series? There are more close-ups of the exercises there.
