Be you apprentice or student, or what is still better, both in one, I introduce the following pages to you with this explanation: that all theoretical opinions set forth therein are the outcome of many years of patient sifting and balancing of delicate questions, and these have with myself long since passed out of the category of mere "opinions" into that of settled convictions. With regard to the practical matter of "technique," it lies very much with yourself to determine the degree of perfection to which you may attain. This depends greatly upon the amount of application which you may be willing or able to devote to its practise.
The Artistic Crafts Series Of Technical Handbooks. Edited By W. R. Lethaby.
A Suggestion from Nature and Photography. See page 197.
Wood-Carving. Design And Workmanship. By George Jack. With. Drawings By The Author. And Other Illustrations. New York. D. Appleton And Company. 1903
Copyright, 1903,. By D. Appleton And Company. All Rights Reserved. Published October, 1903
Editor's Preface- In issuing these volumes of a series of Handbooks on the Artistic Crafts, it will be well to state what are our general aims. In the first place, we wish to provide trustworthy text-books of workshop...
- Author's Preface
- To the Reader, Be you 'prentice or student, or what is still better, both in one, I introduce the following pages to you with this explanation: that all theoretical opinions set forth therein are the...
- Chapter I. Preamble
- Student and Apprentice, their Aims and Conditions of Work - Necessity for some Equality between Theory and Practise - The Student's Opportunity lies on the Side of Design. The study of some form of h...
- Chapter II. Tools
- Average Number of Tools required by Carvers - Selection for Beginners - Description of Tools - Position when in Use - Acquisition by Degrees. We will suppose that the student is anxious to make a pra...
- Chapter III. Sharpening Stones - Mallet And Bench
- Different Stones in use - Case for Stones - Slips - Round Mallet Best - A Home-Made Bench - A Makeshift Bench - Cramps and Clips. The stones which are most generally used for the purpose of sharpenin...
- The Bench And Mallet
- The Mallet The carver's mallet is used for driving his tools where force is required. The most suitable form is the round one, made of beech; one 4 ins. diameter will be heavy enough. The Bench Eve...
- Chapter IV. Woods Used For Carving
- Hard Wood and Soft Wood - Closeness of Grain Desirable - Advantages of Pine and English Oak. The woods suitable for carving are very various; but we shall confine our attention to those in common use...
- Chapter V. Sharpening The Tools
- The Proper Bevel - Position of Tools on Oilstone - Good and Bad Edge - Stropping - Paste and Leather - Careless Sharpening - Rubbing Out the Inside - Stropping Fine Tools - Importance of Sharp Tools. ...
- Chapter VI. Chip Carving
- Its Savage Origin - A Clue to its only Claim to Artistic Importance - Monotony better than Variety - An Exercise in Impatience and Precision - Technical Methods. One of the simplest forms of wood-car...
- Chapter VII. The Grain Of The Wood
- Obstinacy of the Woody Fiber - First Exercise in Grounding - Description of Method - Cutting the Miters - Handling of Tools, Danger of Carelessness - Importance of Clean Cutting. It is curious to ima...
- The Grain Of The Wood. Continued
- When you have been all round the design in this way with such gouges as may be needed for the slow and quick curves, get the wood out nearly down to the ground, leaving a little for finishing. Do this...
- Chapter VIII. Imitation Of Natural Forms
- Difficulties of Selection and Arrangement - Limits of an Imitative Treatment - Light and Distance Factors in the Arrangement of a Design - Economy of Detail Necessary - The Word Conventional. Broad...
- Chapter IX. Rounded Forms
- Necessity for Every Carver Making his own Designs - Method of Carving Rounded Forms on a Sunk Ground. Fig. 16. Fig. 16, our second exercise, like the first one, is only to be taken as a suggestion...
- Chapter X. The Patterned Background
- Importance of Formal Pattern as an Aid to Visibility - Pattern and Free Rendering Compared - First Impressions Lasting - Medieval Choice of Natural Forms Governed by a Question of Pattern. Fig. 20....
- Chapter XI. Contours Of Surface
- Adaptation of Old Designs to Modern Purposes - Throwing About - Critical Inspection of Work from a Distance as it Proceeds. Fig. 22. Here are two fragments of a kind of running ornament. Fig. 22...
- Chapter XII. Originality
- Dangers of Imposing Words - Novelty more Common than Originality - An Unwholesome Kind of Originality. I told you that I should have something to say about originality. Almost every beginner has so...
- Chapter XIII. Pierced Patterns
- Exercise in Background Pattern - Care as to Stability - Drilling and Sawing out the Spaces - Some Uses for Pierced Patterns. The present exercises may be described as a kind of carved open fretwork -...
- Chapter XIV. Hardwood Carving
- Carvings can not be Independent Ornaments - Carving Impossible on Commercial Productions - The Amateur Joiner - Corner Cupboards - Introduction of Foliage Definite in Form, and Simple in Character - M...
- Hardwood Carving. Continued
- In small pieces of furniture like these, which are made of comparatively thin wood, the carving need not have much depth, say the ground is sunk 1/4 in. at the deepest. As oak is more tenacious than p...
- Chapter XV. The Sketch-Book
- Old Work Best Seen in its Original Place - Museums to be Approached with Caution - Methodical Memoranda - Some Examples - Assimilation of Ideas Better than Making Exact Copies. In holiday time, and a...
- Chapter XVI. Museums
- False Impressions Fostered by Fragmentary Exhibits - Environment as Important as Handicraft - Works Viewed as Records of Character - Carvers the Historians of their Time. A new world of commerce and ...
- Chapter XVII. Studies From Nature - Foliage
- Medieval and Modern Choice of Form Compared - A Compromise Adopted - A List of Plant Forms of Adaptable Character. It is high time now that we had some talk about the studies from nature which are to...
- Chapter XVIII. Carving On Furniture
- Furniture Constructed with a View to Carving - Reciprocal Aims of Joiner and Carver - Smoothness Desirable where Carving is Handled - The Introduction of Animals or Figures. Fig. 53. You will find...
- Chapter XIX. The Grotesque In Carving
- Misproportion not Essential to the Expression of Humor - The Sham Grotesque Contemptible - A True Sense of Humor Helpful to the Carver. The dullness which comes of all work and no play may be said ...
- Chapter XX. Studies From Nature - Birds And Beasts
- The Introduction of Animal Forms - Rude Vitality Better than Dull Natural History - Action - Difficulties of the Study for Town-Bred Students - The Aid of Books and Photographs - Outline Drawing a...
- Studies From Nature - Birds And Beasts. Continued
- The side-notes about the colors are valuable, as, although not translatable into carving, they do to some extent influence the manner of interpreting forms. Photographs must not be despised, but they...
- Chapter XXI. Foreshortening As Applied To Work In Relief
- Intelligible Background Outline Better than Confused Foreshortening - Superposition of Masses. I have spoken of the necessity for careful balance between the outlines of subject and background: that ...
- Chapter XXII. Undercutting And "Built-Up" Work
- Undercutting as a Means and as an End; its Use and Abuse - Built-up Work - Planted Work - Pierced Work. By undercutting is meant the cutting away of the solid portions of projections in such a ...
- Chapter XXIII. Picture Subjects And Perspective
- The Limitations of an Art not Safely Transgressed - Aerial Perspective Impossible in Relief - Linear Perspective only Possible in a Limited Way. Those vague and shadowy boundaries which separate the ...
- Chapter XXIV. Architectural Carving
- The Necessity for Variety in Study - A Carver's View of the Study of Architecture; Inseparable from a Study of his own Craft - Importance of the Carpenter's Stimulating Influence upon the Carver - Car...
- Architectural Carving. Continued
- The fifteenth century in England was a period of great activity among wood-carvers, and many beautiful choir-screens were added about this time to the existing churches, all in the traditional Gothic ...
- Chapter XXV. Surface Finish - Texture
- Tool Marks, the Importance of their Direction - The Woody Texture Dependent upon Clearness of Cutting and Sympathetic Handling. The term texture is sometimes applied to the quality of finish which ...
- Chapter XXVI. Craft Schools, Past And Present
- The Country Craftsman of Old Times - A Colony of Craftsmen in Busy Intercourse - The Modern Craftsman's Difficulties: Embarrassing Variety of Choice. The present revival of interest in the arts, espe...
- Chapter XXVII. On The Importance Of Cooperation Between Builder And Carver
- The Infinite Multiplicity of Styles - The Gothic Influence: Sculpture an Integral Element in its Designs - The Approach of the so-called Renaissance Period - Disturbed Convictions - The Revival of...
- On The Importance Of Cooperation Between Builder And Carver. Continued
- About this time many new forms of intellectual activity began to engage the minds of the more gifted. Speculative philosophy, the opening fields of science, the imaginative literature of the ancients;...
- The Collotype Plates
- V. - Portion of a Carved Oak Panel - The Sheepfold. Plate V Portion of a Carved Oak Panel. The Sheepfold. The other part is shown in Plate VI, as, owing to the proportion of this panel and the nec...
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