a bit more

I'm about halfway down the board now. Lawrence asked if I was gonna use this for printing purposes. Umm, nope. While using relief carving for printmaking is where I first saw this technique used, it's not what I look to do with the pieces.

I enjoy the carving process the most. It's the smell of the wood, the feel of the wood, the feel of the hand tools, the movements, the texture of the finished carved piece. Usually, and what I'll be doing with this one, I then stain or paint the piece of wood - laying in color into the grooves, painting the color on the surface, then outlining the cuts in effort to make it "stand out", so to speak.

To me this makes the final piece dimensional. It's texture. I want these pieces to be touched. For you to run your fingers over them. I want it to be about the color and sight of the piece as much as about the feel. It's about the tactile impression as well as the visual.

are the lines moving?

Basic white wood - usually pre-treated white wood found at the local wood- and- tools- and- paint- and- general- building- of- things- stuff store. Picked up a few of these cut off remainders for like 50 cents each.

This piece is roughly 2 feet long. It's a 1x6 board. It's a softer wood than some, so in between the veins is a soft and fairly malleable stretch of white wood.

I picked up a lattice stencil and drew it on in pencil. Am using gouges in #1 and #2 size to cut the wood out with. The drawback to the soft wood is that the gouges will tear more than cut in some places. This leaves a final cut that may go off in another direction completely. It happens.



This is a long work- in- progress. Each leaf, each line.
It's kinda zen like to be doing it this way.
Each line is drawn on, each line is cut out, one at a time.

Sure, I could look down the stretch of the piece and see how many I have yet to go, and see what I have yet to paint, or stain, and edge, and seal... It can be overwhelming...

But the part of me that is holding that very sharp gouge in one hand and holding the wood in another is just there. In that cut. In that moment.

Like I said, very zen like.