E.J. TangermanCARVING WOODEN ANIMALS E.J.Tangerman = =) STERLING PUBLISHING CO., INC. New ork Ook Tree Poess Ce., Led. ye London & SydneyAbout the Author E, J. Tangerman has been carving for over fifty years and has visited and studied in most of the well-known woodcarving areas around the world. He is currently vice- president of the National Wood Carvers Association. Mr. Tangerman is the author of a number of woodcarving reference books, includ- ing “Whittling and Woodcarving,” which has become the basic text in the field. He has written articles for such magazines as Popular Mechanics and Popular Science Monthly, and is a frequent contributor to Chip Chats, the NWCA magazine, and to the Bulletin of the International Wood Collectors Society. Copyright © 1980 by Sterling Publishing Co., Ine. Two Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 Distributed in Australia by Oak Tree Press Co., Ltd., P.O. Box J34, Brickfield Hill, Sydney 2000, N.S.W. Distributed in the United Kingdom by Ward Lock Ltd, 116 Baker Street, London W..1 Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 79-65080 Sterling ISBN 0-8069-8864-9 Oak Tree 7061-2668-8Contents Before You Carve Chapter I: Answers to Your Basic Questions Chapter Il: Carving Animals : Chapter III: Animals of South America Chapter IV: Primitive Carvings of Mexico Chapter V: Stylized Silhouettes Create Drama Chapter VI: A Tale of Beavers, or... Chapter VII: What a Tyro Can Achieve . Chapter VIII: Variations on a Theme . Chapter IX: Butterfly Mobiles and Ornaments Chapter X: Dinosaurs Make a Mobile 7 Chapter XI: Simplicity Is the Mark of “Brasstown” Chapter XII: Carving the Minotaur Chapter XIII: Carving the Centaur Chapter XIV: Circus Parade and Carousel Horses Chapter XV: Try Carving in Relief Chapter XVI: Machine-Roughed Carvings Chapter XVII: Greek Peasant Carvings 7 Chapter XVIII: How Much Modelling and Texturing? Chapter XIX: You Can Whittle Ivory Chapter XX: Bone, Stone, Shell and Nuts Chapter XXI: Make Your Own D-Adzes. Appendix: Sharpening, Fitting Drawing to Wood, aa Finishing Index 24 35 40 44 49 52 54 62 66 71 73 77 81 83 88 94 98 107 112 WS - 120 128Woodworkers’ Conversion Tables Imperial M. Woodworkers’ Metric Imperial Woodworkers’ inches millimetres parlance millimetres inches parlance (mm) (mm) 0.8 1 1 0.039 1.6 tk 2 0.078 32 3 3 0.118 48 5 4 0.157 64 6 5 0.196 19 8 6 0.236 95 9% 7 0.275 14.4 14 8 0.314 12.7 124 9 0.353 14.3 14t 10 0.393 15.9 16 20 0.787 175 175 30 1.181 1 19.4 19 40 1.574 1 20.6 205 50 1.968 1 22 n 60 2.362 2; 23.8 24 70 2.755 2: 25.4 255 80 3.148 3 50.8 51 90 3.542 76.2 100 3.936 101.4 150 5.904 127.0 200 7872 152.4 1525 300 11.808 1775 4774 400 15.744 203.2 203 500 19.680 228.6 28} 600 23.616 254.0 254 700 27552 279.5 2795 800 31.488 304.8 305 900 35.424 457.2 437 1,000 39.360 609.6 609! 914.4 4; Note: The imperial and metric sizes given for tools and joint parts, etc., cannot work out exactly, but providing you work to one or the other there is no difficulty. In the timber trade it is accepted that 1 in = 25 mmBefore You Carv In Papeete, a New York hotel designer sat with a Tahitian woodcarver to negotiate a price for thirty tikis (Polynesian wood images). The first, they agreed, would cost 2,000 Tahitian francs. “And for the next twenty-nine tikis?” asked the designer. “They will be more than 3,000 francs each,” the carver said. “But why?” “Because only the first one is fun.” Neil Morgan told the story in Saturday Review. Sharing that carver’s sentiments, T have spent whatever time I have had available for fifty years, seeking out what for me were new ideas for carvings, simple or complex. I have less interest in the familiar and traditional European patterns but much more 5in the things that primitive, and often self-taught, carvers make purely for the love of it. Somehow, such carvings are less rigid, less standardized, less florid, and far more imaginative—full of verve and of life. 1 bought those | could afford and that were for sale, and photographed or sketched others. Retirement has made it possible for me to visit many of the less well known parts of the world where carving is still respected and admired. In recent years relatively high incomes and early retirement have provided many people with leisure time as well as the wherewithal to do with it what they want. Out of this and an increasing disaffection with prepackaged, all-alike products—which many of us have spent our working lifetimes helping to make— has risen a tremendous craft movement, the desire to do one’s own thing. As a result, what was once dismissed as primitive, folk, or naive art is coming to be recognized, because of its strength and originality, as fully comparable with the often slavish and more rigid productions of academic art. My effort here is to capture not only examples of American folk art but those typical of faraway places, to give you a source for new and different ideas upon which to build. This volume is devoted to subjects quite familiar to most primitive carvers but less familiar to Americans—the world of mammals, birds and fishes, and even a saurian or two. Ancient man respected, feared and admired the inhabitants of that world; the development of cities and highways has tended to take us out of it, even to destroy it, at an accelerating rate. Ihave tried to maintain logical groupings of the designspresented here, and yet to grade them so we begin with the simplest and end with the most complex. The first few chapters include carvings that can be made with the knife alone, while most of the remainder can be done with relatively few and inexpensive tools. This grading is based upon my own experience in carving them; indeed, many of my own designs and carvings are scattered through the book. I have provided such patterns as are necessary, and detailed instructions where difficulty might be encountered, plus tips, shortcuts and suggestions. There are also answers to the basic questions of the neophyte, to make this volume complete in itself. I have also included examples of recent original work of other Americans who are more concerned with the enjoyment to be gotten from carving than with possible income from it, and who whittle or carve as an avocation or leisure- time pursuit. They understand the Tahitian carver’s reluctance to turn himself into a production machine. If you are also reluctant, this book was written for you. E. J. TANGERMAN 6CHAPTER | Answers to Your Basic Questions What is whittling? What is woodcarving? WHITTLE was originally an Old English word for a butcher knife, but now is largely obsolete except in Scotland and in dialect, in which it also means blanket or flannel petticoat. It has no connection with woodcarving except in the United States, where, according to Webster, the verb means ‘“‘to cut or shape a piece of wood by slowly paring it away with a knife.” Actually, the definition has been more precise than that. Among whittlers it means carving with a clasp knife a one-piece object of wood, usually small enough to be held in the hand. However, as might be expected, modern tech- nology has loosened the definition by providing special whittling knives with fixed or interchangeable blades, plus myriad other tools designed to do a particular job or speed the work in general. Even sandpaper might be called a multiple knife because each tiny grain actually scratches away a chip. The same might be said about woodcarving, which originally was understood to mean the shaping of wood with traditional tools such as firmers, gouges and the adz, with rifiler files and rasps thrown in. Modern technology has, however, added such tools as the bandsaw, chain saw, flexible-shaft machines, hand-held grinders, rotary and belt sanders and pneumatic or electric hammers. All sorts of accessories have been added as well, including special-position vises, multiple forms of mallet, stands and worktables of special design. Even in woodcarving, the urge to mechanize has its adherents, particularly among those caught up in the desire to make a profit, either from woodcarvings or selling the increasing- ly expensive equipment—or even to save time. All this tends to obscure the fact that woodcarving, like whittling, can be and is being done with very limited numbers of tools—and no other equipment whatsoever. The carver in Bali or Easter Island, in both of which woodcarving =is the only industry, rarely has more than four or five tools and probably uses a shaped club for a mallet and his knees for a vise. His tools are usually home- made and cherished, not for their number or variety but for their necessity. His “shop,” like the whittler’s here, is portable. In fact, only in Europe and America have all the devices for saving time been introduced, and in both places we also have duplicating machines, profilers and plastic-and-sawdust moulded fakes. What tools do you need to whittle? (Tool illustrations on pgs. 10-11.) You NEED a good knife, if you can get one. Most modern knives have stainless- steel blades, which don’t rust but also don’t hold an edge. Better is an old- fashioned pocketknife with carbon-steel blades (A). For conventional whittling, two blades are enough; three may be a help, but more than that tends to increase bulk and weight in the hand. I carry two pocketknives, one regular size with three blades, a pen, a spear, and a B-clip (B); the smaller, a penknife with one pen and a B-clip. Thus I have both small and large blades, wide and narrow, short- or long-pointed. When I’m at home, I use either a fixed-blade knife, which is safer (a pocket- knife blade, carelessly handled, can close on a finger) and more comfortable to grip because of the larger handle, or two of the modern plastic handles with heavy-duty replaceable blades. One blade is a modified B-clip shape, the other a so-called hook blade designed for leather working. For most work, a blade 1} in (4 cm) long is plenty. Longer than that it begins to require extra gripping and may catch near the handle on parts of the piece you don’t want to cut. The wider the blade, the straighter and more stable the cut, because of the added surface resting on the work. The narrower the blade, the greater the ease of carving in tight places and on concave surfaces, but greater control is needed, and there is greater likelihood of breakage. The warning to cut away from yourself doesn’t work in whittling any more than it does in peeling potatoes. The sketches (pgs. 12-13) show the many ways in which cuts can be made. You'll need them all before you're through, although some are much more important than others. Here are additional pointers: Chips should be cut out, not wedged out—a hard lesson to learn—and a major reason why the rotary-chuck disposable-blade handles must be kept supertight. The blade may rotate in the handle or snap off. For some detail, a 8narrow, thin blade may be helpful; sometimes a sharp V-point is essential. Whittlers grind special knives and points for such jobs, using old straight razors, discarded hacksaw blades, even scissors or other pieces of hardened tool steel. I’ve made special long-handled knives to put a ship in a bottle by breaking off (with a pair of pliers) narrow sections of safety-razor blades and binding them in dowel-rod handles. An endless variety of blade shapes and lengths is possible, of course. You don’t need them unless you specialize. Beware of too-large and too-heavy handles with too-rigid, finger-shaped impressions, blades that are thin or wobble sideways and knives that do not snap open and shut securely. (The Swedes avoid this with the barrel knife, which has one blade that is opened, then thrust—and locked—through the handle. These have a sloyd blade—thick at the heel—which is stiff enough for heavy cutting, but may make trouble on delicate cuts.) Knives must be kept sharp to reduce the cutting force required, because added force means lessened control and faster tiring, plus torn rather than cut wood fibers. Good steel, properly sharpened and honed, will hold its edge all day in whittling soft wood, but the hard wood will require a touch-up every hour or so. A portable fine-grained stone and a hone (leather glued on a stick and oiled) are essential; to do a clean cutting job in finishing you need a very sharp edge. A knife can be dangerous, so be careful; never put anything in front of the blade that you don’t intend to cut. Initially, you may want to wear a rubber or plastic finger stall on your thumb (stationery shops sell them for people who do counting and sorting) and a Band-Aid, tape, or other insulator on the middle joint of your index finger to prevent blisters. Keep your mind on what you are doing; whittling can be very relaxing, but it isn’t like knitting—it isn’t something to keep nervous hands busy while you watch TV or converse. If you stick the tip of the blade into the work, be sure the pressure is in the direction of the cutting edge; a blade closing on a finger is no joke. To close the blade, hold the knife handle carefully in the fingertips and close the blade with the palm of the other hand. Don’t open two blades at once. If the blade has no boss, be careful that your finger doesn’t slip forward onto the sharp edge. Don’t hammer the blade or use it to cut newspaper clippings or fiber tapes or fingernails—or, Lord forbid, scrape insulation from wire. Don’t cut newly sanded surfaces. All these destroy the alignment of the tiny tips on the so-called feather edge of the blade, and make it dull (see Sharpening, pgs. 120-124). 9INING or MASTER BLADE TANG RIVET LIMIMG w CASE aay * HANDLE cover © | oa NOPENING SLOT BACK SPRING PIVOT A KNIFE TERMINOLOGY HOOK diy 2peiq 42 2240} sppy 2q ysnus 410m ‘sym> buineys ind INILOTING ASISSY U3ONL4-XIGNI L337 sosap nou YMA joxpucD 260) Gurneys 10 syno an;20d poy sanin “buspieyap + buineys 2210} sous -josjuo> 2601) AN) MW¥a. X30NI-1437 SISSY BUNHL-L437 S199 JIN WIldAL 122ovop way eabyryen buysop apeiq jossbueg 2>00j4UO!Lr04 UU “Ureub 22s0f way -UIRIB 550422 =(O4puo> 250), ‘anenuer 479 dy SDYSad puRy Jo SDIdBl_ GAT 4nd 4sus— jo4juo 2s0)) poob-buinse> diy) aanssaud saP2ab ANI MOTIOH «=LAITIYG** BLS 199 19ND 4° UZ4WWHD 192 ONINION = syn2 f404g HSnd @WAHL a7 234466 Ue apnb SIDDUS pC yep wi ¥ auioy way “ies mo}joy Of 22404 uy -wreib mo}/9 — Guryauaj> puY wouf 22404 _—Sa)7sNUL WLU WoA4 22404 Pury Apur-[o.juor 2501) ef $PUBJ [onyuOD400g jgUMYY Y>}OR-Io4j4—> jn> poo) __ABUEP a>UD4. [o2]UOD ON 1nd ONIDI7S 1nd Mvud 49> ONIUvA 1) SNILNIOd 4ano pruny 3q Kew pur} )Actually, even a razor edge is essentially a saw with teeth; the finer the teeth, the sharper the blade. Honing aligns the teeth; cutting an abrasive surface like those mentioned above throws the teeth out of line or breaks them off—and the blade is dull. A bit of oil occasionally on blades, pivots, and springs will help counteract rust caused by sweat, which can be highly corrosive, | know whittlers who carry their knives in oiled-leather sheaths for this reason. | also know woodcarvers who hone each tool before they use it, because exposure and time affect edge sharpness. I'm not that much of a precisionist, but a dull tool spells trouble, and don’t forget it. What tools do you need for woodcarving? (Tool illustrations on pgs. 10-11.) THE PRINCIPAL TOOL of the woodcarver is the chisel, either flat or curved. Flat chisels are lighter and often shorter than the more-familiar carpenter’s chisels, and differ in that they are sharpened from both sides so they have less tendency to dig in. They are called firmers, and are available in widths from about 1/16 in (1.6 mm) to 2} in (6 cm) or so. The curved chisels are called gouges, and may range from U-shaped to almost flat, from 1/16 in (1.6 mm) wide at the cutting edge to about 24 in (6 cm). The smallest U-shaped gouge is called a veiner, and as its name implies, is used for cutting small grooves, for defining hair, and for very fine detail. A slightly larger one is called a fluter—again a descriptive name. The very large ones are primarily for cutting away waste wood and rough shaping, although they also serve in finishing large surfaces. One tool cuts two opposed surfaces simultaneously—the parting or V-tool. It is shaped like a V, and is used in outlining, grooving and for many other purposes; it is the most difficult of chisels to sharpen and one of the most difficult to master for cross-grain cutting. Another tool, the macaroni, cuts three surfaces simultaneously; it carves a trench with flat-bottom and_right- angle or outwardly sloping sides. A variant is the fluteroni, which cuts a similar trench with arcuate corners. These are rarely used and not included in most tool sets. There is also a variant of the firmer that is quite common. This is the skew chisel, in which the cutting edge is at an angle with the axis of the chisel, thus providing a point to get into corners and around surfaces. It is a versatile tool, as is the flat gouge—which may be a firmer with the cutting edge ground into an are. The firmer tends to catch and gouge at its edges when pushed over a flat surface, and arcuate grinding of the cutting edge avoids this. 14Wide tools, and some narrower ones, are tapered down toward the tang— which is the portion of the tool that is driven into the handle. These are called spade or fish-tail tools, and are very helpful in getting into tight places or for helping the carver to see what he is doing. The shank of a tool behind the cutting edge may also be forged into a curve so the cutting edge will be able to work in a confined place, such as a concave surface or around a curve. Depending upon the arc of shank curvature, such a tool is called long-bent or short-bent. A gouge with very short bend is also called a spoon. Normally, the arc is concave, viewed from the top, but it may be convex to handle a job such as forming the surfaces of individual grapes in a bunch or for cutting a special shape under an overhang; then it is called a back-bent tool. In present-day low- relief carving, there is little or no need for these specialized tools. Also, they are harder to use than straight ones, because of spring in the bend, and harder to sharpen. Carving tools require the use of two hands, except tools that are very short or specialized, like Japanese tools, which have a long, thin, straight handle and a short blade. The standard tool is gripped and pushed by one hand, while the other guides the tool and controls it, keeping it from over-running or following a sudden split or breakout. This creates somewhat of a paradox, because the two hands work against each other to some degree. Note that | have not identified which hand does what, not only because the tools are interchange- able, but also because the skilled carver learns to hold the tool with either hand to suit the cut. This avoids a great deal of moving around or altering the position of the work. In hard woods, the chisel is held in one hand, and hit with the heel of the other, or with a mallet. Thus, both hands are always in use, so the work must be held in some other way. Oriental carvers, who customarily squat cross- legged anyway, and do mostly pieces in the 1-2 ft (30-61 cm) length range, simply wedge the work into their laps. (They usually use mallets and chisels with no separate handles.) Large panels and large 3D carvings, unless they are top-heavy, usually require no holding unless very large chisels or mallets are used. The clamping method can suit the piece and be as simple as a nail or two driven through waste wood into a bench or board, or a vise. Decoy carvers, who do a great deal of turning of the piece, use a special vise with a ball-and- socket swivel that can be clamped at a variety of angles. A wide variety of clamps, in wood and metal, is available. An ancient device is the carver’s screw, which is a long screw put through a hole in the bench or easel and 15screwed into the bottom of the work, then tightened under the bench by a wing nut. For small panels, a bench hook or bench plate is portable, con- venient, and easy for you to make. For work in harder woods, and for greater precision, it is advisable to use a carver’s mallet, which is simply some form of soft-faced hammer. Then the chisel is held in one hand and the mallet in the other, so additional holding is still required. The traditional mallet is like an old-fashioned wooden potato masher, but it can have flat faces like a cooper’s hammer, or simply be a club with a handle whittled at one end. Modern carvers have developed many forms of mallet. Some have plastic faces which reduce the noise, possible handle splintering and shock to the driving arm; some have lead or copper replacing the wooden head; some are even made of old washing-machine wringer rolls. This is a matter for individual selection. | have half a dozen mallets of various kinds, ranging from light to heavy, because I work principally in hard woods and use a light mallet even for most small cuts. With the mallet, I can control the force behind the cutting edge much more accurately than I can with just an arm push. Carving tools are sized by the width of the cutting edge, ranging from 1/16 in (1.6 mm) to 3 in (9.5 mm) in sixteenths, on up to I in (25 mm) in eighths, and in larger steps on up to the maximum, usually around 24 in (6 cm) for flat gouges. European tools are sized in millimetres: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, and so on(I mm — 0,039 in), The gouges are also usually numbered by the “London system” that measures arc or radius of the sweep; a firmer is No. 1, a skew firmer 2, a quite-flat gouge 3, and a U-shaped one II or 12, with the other arcs in between. For special tools, some suppliers use other numbers, their own catalog numbers, or simply show a cross-section of the arc of the sweep. There are also many auxiliary tools, like straight and coping saws, rasps and riffler files, scrapers, hand routers and the usual carpenter's tools. (1 use carpenter’s chisels and gouges for roughing; they're heavier and cheaper.) Of these, the riffler files, which come in various shapes and sizes, some straight, some bent, with different surfaces at each end, are convenient for finishing in tight spots, over knots and faults, and on very small work. The adz and the axe are traditional woodcarving tools, of course, but will be discussed later as a special subject. In some instances, you may have a choice of handle on the chisels. Usual 16ones are round, or octagon, tapering toward the cutting edge. Round ones are maple, ash, beech or boxwood; the octagonal ones may even be dogwood (which is preferred in Oberammergau, West Germany). Octagonal handles are less likely to turn in your hand or to roll on a bench. There are now some plastic handles as well, of course. My preference is for octagonal wood, with a brass ferrule at the tang to prevent splitting under mallet blows. The customary way to carve is to stand up at a bench heavy enough’ so it won't shift. Sculptors who work on large blocks prefer a 4-legged stand weighted at the base with a rock, so they can move around it. Some stands have Lazy Susan (rotating) tops and height adjustments. Cuckoo-clock carvers have tables with heavy, sloping tops. I often work at an outdoor trestle table or indoors on a card table, and I sit down whenever possible. The main thing is to have a stable surface which will absorb mallet blows, plus a level surface on which tools not in use may be placed. My experience is that there will be a relatively small number at any given time, so an elaborate rack of tools at the back of the bench is not necessary. It goes without saying that good lighting is a must, particularly when dark woods like walnut are being carved, and that adequate ventilation is helpful. All of these things are matters of individual preference and size and complexity of work. You don’t need a studio unless you teach or want to create an atmosphere. As would be expected, Americans in particular have mechanized woodcarving as far as possible. Circular and bandsaws help shape blanks, routers cut away backgrounds, coping saws, power drills and sanders are used. Carvers of totem poles and wooden Indians have adopted the chain saw—with a great gain in speed of cutting but a great potential for making the user deaf and driving the neighbors insane. Carvers of small objects and/or very hard materials use hand grinders or flexible-shaft machines with shaped cutters and claim extraordinary results with them. Some have even utilized dental drills. My experience is that they are hard to control, chew rather than cut the wood, and throw dust and chips over a considerable area, so the user needs safety glasses. I have even met a few carvers who use pneumatic or electric hammers with fitted chisels. Like the profiler and duplicator, such equipment is primarily commercial. It may save time and effort in some instances, but hand finishing is usually required anyway if the surfaces are to have any quality. Even the authorities disagree on the proper kit for a beginner. Commercial suppliers offer kits with considerable variety, undoubtedly based on the recom- 17mendation of some particular carver. Charles M. Sayer, who taught panel carving in particular, suggested four tools to start with: }-in (12.7 mm), or }- to {-in (9.6 to 15.9 mm), No. 39 parting tool; §-in No. 5 straight gouge; I-in (25 mm) No. 3, or 3-in (22.2 mm) straight gouge, and 3-in No. 7 straight gouge. For relief carving, he added a }-in, No. 3 straight gouge. H. M. Sutter, who has taught carving to a great many people during the past thirty years, starts his students with five tools, plus an all-purpose carver’s knife: 3-in No. 3 straight gouge, {-in No. 5 straight gouge (these two preferably fish-tail), 3-in No. 9 straight gouge, 3-in (0.8 mm), No. II veiner, and $-in No. 41 parting tool. Note that neither suggests fancy shapes or skew chisels—at least to start. My best advice is to start small, with the advice of a capable carver if possible, and a clear understanding of the kind of work you wish to do. Many carvers, and some teachers, make their own tools as they find a need for them, grinding tempered steel to suit, or forging the tool and finding someone locally to do the tempering. You'll need at least a flat gouge for roughing, shaping and cleaning up; a firmer for finishing and flat surfaces; a veiner for outlining designs before they are set in, and for emphasizing lines; and a V-tool for outlining, square corners and square-bottom grooves. A gouge or two with quite different sweeps and probably a skew chisel are the first additions, followed by gouges and firmers of different widths. A good rule may be adapted from that suggested to amateur photographers when they add lenses: When you get additional tools of approximately the same shape or sweep, double or halve the previous dimension. Thus, if you have a 4-in (12.7 mm) No. 5 gouge and want another of the same sweep, get a }-in (6.4 mm) or a ]-in (25.4 mm), unless you have continued need for one closer to }-in. The same rule might be applied to supplementing sweeps; if you have No. 3, you don’t need No. 4 or 5—go to No. 6 or even No. 9. Actual carving with chisels is to me much less complex than carving with a knife, because the individual tool is less versatile unless it is gripped in the fingertips and used like a knife. There are a few fundamentals. Because the tool is pushed by arm power on soft woods, it must be restrained by the opposite hand to keep it from cutting too far, a problem which is minimized when a mallet is used. (I have never been an advocate of driving a chisel with the heel of the hand; I’ve known several carvers who irreparably damaged their hands that way.) If you are not familiar with hammering a nail or a chisel, you must learn to watch the cutting tip, not the chisel head. The potato-masher mallet 18shape is a help in this because it reduces the necessity for hitting the chisel head exactly square; obviously, the angle with which the chisel is struck or pushed influences the direction of the cut. As cutting begins, it is necessary to adjust the angle of the tool so it cuts through the wood at the desired level—too high an angle will cause it to cut deeper and deeper, too shallow an angle will cause it to run out. This is particu- larly important with the high-sweep or U-shaped gouges. If the cut is too deep, the edges of the gouge can get below the wood surface and cause edge tearing of fibers. When cuts are started, it is advisable to start at the edge when possible, because if you cut to an edge, the chisel may break out the fibers there rather than cutting through them. In relief cutting, it is important to outline the desired shape by “setting in”—driving the firmer or gouge into the wood to the desired depth along the line, so that cuts made to remove background wood will stop at the cut line instead of splitting or running into the design. When a chisel is driven vertically into wood, it obviously must wedge the fibers aside, so it will cause crushing and splintering of fibers along the edge of the outline. This can be avoided by cutting a groove just outside the outline with a veiner, fluter or V-tool, so the edge of the groove touches the line. Then, when the firmer or gouge is driven in along the line, the groove provides relief for the tool wedge at the surface. As a matter of fact, in shallow-relief carving, particularly in green wood, it is often possible to get the required depth of background (called “bosting”) with a deep fluter alone, leaving a desirable small arc at the bottom edge of the upstanding portion. A gouge differs from a knife in that it cuts two sides at once, so that cutting against the grain is a constant problem, not an occasional one as with the knife or firmer. In a diagonal cut, one side of the gouge will cut cleaner than the other because it is running out of the grain while the other runs in. This is the major reason for keeping the blade very sharp—to minimize the tearing in angle cuts and the breakout when one cut crosses another. Grain is always a challenge, and in woodcarving one is likely to encounter knots and other faults because the workpiece tends to be larger. It is necessary, therefore, to work with the grain as much as possible, and to proceed with extra caution when working against it. You will find that a few experiences with splitouts and the like will train you to make adjustments for grain almost automatically. You'll still be tricked from time to time by sudden grain-direction changes, hard spots, and whatever, depending upon the wood and its source. I've run 19into bullets and nails deep inside salvaged wood, to say nothing of rotten spots or old insect bores that are not visible on the surface. What wood is best? THE woop To CHOosE may depend upon what is available, and what you are willing to pay for it. Many carvers salvage wood from old furniture, fallen trees, or along the shore of stream, lake or ocean. If you have a choice, what is the natural color of the bird or animal you plan to carve? What tools do you plan to use? Is the carving to be painted, textured, polished? Where will it be used or displayed? As you can see, one question leads to another when you select a wood. If you are a beginner or a figure whittler, your best wood is probably basswood (also called bee tree, and similar to European linden). It is soft, white, easy to carve and hasn’t much tendency to split. Ponderosa pine is almost as good, if you avoid the strongly colored pieces. Sugar pine, commonly called white pine, is a bit more porous, but also very good. Jelutong, a recent import from Indonesia, is like basswood. All take color well, but are too soft to wear well or carry much detail. Avoid yellow pine, which is hard and resinous. Among other soft woods are poplar, which bruises easily and tends to grip tools, so is hard to cut; cedar, which is easy to cut but has a distinctive color; willow, which has a tendency to split; and cypress, which does not wear well. Spanish cedar, once familiar in cigar boxes, is a common carving wood in Mexico. Many American whittlers have used local woods, particularly the fruit and nut woods. All are harder than those previously mentioned and have a tendency to check in large pieces, but they will take more detail and undercutting, give a better finish and have interesting color. Among them are pear, pecan, cherry, apple and black walnut. Of the group, walnut is probably the best American carving wood. It has a fine, tough grain, takes detail and undercuts, finishes beautifully, but frequently darkens when oiled. (It can be bleached with oxalic acid.) The mountain-grown Eastern white oaks are hard to carve, but can take detail and are inherently strong. Avoid red oak, because it has a very prominent grain and is coarse in structure. Oak has a bad name because of the cheap “fumed oak” furniture that was once all over, but it can be darkened with concentrated ammonia, or walnut-stained. Dogwood is very hard and with- stands shock, but tends to check and is hard to carve. 20Where they are available, butternut, red alder and myrtle are good for carving, particularly the first two. Redwood (sequoia) is durable, but some pieces have alternating hard and soft grain; this makes trouble. Sweet or red gum (also called American satinwood) is more durable and uniform than cedar, but tends to warp and twist. Beech, hickory, sycamore and magnolia are hard to cut and good only for shallow carving. Ash is stringy, but can support considerable detail. Birch is somewhat like the rock, or sugar, maple, which is hard to carve and finish, but durable. Many suppliers have soft maple, which is not a good carving wood. In the Southwest are found mesquite, ironwood, and osage orange, all very hard, inclined to split, and difficult to carve, but capable of fine finishes. Mesquite, like our fruit woods, is subject to insect attack. Holly, our whitest wood, is usually available only in small pieces. It is hard and tends to check. Among imported woods, the most familiar is mahogany (which is not one wood but many). Quality and color (pinkish white to red brown) depend upon source and piece. Some, like the one from Honduras, is fine-grained, even though relatively soft. Cuban mahogany is dense and varies in hardness; South American varieties tend to be grainy and splinter easily ; commonly avail- able Philippine mahogany tends to be coarse in grain, but I have six samples which range from white to dark red and from coarse to dense. There are also other woods now being sold as mahogany, like luanda, and primavera, a white wood that cuts like mahogany and can be stained to look exactly like it. (Mahogany, when sanded, by the way, has a very light dust that travels all over a house!) My favorite carving wood is Thai or Burmese teak, which is the best for exposure, does not rot, is not subject to insect attack, and does not warp or check to any degree. It is an excellent carving wood, which will support detail, but it does have a tendency to dull tools rapidly despite its inherent oil. The dulling is probably a result of silica soaked up in the marshy land where it grows. Chinese teak is red and harsh-grained, so the Chinese tended to stain or paint it black—hence the common opinion that teak is black. It is actually a light green when cut, which finishes to a medium reddish-brown, sometimes with slight graining. Another good wood is English sycamore or harewood, about as white as American holly, and available in wide boards. Lime and box, much used in Europe, are rarely available here. Both are hard woods. Ebony, which comes from Africa, India, Ceylon, Indonesia, and South and 21Central America, varies in color and marking, from a solid black (Gabon, Central Africa), to dark brown with black striping (Macassar from Indonesia, and Calamander from Ceylon). It is very hard, as is lignum vitae. In Africa and Mexico it is called guayacan and cocobola. (Avoid inhaling the dust; it causes lung inflammation.) Lacewood, briar, sandal, and satinwood are less hard and will take fine detail. All of these are more suited to carving with tools than with the knife. The same goes for rosewood, which comes from many southern countries and varies from soft brown through red and red-brown to a purple with other colors mixed in. This is a beautiful wood, but expensive, and should be reserved for pieces in which the grain and color are not com- peting with detail. Another fascinating wood is pink ivory from Africa, which was once reserved for Zulu kings. Anyone else found with it lost his head. It is very hard, and pinkish to red. Other woods like purpleheart, thuya, madrone, greenheart, vermilion and bubinga are also imported and offer a range of colors. All are expensive, hard to find in large and thick pieces, and hard to carve, but are, on occasion, worth it for their grain. (See the chapters on butter- fly and dinosaur mobiles.) The variety of woods available is almost endless, and my best advice is to start with the familiar and easy ones, then proceed cautiously to the exotic and expensive varieties, testing as you go. In general, the expensive woods should be selected for their color, grain, figure, or the like, not for pleasurable carving. What size shall your carving be? IN Most casts, there is no real reason why a carving must be of a particular size, unless it is part of an assembly. Size is usually dictated by other factors, like the available wood, convenience in carving, or size of tools you have. A miniature can be harder to carve than a larger piece, simply because your tools are too large, or the amount of detail you plan to include is too great for the grain or texture of the wood. Further, a miniature is hard to handle. Similarly, a piece that is overly large adds to the problems of handling and removing excess wood—you may find difficulty in holding the work, as well as in finding a place to display it when completed. The scales of the patterns in this book vary; some original sizes are shown. This size ratio should be regarded as a general guide, not as a requirement. The patterns can be enlarged as desired by any of several methods (see appen- dix); only in rare instances is it practical to reduce size and retain all the detail nshown. As a general rule, it is advisable to reduce, rather than increase, detail; whittlers in particular have a tendency to include so much detail that it tends to overpower the subject itself. What you are seeking is an image of a bear, not a texture that suggests a bearskin coat; or a rhinoceros, not a complex pattern of plates and wrinkles. A carving should be readily identifiable, unless you intend it for a puzzle. If a portrait of a person includes too prominent detail, we are immediately conscious of it, because we are accustomed to the soft curves in the faces of people we know. Most of us have only a limited knowledge of animal anatomy, so we uncon- sciously put in too much detail ‘for realism.”” Also, we tend to think that all animals of a given species look alike. Many carvings of animals and birds are caricatures, or even crude, as a result. Some even have the joints bending in the wrong direction, or show too many toes or claws. It is better to avoid depicting claws, for example, than to depict them incorrectly. The same holds true for animal eyes and nostrils; they are differently placed and shaped than those of humans. Ear shape and position are similarly important—as important as the shape of the head itself. A sculptor uses a live model or good pictures of his subject; even a tyro must do the same if his design is to be believable. Be sure you haven't selected a size that has details too small for your tools, or your skill, and that it does not include elements that your hand, and your eye, cannot execute. Be sure that the wood you have chosen is sufficiently dense and fine-grained for the detail you plan to include, and that the grain is not so prominent that it will overpower the detail, or indeed distort the appearance of the entire design. At least initially, don’t make the piece so big that it is hard to handle or requires excessive waste removal before you can actually carve. Particularly in three-dimensional carving, you may have to spend half your time getting unwanted wood out of the way before you can begin the interesting part of the work—actual shaping of the form. I must, however, in all fairness point out that the more nearly the design occupies the available wood, the less waste you have to remove (and in a sense the less wood you waste). Also, if you plan to sell the carving, a larger carving generally commands a higher price, even though it may require less work. People expect to pay more for something big, and less for something very small. This thinking affects inex- perienced carvers, who will quote a lower price for a work of smaller size— and find to their chagrin that the time and effort involved are much the same. 23CHAPTER II Carving Animals Suggestions for “different” subjects, poses, textures and finishes ANIMALS, birds and fish offer a tremendous variety of designs. There are so many species, so many shapes, sizes, surface textures, poses. The possibilities for new poses, techniques, surface textures, and finishes are far greater than they are in carving figures of people. (We are one very limited species of animal ourselves, although we tend to forget it.) What's more, the typical observer has far less intimate knowledge of animal anatomy than he does of human anatomy, so he is less inclined to be critical of minor errors, or even of the exaggerations of caricature. All in all, this is a rich field for the carver. Many carvers around the world even have specialized books on carving decoys, eagles and birds, but much of this is devoted to copying the living bird (or animal) precisely; in fact there are major awards for producing a decoy that looks as much like a stuffed bird as possible. There is, however, an entire field beyond this, that of carving birds and animals which are un- mistakable but are not slavish copies of living ones. Take as a case in point the photo of four totally different treatments of the turtle. In this chapter are other examples, together with a variety of other ideas in animal and bird carving. My hope is that they will stimulate your imagination to try still others. You can go as far as you like, into great detail, or total stylization, free-form, caricature, and unusual finishes, with little fear of the nit-picking criticism that any carver of the human form is likely to get. We usually cannot distinguish individuals within an animal species, and in fact do not know anatomical details. This is borne out by general animal and bird books—in which sketches often widely disagree. I have carved many kinds and many poses of animals in recent years, some small, some large, but most of them not the familiar domestic animals nor the familiar poses. These form a mixed grouping, which includes work done at various times, for various reaons, and in a variety of woods. Most effective in terms of observer comments has been the pair of long-tailed weasels. The stylized 24Four variations of the lowly turtle, ranging from caricature to serious sculpture: the upper right figure is from the Galapagos Islands, the other three are from Mexico. Two Long-tailed weasels in mahogany. The weasel on all fours twists around the standing one. The polished finish suggests the slick coat of the animal. 4 x 10 « 10 in(9 x 25 * 25 em).Pekingese and the toucan caricature were both made from the butts of timbers discarded as scrap by a nearby piano company. The weasels were a serious effort at animal portraiture, and the musculature and poses were carefully checked with available references. The Pekingese, on the other hand, exploits the texture of the surface and the great plume of tail as well as the pug nose that characterizes the breed. Because the grain is vertical—that is, across the animal’s body instead of along it—fluting with a flat gouge was relatively easy and did not generate the splinters that normally occur when mahogany is textured. Also, the tail has more strength than it would have with the grain lengthwise. The result is a piece that makes an excellent and durable doorstop, if nothing more. The toucan is a composite or assemblage which resulted from buying a toucan upper mandible from a Cuna Indian in the San Blas islands off Panama. The body was carved in scale with the mandible, which was glued over a stub. Also, the walnut body was tinted with oils to suggest the garish colors of the bird and to carry out the tones in the actual mandible. This is a caricature, of course, as is the perplexed penguin. PEKINGESE Mahogany 4473sI Grain vertical ith 1s gouge lutingTORO TOUCAN Waleut.tinted 25016 SF AB at ~ TURTLE, ARMADILLO & BIRD Originals in black horn @ white TrimThe bear is a reversible piece, combining a stylized animal on one side with a caricatured troll on the other, so the exposed face can match the observer's mood. The bear design is taken from a smaller Swiss original I saw in Brienz many years ago, and I designed the troll to fit the same silhouette. (This can be done with various silhouette carvings, and converts them really into double- sided free-standing panels, thus avoiding the often dull rear view of a conven- tional in-the-round carving.) This piece is in butternut, a wood easy to carve, capable of taking the limited detail, and with a pleasing natural color. BEAR & TROLL Silhouette of bear is used for Troll on reverse ofa xb4t10" butfernut block. (Some Scandinavians suggest thet {he troll legend is based ona bear seen dimly)Earholes drilled Eyes & beak inlaid as inow! eet | ak bone wy Hie OWL (Granadito wood) Wire flattened Details es onow! SWAN er KINGFISHER Somewhat similar in nature but considerably smaller are the pieces whittled by others. They include four caricatured birds in granadillo wood, made in Mexico, with copper wire legs and bone eyes and beak inset. The eyes are unusual in that they are drilled rings with black wood centers, inlaid in the wood of the head. Granadillo wood (also called granadito) is a mixture of dark brown and light tan, so pleasing effects can be obtained by proper selection of the piece of wood and carving the bird in order that contrasts are obtained on wings and/or tail. 29PUF FIN Background pierced as between figures WOODCHUCK GROUP (for silhouettes) Eyes are. black crescents OC) FROG Bass or pine with geeen-qray Finish Card holder by Fred Clark The puffin poses I originally made in ivory, but they can be made in wood just as readily and lend themselves to tinting. These are fairly accurate depictions, but the bird looks much like a caricature anyway. The woodchucks were a silhouette group for the top of a breadboard, but can be done as a three- dimensional group, as a flat plaque or a silhouette carving, as you wish. The frog is a place-card holder if so desired, because his sawn mouth can hold a card or a message. Fred Clarke carved it. 30All of these figures can be laid out on suitable blocks or boards and sawed out on the bandsaw, with details cut by coping saw. This saves enormous time in carving. The larger pieces are best done with chisels, the smaller ones with the knife. I have used a variety of finishes on my carvings in this group, each suited, in my opinion, to the particular subject. The weasels are varnished and waxed to a sheen, suggesting the smooth coat and sinuousness of the animal. The toucan is toned to contrast with the basic dark brown of the walnut. The Pekingese is textured with a gouge on all areas except the face and paw fronts. The bear is spray-varnished and antiqued with a darker stain in crevices. The frog is tinted green on top and lighter greenish-gray beneath, with oils or acrylics. The puffins are finished with oils, and the other birds left natural. One of the most enduring of carved bird forms is the eagle, because of its association with the United States and because the bird itself is so impressive. I include three examples of eagle carvings in this group, because they are somewhat different from the norm and might not otherwise be available. STYLIZED BALD EAGLE Female at nest DETAILED EAGLE Stooping male EiYVAN Back V slue forward <(aa er tet =) AMERICAN (BALD) EAGLE Eyes i begs 8 feet oversize, rot textured BIG ROOSTER Mato Generalic (Yagoslavs) 1975 35" I was also intrigued by a truly giant rooster 35 in (88 cm) high included in the Yugoslav naive art shown in the United States in 1977. In this case, the carver over-emphasized the feathering for effect, and even provided stumpy legs and 2Mexico Original onyx CHESS KNIGHT PENDANTS. seitstone or weed REARING STALLION Bali Original 21" high, in a white hardwood RAMSHORN SNAIL fr Europe - Mahogany AEX 12" in 4x1012" block Core of spiral is depressed 33feet, seemingly a characteristic of Yugoslav peasant carvings of humans. The result is quite a dramatic bird. Other examples of stylized, and perhaps caricatured, animals include three which, as far as I am aware, are not native to the countries where the carving was made. The lion from the Philippines is probably a result of tourist interest in lions, but it was designed exceptionally well. This goes also for the rearing stallion from Bali, a distorted but very dramatic pose. In sharp contrast is my ramshorn snail, which was an experiment in making carvings that can be placed on the floor. The weasels and the Pekingese are also “floor pieces.” In recent years, it has become the fashion for both sexes to wear neck chains with pendants; the more bizarre the pendant the better. Pendants are also used for chain pulls on light fixtures, curtain pulls, or just for decoration. Two groups of these are pictured, one small stylized animals carved in horn in Mexico, the other a duck, frog and rabbit in wood. Such designs can be carved from scraps of exotic woods and are interesting alternatives to standard or heroic figures. Blanks can be carried about conveniently and carved with the knife in almost any surroundings. S A’ Stylized lion has exaggerated musculature and mane. It is about 18 in (46 cm) long. 4CHAPTER II Animals of South America Most are sophisticated designs and works, from one small area FOLK CARVINGS in wood tend to result from a happy pairing of forests and skill; either alone is not enough. Thus, in all of South America, there is little folk carving except in the Andes Mountains of western Bolivia, southern Ecuador, and northern Peru (which was also southern Ecuador until Peru won it, as south Tyrol was once part of Austria). Carvings from this high terrain, regardless of country of origin, are well-formed and smoothly finished; they are not primitive but are obviously made by skilled carvers to familiar patterns attractive to tourists. Subject matter is wide-ranging, from Indian portraits through religious figures to animals, particularly the llama. Both in-the-round and relief work are done, and mahogany is the preferred material. The exact duplication of design and availability in several sizes suggests profiler roughing for quantity production, but sellers insist this is not true. Shown here are typical animal designs. Surprisingly, there are no birds. In- cluded are a typical pair of primitive carvings—an anteater and an armadillo from the Amazon basin in Peru. Drawings of three ancient house posts—over 1,000 years old—from Ica and Paracas, Peru, offer very sharp contrast to the more-refined modern pieces. There is also a small panel from the southernmost city in the world, on Tierra del Fuego Island, which is a quite modern caricature of a penguin done as a pierced carving, with body areas filled with a transparent tinted plastic—quite a surprise from such a remote place, but a useful idea. Relief carvings tend to be silhouettes and fairly large in size. The llama (pg. 37), for example, is 11 in (28 cm) tall, the Jama and Indian heads (pg. 37) are 13 in (33 cm). The designs on the cap of the Indian in the Peruvian plaque are exactly the same as those on the caps of a pair of almost life-size 35HOUSE POSTS Paracas & Iea, Peru. al PENGUIN SKIER tera! fase Cross-hatehed areas filled with moldable colored plastic ANTEATER Beth from Amazon Jungle, Peru eed : aZF My Hg aly Hato Th i li i " H \lint ye ih \ ne I 3 Ke Ecuador x INDIAN & LLAMA HEADS Peru (Plaque) busts I bought in Bolivia, showing again that tribal boundaries often do not coincide with national ones. It is also interesting to see that one house post has an animal figure very much akin to those on Alaskan totem poles, and that the posts are silhouetted, although the half-round hole in one and the notch at the top of another are primarily sockets for ridgepoles. The intricate line pattern on the anteater’s back is typical of this area, incidentally; similar designs are woven into cloth, and have been for centuries. 7The llama is the traditional beast of burden, and the source of wool for cloth and meat for food. There are three species, the llama, the alpaca, and the guanaco. Another familiar figure is, of course, the bull, but the dog and cat are conspicuous by their absence. (There is an ugly rumor that they are too edible to last long among the Indians.) Two Hamas flank an alpaca. The figure at the left is from Bolivia; the other two are from Peru, Woods and facial details are the principal differences. The Hama on the left is carved with the base integral, and its legs are foreshortened. Detail is avoided on all three. The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador, but are now an international sanctuary, so have only two small villages of humans. However, I did find one high-quality carving of one of the turtle species for which the area is famous. The islands have never been heavily populated and the turtle was probably carved by a mainland native brought to the area as a worker in the nearby turtle hatchery. 38All of these designs appear to be the products of woodcarving tools, except possibly the Amazon animals and the bull, and they show gouge marks. The Amazon animals are painted, then carved, so the natural color of the wood is recovered—a technique that I have seen previously in Fiji and among Australian Bushmen. It is, of course, now in use in the United States and elsewhere for routing name signs in laminated or “sandwich” plastics. It offers ideas for carvers as well. Composites of wood with other materials were apparently nonexistent, except perhaps in dressed dolls. The only examples I found are shown: the use of the transparent tinted plastic filler in the penguin skier plaque and the addition of a silver chain and bell on one llama. GIANT DOME TORTOISE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR ANGRY BULL ECUADORCHAPTER IV Primitive Carvings of Mexico Animals and birds are favorite subjects of folk carvers, who use what they have CaRVvING is more fun, and pays better, than working in the fields, if you have the skill. That’s the reason a great number of Mexican Indians have given me for their work, which they or their wives hawk in streets or hotel patios, or even along beaches. Many of these primitive carvings can be found in stores, which purchase them directly or through special buyers from the Indians. Some of the pieces are very good work and show both skill and imagination, but an increasing number show evidence of mass or hasty production. Animal subjects are extremely popular among these carvers, and there is a great variety of techniques and designs. The figures do have an inherent strength and drama, and seem to exhibit an understanding of the animal depicted. A great many are caricatures, whittled of soft wood and painted; some are even assembled by nailing on legs, ears and tails, but others make use of the inherent shape of the wood, its figure or variations in color. One Indian who has gained somewhat of an international reputation told me that he frequently makes the same figure painted and unpainted, because unknowing customers prefer the painted figures, while connoisseurs prefer them natural. He, incidentally, produces a wide range of figures, ranging from traditional Nativity groups to highly imaginative animals, Some are hurried, some studied, some caricatures, some accurate portraits. Most are small and in-the-round, done with the knife, but occasional figures are large, and require chisels. This is unusual among commercial or professional carvers, who tend to have a specialized style and range of subject matter, but it is necessitated by the thinness of his market. The examples shown here were collected to get a wide range of subject matter, techniques and approaches. There are some simplified designs and 40<< Pink “inside” ZE aa Legs tail * prailedon © Tel defail - FOX~ Oaxaca. Copal, painted orange,@ black Better =/\ 4 ty \ Actual \ tail LION - Oaxaca. Copal. Rinted yellow with black lines 4This cobra from Tehuantepec, a sculpture in ebony same carver who made the monkey extremely graceful pose and a2 was produced by the ery dramatic The light patches of granadillo wood are very evident on these two figures from The top and base have been carved as a unit, then d together Guerrero, which are hinged boxes sawed apart, hollowed, and h wood link. The hinge pin is with a match anail ina drilled hole and the eyes are inlaid. It isanmany shortcuts, the result of limited skill and training as well as limited materials and tools, but in general the carvings are less inhibited than many of. ours because the Indians are not trying to achieve some hazy “standard” but simply to make what they see or imagine. They’re not concerned with what other carvers may think of their work, because they usually work alone. As might be expected, work is usually identifiable by subject, finish and technique. Thus the animals carved in caricature, assembled by nailing, and painted in clear colors are likely to be from the Oaxaca area. Animals made from the highly figured granadillo wood, and somewhat more precise in pro- portion, are from the state of Guerrero, and are further distinguished by inlaid eyes and polished natural finish. Decorated and shaped ladles, in soft wood and unpainted, come from Uruapan. Flat trays and ashtrays in hardwood, natural in finish and with inlaid eyes, come from the vicinity of Taxco. Examples from each of these areas are included here. A great many of these figures vary to suit the piece of wood; there are no standard patterns or shapes—just a series of ideas which are selected as available wood suggests. Many are intended primarily as toys for children—another reason for gaudy color and hasty workmanship—and the major customers are Mexicans, not foreign tourists. Tourists tend to buy either very crude pieces, or the very finished ones turned out in several factories near Mexico City—the expected cowboys, fighting bulls, and sleeping mestizos. They pay higher prices without complaint. But, occasionally, really fine pieces will be produced in an unexpected area, such as the serpent, and to a lesser extent, the monkey, which were made near Tehuantepec from local, very hard woods. (Most of Mexico’s finest woods grow on the Pacific slope, particularly in the south, so are not available to Indian carvers elsewhere.) Relief or panel carving is ex- tremely rare, probably because of limitations in wood size and shape and in tools. In addition, primitive carvers rarely think of their work in terms of panels—unless they have been influenced by religious examples seen in churches or imported from more advanced areas. The monkey (opposite) from Tehuantepec was executed in guyacan, a dark-green striped wood, by a South Coast Indian. It is considerably more involved than the usual primitive pieces, and shows much more sense of design. It is about 12 in (30 cm) tall. 4aCHAPTER V Stylized Silhouettes Create Drama The Seri Indians of Sonora, Mexico, make ironwood carvings which are not primitive PRIMITIVE CARVINGS tend to be crude, over-detailed, somewhat fussy; only with sophistication and training comes suave, smooth, under-detailed work. Thus it is surprising to find carvings that could readily be called modern and uncom- plicated coming from a primitive people. But this is true of the work of the Seri Indians, a small tribe which 40 years ago had decreased to about 300 souls (most of them on Tiburén Island in Sonora, Mexico), existing mainly by fishing. By 1960, they had formed a fishing cooperative at Kino Bay on the mainland with other Indians and many moved back there. In 1965, Tiburén was declared a game preserve, so the tribe, gradually increasing in numbers, is now in camps north of Kino Bay. Early in the Sixties, José Astorga, one of the tribe, made the first non- utilitarian object in ironwood for a friend from Tucson—a paperweight. Next he made a turtle, then a rather poor porpoise, then a better one. These were decorated with pearls, brads, tacks—and got worse and worse as he tried the usual barrettes, hearts, spoons, bowls. Eventually he turned back to the sea and simple fish forms—and began to become known. Others, including his daughter, Aurora, began to make the figures as well, and since then carvings have become the major source of income of the tribe. Earlier Seri carvings, including violins, toys, yokes and such, were made of soft woods; ironwood was used only for oars and bull roarers. Desert ironwood (Olney tesota) is the second-heaviest wood found in the United States (Florida leadwood is heavier). It is a hard, dense, dark-brown to black, striated wood that is capable of taking a high polish. It grows on the desert in southwest Arizona, southeast California, and down into Baja California and Sonora. The Seri technique is to chop out a crude shape with a machete and/or a large 44butcher knife, then achieve the form with a large file or rasp. Hacksaws make necessary slits. The piece is sanded very smooth, then turned over to women and children to rub with rags soaked in lard, kerosene or whatever else will generate a shine. Breaks are patched with resin. Recently, more sophisticated waxes are replacing the lard and heavy oil, so the grain is more visible. The danger now is hurried and poor production to meet demand, the usual degrading process that has affected folk carving all over the world. A further danger is a shortage of ironwood. But, at the moment, they are supreme examples of what can be done with a beautiful hardwood—folk art that can stand as sculpture in its own right. If you undertake duplicating any of these carvings, remember that a major factor in their effectiveness is the wood itself. Pine or basswood is scarcely the material, and the hard gloss of a plastic finish will not substitute for the glow obtained here by a polish that seems to be part of the wood beneath. The West Coast is particularly favored in beautiful woods, and those of the Pacific slope and coast of Mexico surpass the United States in variety, color and unique quality. If you are restricted to familiar woods, black walnut suggests itself, and perhaps woods with a decided figure like ash or butternut, or even birdseye maple, if you dare try it. In any case, the finishing is at least as important as the carving, particularly the obtaining of smooth surfaces. Features are suggested rather than carved: the eye socket is more important than the eye, the fold of skin more important than its texture. Of the pieces I saw, I was most impressed by the mountain-sheep head, which is a difficult exercise in shaping. It is, Z Near horn omitted to show head shape BIG-HORN RAM HEAD 45AUT EAGLET (Base tapers to back & is left unpolished) QUAIL Owl (ase BULL SEAL Slight left tilt of head (from QUAIL HEAD ined ur jh. ca SAILFISH (Rests on fins, fail)(Clockwise) The eaglet is about 6 in( 15 cm)in size. It grows out of a rough-finished base The quail and the owl are severely stylized wood. No feathering is suggested on either The ow! is about 12 in (30 em) tall. The seal, about 10 in (25 em) high overall, is smooth ‘finish over an irregular and rough base. Here the grain of the wood plays an important part in the effect, and the folds at the neck are as important as the head .The sailfish, about 18 in (46 em) long, rests on its fins and tail. All sculptures are made of ironwood. 47Neo A) piste a SKIN DIVER PELICAN (ase left rough) incidentally, the only carving of part of an animal that I saw, and one of the few with a regular base. Also very dramatic is the seal, rising smooth from a rough base—a trick very much worth remembering. Rather surprising to me was the absence of human figures, except for one stylized skin diver, who looks almost as much like a bird as like a human. In this figure, the line of the shoulders and arms becomes an extended fin, while the head is a simple, unadorned bump. The feet are extended, probably to suggest fins as well as to provide a stable base for the figure, but the toes are not wide across the tips, as when fins are worn, but brought to a rounded point. aCHAPTER VI A Tale of Beavers, or... How to vary a subject to suit a client’s needs—rapidly MENTION has been made of the infinite variety of designs that can be based upon a particular animal or bird. Here’s a case in point. It has to do with an unlikely animal—the beaver. My experience with it derives from the fact that a particular client has sons who are members of a hockey club having the unusual name of Beaver Dam. Thus she has had need at one time or another for Christmas tree decorations, pendants and awards with some tie-in to the group. On occasion, she has given me carte blanche to provide what is neces- sary. Herewith are shown some of my designs, which may suggest ideas for you if you have a similar need. Many other designs are possible, of course, their form and function depending upon the animal and the need. The beaver is not a particularly prepossessing animal, but he is appealing in that he goes his own way and lives a somewhat distinctive life. He is also rather easy to caricature because of his distinctive tail and bulky shape. The first request I had was for awards for two volunteer hockey coaches and they had to be produced in 24 hours! My solution was a silhouette panel of the “business end” or head of a hockey stick (sketched), about actual size- 7 in (18 cm) wide. Upon it was carved a beaver and the suggestion of a dam, as well as the name of the man and the season. It was in j-in (19 mm) mahogany, natural finish, and was made so it could be a wall plaque, or a stand-up or lie-flat desk ornament. The next request was for Christmas tree decorations. | made a number, including a series of miniature skates of various eras, miniature shoe skates and typical skaters; but of most interest here were a hockey goalie, a player, and two other beavers. These were 3 or 4 in (7 or 10 cm) tall, the teak beavers textured with a veiner and finished in natural color, the hockey players tinted to suggest the colors of the club. 49Another request was for a pendant to be worn at the annual dinner. For this I used a scrap of holly, which is a very white wood and resembles ivory when finished. Lettering was incised, then filled with stain, much in the manner of scrimshaw, and the whole varnished over, then waxed. A further request, a year later but also for short-term delivery, was for a somewhat more ornate award, this time for a single volunteer coach who had led the team to the championship and also conducted them on an 8-day, hockey-playing visit to Finland. The championship was to be mentioned prominently, the Finnish visit somewhat less so, because some members of the team had been unable to make the trip. My solution was a larger beaver in mahogany, mounted on brass skates of the latest hockey style, on a Mexican mahogany base. Base dimensions were 6 x 12 in (15% 30 cm), and the beaver was about 10 in (25 cm) tall, with separate tail inserted. The beaver was carved with cap and turtleneck sweater. On one upper arm was a miniature Finnish flag. Flag and cap were lightly tinted with oils in appropriate colors. On the base was incised the single word “Champions” and the date. The base edge was carved with a random pattern suggesting the logs of a dam. The tail and hockey stick on this beaver award plaque are inserted in holes in the body, which in turn is mounted on brass skates set into the 6 x 12-in (IS x 30-cm) base. Body isnot in the round, but flattened on the sides to reduce bulk and fit available wood. Lower body is textured and tail cross-hatched. Stocking cap pompon, edge of cap and pullover sweater are tinted with oils. 50Award glaque for a hockey coach of the ‘Beavers’ Mahogany Low: relief, antiqued j PENDANT separate BEAVER HOCKEY PLAYER Tail, skates & stick 3% Lettering incised & stained dark 7 Stick inserted SHY BEAVER (Caricature) cICHAPTER VII What a Tyro Can Achieve Timberline Lodge, Oregon, was decorated by unskilled neophyte carvers HALF OF OREGON’s 96,000 square miles (249,600 sq km) are publicly owned, largely by the Federal government, and half of the Federal lands are adminis- tered by the U.S. Forest Service, including the vast Mount Hood National Forest. So it was only natural that the Forest Service designed and built Timberline Lodge, the big ski resort 6,000 feet (1,829 m) up the south slope of 11,235-foot (3,425 m) Mount Hood. Further, it was built during the Great Depression, in the middle and late Thirties, as a make-work project for local people, some artists and craftsmen, but most trained on the site. The original appropriation of $250,000 ultimately grew to almost a million. The basic idea was to spend most of the money on hand labor, using local materials and ideas. Even the woodcarving tools were made on the site. Much of the exterior of the building is made of local stone, with huge hand-hewn beams supporting the roof and interior floors. But the unique thing about the lodge is its many hand-crafted elements: 820 pieces of wood and iron work, 912 yards (834 m) of hand-loomed materials, 141 watercolors of local flowers. The unusual and powerful woodcarvings include panels in pioneer and Indian motifs, newel posts (recycled cedar utility poles) with animal-motif caps and beam-ends with animal heads. These are true folk art. All motifs are readily adaptable to smaller carvings. Such work calls for bold and deep cutting, with very limited detail. 526) 7 soe) lh ) re ee ~~ ~CHAPTER VIII Variations on a Theme Even copies need not be slavish THROUGHOUT HISTORY and in every field or profession, there have been two schools of thought, one stressing innovation, the other improvement. One worships creativity, newness, difference—in short, strives to produce or do something that has not been produced or done before. The other worships perfection, accuracy, intricacy—in short, strives to make a familiar thing better. One is concerned with ideas and dreams, while the other is concerned with reality. There have been, and always will be, both kinds of craftsmen, both kinds of artists. Few of us are at the poles of this difference, but most of us lean strongly one way or the other. We have the whittler who strives to carve a longer or more complex chain, or the carver who tries to make a more lifelike or ana- tomically correct bird, or the sculptor who strives for a perfect copy of an ancient Greek figure. On the other hand, we have the whittler who creates new and sometimes amorphous forms of animals, the carver who refuses to duplicate his own or another’s work even if he feels that it can be improved, and the sculptor who creates forms that are sometimes not even understandable from their titles. He is marching to Thoreau’s different drummer, and the idea of sameness appalls him, Paradoxically, this difference may be the vital factor in making the individual famous as compared with commercially successful, a sculptor as compared with a craftsman. It is the innovator who wins prizes at art shows and exhibits, the craftsman who wins ribbons at fairs. Famous artists have said repeatedly that there is no shortcut to art; it takes ‘an enormous amount of practice, of trial and error. Only when the basics are mastered can the artist strike out on his own successfully. There are many ways in which to be original, in which to vary even a familiar 54design; not all innovation must be total in concept. There may be newness in pose, in detail, in over-all silhouette, in arrangement or contrast, in texture, even in finish, for innovation is largely the meeting of a challenge adjusted to the abilities of the individual. It is a branching out, an effort to achieve some- thing that is a definite step ahead for the carver concerned, an attempt to convert ‘a mental picture into a physical one. Most of us cannot hope to visualize the bird-and-flower compositions of the Balinese; our traditions and instincts do not seem to lead us in that direction. The cranes and snake pictured here are a simple example, in which the fragile bird legs are reinforced—quite frankly—with foliage, and the heads with crest and snake, without robbing a particle from the overall effect. The entire composition is fitted to the available wood but without being inhibited by it; there is no blocky and angular look. The composition flows upward from the base in lines that are not at all reminiscent of the original block. For contrast, study the two Zapotec Indian (Mexico) efforts to reproduce the national symbol: an eagle on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. Neither carver was very skilled, but both achieved something which became part of a national exhibit. One worked almost entirely (except for the snake) from a single block, while the other was content to carve the bird, then mount it on a sawn assembly reminiscent of cactus. Yet both are strong and original. The bull is in granadillo, made by a Zapotec from wood given him by a visitor from northern Mexico, and the polar bear is in sycamore chosen for the color and figure by an American carver, Each depicts its subject fairly accurately, but distinguishing characteristics of the animal and the innate coloring of the wood are emphasized. Contrast these in turn with the African animals on napkin rings, which are basically true to life, but adapted for a different purpose. These animals are miniatures, relatively speaking, and the silhouette is the important element in recognition. However, the carver avoided the ungainly effect of the over-tall giraffe by eliminating the troublesome legs. There can be much originality in a frankly comic figure that brings a smile to the observer, as in the American goat and the Japanese owl with attached and rolling eyes. These, like the napkin rings, are made for sale, hence are simple in design, but they are different from run-of-the-mill objects. Another example of the same thing is the Noah’s ark from Israel, which, like the owl, is assembled from unit carvings. This design has the advantage that the stylized ship can be assumed to have no deck, so that the body of each animal is 55ad NAPKIN RINGS \ in Hy nt onCOMIC OWL Japan Cedar Plastic inserted eyes have rolling pupils COMIC GOAT usA. tine Joe Retrock tr Bob Horbise MEXICAN INSIGNIA (adapted for carving)NOAH'S ARK A Klein, Jerusalem, Israel Anmatheads& reed rel alvedin lcs 3 This unit dark” either within the cabin or below the bulwarks. The carvings are only the heads and necks of the animals, and they can be arranged as you wish about the composition, but the effect is unique and different. The same idea could be carried out in a fully 3-dimensional ark, with animals on both sides. The reed roof could yield to a single-piece one of textured or grooved wood, and so on, so that every ark could be an individual composition. This suggests another idea that is relatively uncommon, that of using the same elements in a variety of arrangements, or—better still—allowing the ultimate owner to vary the composition at will, as children build with blocks. A series of building fronts against a common background, or amorphous human or animal figures that can be arranged in various ways on a base, areexamples. One possibility of this sort is to provide flat elements with magnetic- tape or other “tacky” backs, and set them against a cloth-covered, sheet-iron plate or a felted board (not illustrated). There are many ways in which some individuality may be expressed. The large-sized birds are two of my own examples. When I originally carved the “bug tree” I decided to crown it with a large cardinal. So I carved a fat, stubby bird from a wild-cherry log and put him atop an assemblage of more than 150 bugs—although the cardinal is a seed eater, not a bug eater. Some of my neighborhood “birders” were upset. After ten years, when the cardinal had succumbed to dry rot and the ministrations of friendly woodpeckers, I replaced him with a scarlet tanager, although I haven't seen one in my neighborhood in the more than 40 years I’ve lived here. My point is that you can cut loose and do as you like. You, after all, are the carver, the artist, and you have some license. Also, the bird need not be anatomically accurate unless it is being produced as a portrait. The cardinal was happily fat, the tanager has dowel-rod legs and no depiction of feathers. To anyone who criticizes, I can say that the tanager at least eats bugs, but I don’t like him as well as his predecessor. White bil Beye nin Black mask’ Foot (bass ack Beth in cherry SCARLET TANAGER CARDINAL A heroic 24" fall) caricature Another heroie (22"tall) caricature 59Another example of the same sort of thing is the angelfish I chose for a pendant and earring motif in the rare and beautiful pink ivory wood. Because the wood has so much color and figure, I elected to make the pieces across grain, despite the long trailing ends of the dorsal and ventral fins. As it turned out, the wood simply cannot support such long thin sections, and even a minor bump of the pendant against something hard, or something pressed against it, breaks off the fin ends. Thus I have drawn an alternate design, which ties the trailing edges into the tail. It is not as accurate anatomically, but it is much more durable. This wood, by the way, is extremely rare still. Another example of a fish design will reinforce my point about the per- missibility of varying a design as it occurs in nature. Take the loaves and fishes. Both loaf shapes and fish shapes are generally known and accepted. But the man who laid the mosaic in Tabgha, Israel, long ago distorted the fish and showed only the ends of three loaves in a basket, to depict the whole biblical miracle of the loaves and fishes. The fish are not very realistic, although still recognizable. I have adapted the group for a barette or pendant and modified it still further. This can be done, and, again, it is artistic license. esg 5 =

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