Teaching & lecturing, rest of 2014

owlet

 

Although I can recite my travel schedule like Rain Man, fat lot of good that does folks out there looking for it written down. so now, 4 months late, I have updated the list. here’s the link, in case you’re looking for something to do.

https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2014-workshop-schedule/

 

If you want to skip the details, here’s the Readers’ Digest version

Apr – Rochester Woodworker’s Society

May – Lie Nielsen – spoon carving

June – SAPFM mid-year lecture/demo

June – Historic New England, lecture/demo

July – Lie-Nielsen Open House

July – Lie-Nielsen 17th-century carving

Aug – Woodwright’s School, make a joined chest

Sep – Heartwood (MA) – make a carved box

Oct – Lie-Nielsen – Spoon carving

Oct – Ct Valley School of Wood Working – Make a carved frame & panel.

 

what a weekend it was…

Winter is perhaps really over here – it better be, I put my hat & scarves away.  

The day started out in the woods, looking for birds. Daniel & I saw many, he counted 18 species; but we only got a few shots of them. 

 

wood ducks

 

bluebird

 

they don’t call this a turkey for nothing

Back home we ended up with spoon carving lesson # something-0r-other. I have to teach a bunch of students at Lie-Nielsen next month, so started practicing with Daniel. His knife work is excellent, given his strength.  (the May class is full, so we added one as soon as we could – which means October! here’s the link 

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/weekend-workshop/1-ww-pf-sc14

 

 

 

 

Working one-on-one meant I got some carving in too. 

 

Meanwhile Rose did the 19th-century-Swedish-immigrant-in-the-garden routine. All around a busy day here. 

 

When one of the household  is a knitter and the other is a basket-maker, that means knitting baskets. I don’t get to make baskets much anymore, but have several that have lingered for quite a while. I finished this one the other day.  It’s a form I have only done once before; a double-swing-handle design. Basket is ash, handles, rims, and feet are hickory. Lashing is hickory bark. 

 

Then Daniel went in the house & started a self-portrait carving his spoon. Sometimes these pictures never get done, like my baskets. So I am posting it now in case it’s an orphan drawing. 

 

Now onto another subject. If you’re inclined to help support some young people doing what they love, remember Eleanor Underhill? Maybe you know her father? In addition to illustrating Roy’s most recent Woodwright book, she did some drawings for mine & Alexander’s Joint Stool book – but her main gig is music – and she’s part of a trio making “heartfelt country soul” – they’re using Kickstarter to fund their next album. I’m in. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/underhillrose/underhill-roses-best-album-yet

 

 

ash splints – “you do it like that?” – well, some people go both ways.

I usually do it this way:

 

 

But this spring I’m doing it the other way:

 

This ash log is a little weird. It has one large knot on one side, and someone started to cross-cut it with a chainsaw. Michael Burrey gave it to me, and I have been pounding & peeling it when I’ve had time. Ordinarily, I like to split the logs into billets, then pound those. That way I can harvest some wood from the log for furniture. But in this case, I don’t need the furniture wood, so just started in pounding.

 

after the first couple of layers are removed, it gets easier. Here, I’m prying (carefully) with my knife to start lifting the splint.

 

Then peeling it…

If you get to a part where it’s not lifting, you might need to hit it some more…

The knife is not doing anything here, except being ready in case it’s needed to snip some stray hangers-on.

Rick McKee shot that video in 2012, but now he’s been replaced by an eight-yr old photographer, my son Daniel. Who insisted that I pose…

He then shot a self-portrait. I refuse to use the word “selfie” – there’s only so far I’m willing to go.

 

 https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/?s=ash+basket

Carved detail on my spoons

People have asked about the chip carving on my spoon handles. 

I mostly learned this through trial & error. I had seen Jogge & Wille demonstrate it in their classes, but as I recall we didn’t really spend much time on this aspect. I cut mine deeper than what I have seen on theirs…and there’s folks who do it closer to what Wille does. I think of Jan Harm ter Brugge –   http://www.houtvanbomen.com/HoutvanBomen/English_text_spoons.html

Chip carving is something I’ve never addressed here, principally because it’s hard to photograph – all the shots I used to take in the workshop were easy to stage, then shoot with a remote to trigger the camera. Here it’s all tight shots, and hard to tell what I’m going to get because I hold the spoon and knife in my hands…and they shift around. Oh well, that’s my excuse anyway. I got some of it last night. so here goes

The tools first of all – from top to bottom:
Del Stubbs’ detail knife, 5/8″  – my favorite for this work. 

A Frost sloyd knife I’ve had for 26 years. This used to be the only tool I had for the carved decoration. it works. 

A Svante Djarv detail knife. I’m still getting the hang of this one. Called an “engraving knife” 

another Del Stubbs knife – I don’t see it in this form on his website right now, maybe it’s the same blade as his kolrosing knife. I got it from Country Workshops, where Drew calls it an engraving knife. 

 

First tool I use is a pencil – I know, I’ve chased some of you away in joinery class for using pencils, but here they’re allowed. 

So I used the Frost knife just to show you can cut this stuff just with the tip of your knife. It HAS to be as sharp as you can get it, out to the tip. Usually I oil the spoon first too, that helps. This particular spoon is birch, and sometimes it almost looks like cow horn. The knife was working fine, I was not too thrilled with the texture of the wood… I wear a visor w magnifiers that I got from Lie-Nielsen. I get older every day. 

Just hold it like a pencil, and make two cuts angled towards each other to create a V-shape shaving coming out of the wood. I stab in stop cuts at each end of the line first. 

Here I’m using the Stubbs detail knife to cut 3-sided chips, this is what I think of as “real” chip carving. This knife has a very thin blade. Fragile, but outstanding. 

a detail. 

 

Here’s another shot, on a different spoon. 

 

Now the other Stubbs knife. this one has a curved blade, pointed at the top of the blade. The curve helps guide into long arcing cuts. 

Between the previous photo and this one below, I have swung the knife along the line. 

and here’s the shaving I removed. 

——————

A couple of spoons are left from last week. I’ll then have more soon. https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/spoons-for-sale-march-pt-2/

here;’s the links to where I got my knives

http://countryworkshops.org/knives/knives.html

http://www.pinewoodforge.com/catalog.html

 

 BIRDS

 

The Great Horned Owls are sitting higher up, I wouldn’t be surprised if the chick(s) have either hatched or are about to… I haven’t had much time to hang out there to see what’s up. 

 

 

 

We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun…

And have it on Highway 61.

Yup – i’m going to Minnesota this June to meet Robin Wood & learn some bowl turning. Got my packet from North House yesterday.

If you’ve read my blog awhile, you know I’m a fan. If you’re just getting here, be sure to read Robin’s blog. His was the inspiration when I started mine back in 2008.

Great stuff. Well done & very thoughtful. http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/wood-craft-blog/

The school looks to be a gas, I’ve heard great things about it. http://www.northhouse.org/

Won’t that be something.