strapwork

UPDATE – Oct 5. Well, sorry about yesterday’s video mess-up. I was trying to be so smart that I knocked much of the soundtrack out-of-whack…I think it’s right now. So if you watched yesterday, I apologize. And if you’re watching today – I have my fingers crossed.

“Strapwork” carving is a name given to patterns like the one above.

In 17th century New England work there’s only a few examples; all attributed to Thomas Dennis of Ipswich and/or his apprentices. There’s no know English records of him, but the objects that descended in his family, and the related ones attributed to him, closely relate to oak furniture from Devon, England. And there’s plenty of strapwork there.

detail of a box descended in the family of Thomas Dennis, now at Bowdoin College Museum of Art

I love carving them, they’re a very detailed pattern. Quite demanding. In my second set of carving drawings there are a few examples and I’ve finally got around to making a start on videos to go with those drawings. The first one was doing the layout and for the video I did it on paper so it would show up for the camera. This 2nd in the series shows carving a piece that I’ll eventually use as a box front. It’s about 6” high by something like 20” wide.

Strapwork carving is slower than working with a V-tool for outlining stuff. And making a video about strapwork carving is slower still…it took me about 1/2 a day to carve and shoot the stuff. But the edit took at least 2 more days. But now it’s done.

To order the carving drawings, use this link https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/carving-drawings-plans/

The 2nd set is the one with more than a full page of strapwork patterns. The drawings are 24” x 36” and come rolled in a cardboard tube. At this time (Oct 4, 2022) the first set is out of stock – I’m planning on reprinting it soon.

LINKS

The previous video in this series is here – https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2022/09/03/new-carving-video-strapwork-layout/

And one of the many posts I’ve written about strapwork is here: https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2020/06/19/strapwork/

Otherwise, put “strapwork” in the search button and stand back.

I always keep an eye on what Paul Fitzsimmons posts about the oak furniture he sells. No one has seen more Devon furniture than him. https://www.marhamchurchantiques.com/