SESSION FIVE; PATTERNS AND TOOLS

Lets talk about patterns. Above you see an original sketch with lightly drawn lines indicating the right side of the figure. It is approximately ten inches high and will be carved as a miniature. Details are drawn on the wood as well, even though they may be lost as the carving progresses. I try to preserve as much as possible for they let me know to leave space for them. This next illustration is of a ‘natural’ horse, one of my favorites called ‘the runner’. It is much simpler and the lines are sharply defined.

You will note that the mane and tail are not darkened. That is because I used a soft mane and tail for this model. At times, however, I added them in wood. We will talk about that later. I used this pattern in figures anywhere from 3″ to 10″ in height. With scanners and copiers it is now quite simple to accomodate any size.

Here you see a pattern on the wood. This horse would be a one-thickness figure so it was not important to place the legs on the straight grain. On the left is a partially carved one-piece horse, and at the bottom is another partially carved figure showing that it stands squarely even before carving. This is very important. If your figure is to stand when finished, it must begin that way. Now, to the tools:
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This is a small power tool with a flexible shaft. When I began, I used a straight Dremel tool, something like a cordless screwdriver. It accepted the same bits, but was harder to work with. You can see the working end on this flexible shaft, something like a stylus, which enables the carver to use the bits almost like pens. Eventually, I graduated to a hanging 3/4 horse Foredom system that let me use the bigger bits needed to carve large figures.

 

These are the bits used in the carvers. The sanding drums range in size from 1/4″ to 1″ as well as the 2″ or 3″ drums pictured. These and the small smoothing tools are used primarily as sanders, although they are also used in the beginning stages to rough shape the figure. The carbide burrs – pictured here are from very small to a 2″ burr – and the small cutters are used for the actual carving. These various sizes and shapes were added gradually as my carving skill improved. A basic Dremel or Black& Decker tool took kit will have enough bits and sanding drums to begin learning the art of woodcarving.

Next session we will explore carving.

THE PATTERNS

Last session we talked about an anatomy book that shows the ‘construction’ of a real horse. I enlarged pages from this book and had them tacked on the walls of my studio. I could look up from my carving, using them for reference as I shaped a leg or head. The sketch and photo were for a full-size figure, however, the sketch measures only about 7” x 10”, where the photo is of a 5’ figure. We will talk more about blowing up a sketch for a full-size figure in another session.

I would like to show you now how to take a sketch and turn it into pattern pieces for a miniature carousel horse. You can find pictures to copy from books about antique carousels or pattern books; or, you can draw your own. Wind Song was an original sketch.

The pattern for this session was drawn from another picture. This is the finished figure, carved from basswood and standing about 15” high. It was painted with acrylics .

This photo shows the pattern first as a full figure, then in three pieces which represent right and left sides and a middle piece that includes the head. You will notice an extra head piece. This is to furnish extra width through the neck. To get these pieces, you take the original sketch and lightly continue the legs where they differ from, in this case, the left side of the figure. You can add a tail, as in the photo, or you can leave the rump rounded if you wish to add a soft tail.

The pieces are then drawn on another piece of paper, following the lines you’ve sketched. Actually, I generally used the whole sketch and just carbon copied the piece I wanted. My favorite wood was poplar, although I first began using pine since I could get It at the lumber yard.

When I discovered poplar I fell in love with the finer grain and beautiful coloration. Basswood was also available and is easy to carve but bland and must be painted when finished. When you lay out your pieces – try to use at least a 12” wide, 1” thick board – be sure to lay them so the leg pieces are on the straight grain of the wood. This requires generally that they be laid crosswise of a long board. Be careful not to lay them over knots, but use a smooth, unmarred piece of lumber.

Next session we talk about the actual carving and the tools required.
Please feel free to ask questions. It’s been a while since I carved these figures, so I may inadvertently leave out a step.

Where do you begin?

How do you get from this sketch to the actual carving of a five foot sculpture? Well, I didn’t begin here. This is actually the culmination of my learning to carve. I had no teachers. I had no instruction manuals. My teachers were the photos I found in carousel books along with a few photos of carousel figures in pieces.

Let us begin at the beginning. As soon as I began to ‘play’ with carving horses, I realized the skin covered muscles and bones and tendons, giving it the dimension and movement. What determined the supple movement, the play of light over satin muscles? My questions took me to a book I ordered from Dover. (I looked up the site and found the book still available. It is titled, An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists and costs $12.99.) This book contains page after page of the horse from the bones out. Knowing how the bones are put together, and how the tendons and muscles wrap around them, gives you

.an understanding of how to carve a realistic leg.

Next session we will look at patterns and how they evolve from original sketches.

Getting ready

In the picture below you can see two examples of my carving at the time. Miniatures were simple and easy to carve in a few days time. These were done when rain made it impossible to work on the front porch; the best place to carve the big figures.

The pieces jumbled up on the living room rug are the carving blocks for Prairie Hawk, a full size carousel pony. Beside it is a miniature carved in poplar and unfinished. It was never painted since the grain and coloration of the poplar wood was so beautiful it made no sense to paint over it. Only pine or basswood was painted. Walnut, poplar, red oak and sometimes cedar, were beautiful in themselves.

However, Prairie Hawk was carved from rough basswood. I would never recommend carving anything from rough wood! Had I known what a struggle it would be, I wouldn’t have, either! No piece was exactly the same thickness as another and splinters were numerous!

At first I tried building the horse the way the books said the first ones were set up. That didn’t work for me. So I constructed the figure in my own way. After making a small s

sketch, I took that to the local highschool and, using their opaque projector and butcher paper, I blew it up to the size I wanted. I generally got a laugh from telling people I was going to the school to “blow up a horse”.

Taking the blown-up pattern home, I laid it out on the dining room table and cut patterns for the individual pieces that ended up looking like dress pattern pieces. Some of the pieces in the above picture have been partially carved. The head and neck were two separate sections and comprised 16 pieces altogether. These two were joined before carving. One of the legs has been carved and will be joined to the body when ready. Each piece was carved individually up to the point when it would be attached to another. A rough end would be kept until joined, then those two pieces would be smoothed.

When the figure was fully joined, it would be laid across a work bench until carving was done. A local machine shop cut the hole through the figure before it was painted and made the pole and stand.

This is the completed figure of Prairie Hawk. The Romance side, or the side presented to the viewer, is wrong on this horse. I didn’t know that American and European Carousels were operated differently. In America the carousel is run counter-clockwise; in Europe, clockwise. So I tell those who view it that it is a European carousel pony!

Next, we will talk about some of the carving details and how to design and carve a miniature figure.

INTRODUCTION TO REFLECTIONS/CAROUSEL

I’ve always loved the carousel. As a child in the 40s and 50s, the highlight of the summer had to be the County Fair. Not to see the animals, or meet friends, but to ride the carousel. In those days the traveling carousels still had deeply carved and bejeweled steeds worthy of a child’s dreams. The music wove ribbons of imagination around horse and child and nothing seemed impossible when the lights twinkled and the horses moved in stately three-quarter time.

With adulthood came new responsibilities and new interests. My children rode the carousel while I watched. Watched as the horses slowly became more cheaply made until finally they were all one style with no jewels and no magic.

I became a writer and a poet. For a time I traveled, giving programs of original music and poetry. Wooden horses were placed in the back of a busy mind that had no time for frivolity.

Then, the words stopped. For seven years I wrote no poetry. Invitations no longer came in for concerts. “Poetry doesn’t sell,” my editors told me. An asthma medication thinned my vocal cords and there was no more music.

In the midst of this creative desert, I began working with wood. First to remodel a couple of rooms. I used drills, saws, hammers without cutting off fingers, and I fell in love with wood; the smell, the grain, the limitless possibilities of it. I cut out a flat Christmas village for the mantle and decorated it. Fun. And creative.

The horses came next. Flat horses with muscles and manes painted to look three-dimensional. Then, I began experimenting with three-piece figures. Two sides and a middle. A friend loaned me a Dremel tool and I was able to add a bit of shape to hoof and fetlock.

I’m not sure when the idea came to create a carousel horse. Just a miniature and the first very square and amateurish. Eventually I learned how to use all the tools in the Dremel kit. And bought more. Then, it was a flexible shaft Dremel and finally a 3/4 horse hanging Foredom with, among other tools, carbide burrs that would hog out enough wood to make it worthwhile!

Here, I will discuss and illustrate the carving of miniature and full size carousel figures. We will have a blast.