The WOOD BEE CARVER often says “every carving project is a learning experience and journey.”  LADY KNITTING is a new carving project that began with a mental picture of a lady sitting in a chair while knitting. Research was made to search for photos of hands holding the knitting needles and a woman sitting in a chair while knitting.  Such research put the mental picture in clearer focus which would guide the shaping of the block of wood into the basic form of a lady knitting.  “Design by carving” is the process of allowing the design of the concept to develop during the modeling or roughing out stage of the carving process.  Such a design took into consideration the shape of the chair, how the female figure would be seated in the chair, the position of her arms and hands holding knitting needles in the act of knitting and the shawl being knitted in the front of the hands with a ball of yarn behind the hands.

The modeling or roughing out phase was depicted in an earlier posting on this blog using the Side Kick knives.  Once the basic form has been carved the next stage is to refine the modeling stage on the various areas of the carving by defining the shape of the chair, refining the arms, hands and knitting needles, refining the drapery of the skirt of the dress and the knitted shawl in front of dress and shaping the hair and face with feminine features. Each of these refining and defining activities become a challenge and learning experience that allows an interpretative adventure of creating an aesthetic flow.

A variety of knives were used to carve the defining details as depicted in the photographs below.  The shape of the blades allowed for reaching into areas that other shaped blades would not reach.  Most of these blades called by the carver as “Other Knives” were shaped by the Wood Bee Carver for their unique slicing characteristic. The texturing of the knitted shawl was done with a leather awl whose point was penetrated in a random pattern to simulate the knitted texture.

A carving project comes to the point on the journey when the carver realizes that the best effort has been invested in this project at this particular time of the carving journey.  The end result suggests that what was learned in doing this particular project is beneficial for carving something similar the next time around.  No carving is ever perfect in and of itself as the carver realizes areas that could be improved in carving the next one.  Nothing is lost however, because lessons are learned no matter the outcome and as long as the carver did the best effort at this juncture on the carving journey the project has served its purpose as a carving exercise.  The joy of carving is doing the carving more than it is the finished result and the joy continues with the next carving project.  Carvers continue to carve in order to experience again that joy of a sharp knife slicing through the wood to shape the mental image that comes with the urge to create.  As my good whittling friend Billy Stephens coined the phrase, “There is never a dull moment for a boy with a sharp knife and a piece of wood.”  And that is why we carve.