Looking for inspiration?  Then maybe a figure carving is for you. These fine figures are to be seen on the sea

front at Geelong in Victoria Australia. The figure heads were photographed on Tresco Isles of Scilly and The Cutty Sark Greenwich

Shropshire Woodcarvers celebrate their             25th Birthday in happier times     

       New Member Information

We welcome new members to join us at any time. We encourage those wishing to take up woodcarving to come for four taster sessions before making a decision on whether to join the group. We will provide the first piece of limewood and set you off on an initial project for which you will be able to use the club carving tools. If you would like to come along to a taster session please email us at shropshirewoodcarversgroup@gmail.com and we will endeavour to arrange your first taster session with us!

Currently 23 people have signed up for membership of our renamed group.

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A GALAXY OF STARS

A club group project

Carve early for Christmas - well we all need something to look forward to, particularly this year. David has come up with this one. A carved star in any style or interpretation -  plain, decorated, painted or a mixture of all three. Any size but it must be able to hang on the average sized domestic Christmas tree. Chip carved/Celtic/fantasy figure/2d/3d.

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The closing date is 5 December with a virtual display on the website plus, hopefully, an exhibition at a Pontesbury venue.

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Dave can assist sourcing wood if you are bereft of suitable timber

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Still seeking inspiration then why not have a go at an abstract carving. The examples shown are by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and were photographed at St Ives Cornwall and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Go to the gallery page for current action - Carvings in progress, Our work spaces, Tips and Advice

See more photos in Freedom slider below

STEWART'S APPROACH TO LETTERING

The wall cried out for a dado but I wanted to do something a bit quirkier. Over a period of a couple of years the idea of a catch-phrase developed and, after a couple of my more risqué proposals were rejected, the wording in the photograph was approved.

The staircase is in oak so the choice of timber was easy but, before buying the wood, I wrote it all out, full size, on a piece of cardboard and we taped it to the wall for a few days to make sure that we had the proportions right. After a few adjustments I had the confidence to buy the oak. I had already identified the font from Microsoft Word and used the printer to get the right sizes, stuck them onto the wood, clamped it to the bench, sharpened the tools and, put my inhibitions to one side and got carving.

I have Chris Pye’s book on lettering which is extremely helpful and I have also a good few years ago, had lettering tuition from Mike Painter. They both use entirely different but highly effective methods of carving letters and my resulting style is a mish-mash of both plus a bit of my own. A technique of Chris Pye’s that I did stick with was to use an initial “stab-cut” down the centre of the letter stems before cutting the sloping sides of the letters. This relieves the stress on the wood as you are cutting the sloping sides and give space for the waste oak to move into thus making a cleaner cut. I did all of the straight cuts first and then reverted to the bull nosed gouges to produce the curves.

Patience is a key because the last thing you want to do is make a mistake on the last word. With all of the other things that were going on in in our lives, it took me about a month from the first cut to putting it onto the wall.

How Wood Carving Can Give You Mindfulness

Article passed on by Bob Svendsen secretary of the Western Australian Guild of Woodcarvers

Written by admin on March 6, 2019 in mindfulness, wood carving

Life can get a bit much at times. Occasionally, you just need to find something to take your mind off all the worries and give yourself a deserved break from life’s travails. It doesn’t help that this can stunt your creativity when you may well need it to move forward in life.

Thursday and Saturday carving workshops are cancelled for the foreseeable future due to Covid 19 precautions

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FREEDOM

View the contributions to Stewart's Freedom carving challenge set at the beginning of the first lockdown in March. Further contributions welcome

This end piece comes from the Western Australian Guild of Carvers most recent copy of Chips courtesy of Bob Svendsen October 2020

Ready to snap?
Life can get a bit much at times. Occasionally, you just need to find something to take
your mind off all the worries and give yourself a deserved break from life’s travails. It
doesn’t help that this can stunt your creativity when you may well need it to move forward
in life.
One way you can achieve this is by picking up a piece of wood and decent knife and
begin carving. If you didn’t know it already; there is something about creative activities
that will place you in a relaxed zone and clear your mind of stressful thoughts.
Woodworking or wood carving can be described as a “Whole-Brain” activity as it
makes use of both the practical side of your brain in trying to realise what the creative
mind has come up with. Also described as a state of “Flow” by psychologist
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , a perfect immersive state of balance between skill and challenge,
whilst using your body to make it happen.