Violet leaves

Another Winter School at Sturt in 2011 saw our group of students  carving a native violet leaf in red cedar or white beech based on a Grant Vaughan design. I chose red cedar having never carved anything in this timber before. Here are our group of leaves all finished and ready to display on the last day of the week long school. Grant is now running workshops from his home base in northern NSW, near Lismore.

thumpin' big seats

About two years ago I had a few days working alongside arts workers who were producing public art as part of our new local library and community centre, a big budget council project for the City of Wollongong. My friend Kim, had generously give my name to Anna Pollak who was making three large carved "seats" for outside the centre. This was to be carving on completely different scale than I had encountered and with wood as tough as nails, swamp mahogany from Lake Conjola. A big old tree cut into three huge lumps and then trucked to the site, manouevred into place onto their steel feet, ready for Anna to begin her work on them.

The theme for the benches was around the area's coal mining heritage, indigenous culture and messages about the impact of the use of coal on our global climate. Celeste Coucke, another of the artists, was working on a pathway that would wind it's way around the centre, over a concreted-over water course.

Telling the story of coal

Anna Pollak and her palm tools 

Coal-black inlay  fired by Celeste was used to fill the carved marks on two of the bench seats. A wollemi pine cone ceramic was fixed into the centre of the largest seat, with the local dharawal word "ngaraba-aan" inscribed around the rim for hands to trace.                      

love spoon

Spent a week at the Sturt Summer School in January and decided to have a go at carving a smallish, more traditional love spoon in english lime. I have carved some more rustic spoons for family as gifts, but this was more of a challenge as it had finer detail and had to be hand held for most of the time. It was good to come to grips with using a knife under the supervision of our tutor from Canberra Keith Houston. He does the most amazing small carvings, chopsticks into chain link and very wee spoons, uses things more like needles than gouges to carve. Way beyond my skill and dexterity !!          

maori wood carving

Travelling in New Zealand a year or so ago I visited Rotarua and the National Carving School (Te Wānanga Whakairo Rākau) which is located in Te Puia. The Institute carries on the cultural tradition by teaching wood carving to young Maori men. Apparently there are places in NZ where women carve, but around Roturua it was a man's domain and remains so. Perhaps this is similar to the cultural rule I have often heard around women not making or playing didgeredoos in Australia. The young Maori woman tour guide talked about respecting historical tradition by women not carving, but I did find myself questioning why culture could not evolve in this place to open up carving tuition to young Maori women. 

The carvings......on the day I visited the group of students were working on long brown pine (totara) relief panels and these large poles that would end up in a wharenui (meeting house) somewhere. The teacher was laughing about how late they were in completing this job, but seemed to be easy with this being so. They carve mainly in brown pine, but also have kauri pine as an option. You can buy carved works in the shop within Te Puia, I really liked the traditional musical instruments, one being a nose flute! This big carved fulla is one of six that greets you at the entrance to Te Puia, pretty fiercesome dudes.   

   

  

sturt school for wood

In Winter this year I attended the Sturt Arts and Craft School in Mittagong for a week of organic form carving with Grant Vaughan. The design Grant had for us to reproduce was inspired by Monstera fruit and we carved it in white beech which he brought down from the north coast. I had an engrossing week in the highlands, with my  fingers almost worn to a nub with sanding to try and faithfully render the exquisite perfection of Grant's original piece. It was great to share this experience with other carvers from across NSW. I'm returning to Sturt for the Summer School for more bowl carving with Nick Statham.  

my bowl sanded and complete

om carving

I have started a new carving of an om symbol, this has been inspired by my yoga practice and time spent at the yoga ashram at mangrove mountain this year. The timber is basswood which I've not used before, it cuts like butter as they say, has no features to speak of, so is great for a carving that will be painted and the om gold leafed. Well that's the plan stan at this stage.........here's how it looks in process. It's lovely carving in the garden studio looking out at the garden, singing along to some kirtan beats..........   

carvin' away

I was given my first piece of wood to carve by my best mate Pam on turning 40, but waited another year before enrolling in a two day workshop at the Tom Bass Sculpture School with Maricha Oxley one vey hot January just under five years ago.............that was my beginnings in wood carving. As a former forester I have been loving getting re-acqainted with the various wood properties I learnt about at university in Canberra, but I think about them now in a creative and expressive way, not as I might have back then when I thought I'd be working in a production forestry setting.  

So this blog is about documenting my wood carving world...........the projects I am doing, what inspires me, the people who are helping me learn and other carving related bits and bobs.