|
I have been taught the very traditional skill of
carving objects for use in furniture and furnishings. I would not
pretend that I am a sculptor of wood in terms of producing art. I carve
and restore mouldings, such as Egg and Dart, Acanthus leaf decorations,
furniture feet, such as Lion and Claw Feet, and pierced and raised panels. I use
traditional hand tools and I am happy to work on classical as well as
contemporary pieces.
If you have never encountered Egg and Dart
before the photos enclosed here show work in progress on cop ying
an Egg and
 Dart
piece and an Acanthus leaf design. The Acanthus leaf has no specific
pattern or form. I believe it to be a generalisation for any leaf piece
that follows a basic rule of thumb. The example shown is fairly generic
and might be found on 18th and 19th century furniture as a decorative
element.
The Lion's foot is shown under construction and
completed. This style of foot would be found
on the bases of many different types of furniture. In the photo you can
see that the embellishment that emerges from the top of the foot has b een
glued on prior to carving rather than cutting the whole foot from a
single piece of wood. This is slightly different to many feet that I
have encountered in the course of restoration of furniture. Often the
block that forms the toes and claws is glued on to the front of the base
of the leg. As you may imagine, over the course of many decades and
centuries, the foot falls foul of passing feet and the toes and claws
are often missing or, at the very least, worn and hanging by a thread.
It is not a difficult job to re-glue a broken foot with additional
reinforcement or, indeed, carve a replacement where the foot is damaged
to such an extent that a pedicure is out of the question.
 I
have also chosen to include some photos of a hand-carved Barley Twist.
Nowadays most Barley Twists are created using specialised machines and
router jigs. The regularity that modern techniques produce in the
finished piece does
not always sit well when furniture requires restoration. Hand-carving a
Barley Twist is a pretty vigorous exercise.
There is a clever formula which allows the twist
to be drawn onto the basic turned wood cylinde r.
Initial spiral cutting with a handsaw and carving gives a general rough
shape. The wood is then "assaulted", carving is not a strong enough word
for this process. Various rasps are used to develop the full, rounded
twist. Gentler rasps clear the way for a sanded finish. Its a time
consuming task but it is probably the only way to incorporate a
replacement twist within an antique, reflecting the handmade, irregular
nature of the original twists.
The Gallery section
includes an Art Deco Gilded Mirror project, carved and gilded with White
Gold.
Mark Adams
mark@lachlanadams.com
|
