Saturday, October 13, 2007

Kirin in the wood



I think the image translates nicely for the class I'm teaching! I was going to carve it in All Shina, a product that McClain's sells, but in true fashion I always forget at least one item in the many that commutes with me to and from the studio and that was it. I left my nice piece of Shina at home! :( I am blessed, however, in that my sister's husband is a carpenter and he gives me left over scrap wood that would otherwise end up in the dump. I had a peice of 3/4 inch plywood in the studio and gave it a try. The grain held up okay but beneath the veneer lay a layer of soft fibrous wood that seemed to me rather weak. I put woodglue in a particularly large split that appeared beneath the face part of the kirin and am none too keen on the large black knot on the other end. We'll see what happens when I pull a few proofs....

2 comments:

Tom Kristensen said...

Hi Lana,

Nice carving! Beautiful lines.

Personally I'm a big fan of soft timber to make carving easier. Chinese Poplar ply with cherry veneer is great. Big chisels with a mallet are also good for getting rid of the waste.

The edge of your carved area looks pretty jagged and might leave an indent on the paper. You might want to sand that smooth.

I look forward to the print.

Annie B said...

Hi Lana,

Nice carving indeed! It's hard to get such fine linework using commercial plywood. I too have found cracks and voids in the second layer of that type of wood. It should print just fine, though, and I look forward to seeing it.