Friday, January 30, 2015

Lesson's 1-6 Shallow Relief Woodcarving

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Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…Http://TheDancingGoats.com
The new series of Carving Lessons on TheDancingGoats You Tube channel, illustrate the steps involved in Shallow Relief...Keep projects simple and use classic elements...A well executed simple project is always admired and appreciated. Lessons 1-6 are just about Shallow Relief work...and the boxes in the lessons are the primary place where shallow relief can be found in my work.
The lessons were done during one very cold day in January and constitute a 12 hour day of carving.
One full day of carving time per box is usually my target...
 

Pistol Case Front with Wolves and the Moon
 
Turn a photo or illustration into a line drawing...Lay out and shade for staining or color...
 

Pistol Case Top: A Stylized Stampede of Bison Bison
 
Celtic Art is a festival favorite, is tedious to carve, but always worth the effort...I never have more than one of these boxes at a time...
 

Celtic Jewel Case with the Anglo Saxon Runic Futhark
'Not all those who Wander are Lost'
 
Glass or stone cabs, hobnails, hasps, corners, hinges, handles, shelves, padding, mirror...The carving is just the start and that adds up to more than the sum of the parts...
 

Grace Note: Kiln Fired Glass Cab...

 

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Woodcarving in Shallow Relief Lesson 1 of 6, Layout

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Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…Http://TheDancingGoats.com


Basic Relief Carving Lesson 1 of 6... new You Tube Videos...
Learn to carve with 'TheDancingGoats' Folk Ways Studio...
Lesson 1: Layout

A 59 part Celtic Mantle in Linden

A space to carve need not be big, just an alcove where work can be picked up at any free moment...

Caving Bench, Tools, Lighting...A perfect combo...
 Shallow relief work is found in many places and applications...
Decoration and Ornament styles from England and Germany are the styles to which I aspire...In particular, Grinling Gibbons...How did they do so much with so little?

The Ever Popular Elf Doors with a Tolkienesque Flair...
 A Mantle with Capitals and Entablature all carved in Shallow Relief work...

Entablature and Capitals in Sassafras and Mantle in Linden

The floor to ceiling cabinet work and woodcarving and lighting, accounted for a little over 400 hours of work.
 Megaloceros giganteus, The Lord of the Hunt

Shallow Relief Work

In the Hobbit, Thranduil rides a
Megaloceros giganteus...
This animal has been extinct for millennia but the Cave Painters of Lascaux knew and painted them. The Lord of the Hunt is found on an ancient Celtic Standing Stone and is a memory of a time when we hunted them...Done in shallow relief in Sassafras...
 

 

Monday, January 19, 2015

The Luminous Landscape Essays: A Book Review and Results

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Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...
TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…Http://TheDancingGoats.com

Mastering Landscape Photography: The Luminous Landscape Essays
A Book Review and Results:

For the serious Landscape Photographer there is a grail to find and chase...It is not the Golden Hour as many go on about, but the golden 15 minutes at Sunrise and Sunset that lay the foundation for stunning images...The Grail of capturing Lemon, Orange and Purple in one lurid desert image is only possible during this magical time...The Luminous Landscape will help with the logistics of this most difficult assignment. Pre shot reconnaissance, sky chart and map drawings for sun angles, sun rise and set times, test shots and a 3 day shooting window is all that is required for that take home shot everyone will envy. LL will help bring it home. ( )

Look at any magical photo in print and chances are it was taken at Sunrise or Sunset.
The time of the Luminous Landscape...
All Alone in Jasper Alberta
52.811742, -118.036221

A 3:00 AM get up alarm and half hour drive during high Summer...The only problem?
It was 18 degrees F. That is just one of the challenges in capturing
The Luminous Landscape...To get this photo required, test shots and 2 days of travel in Jasper National Park to find the likely candidate...1st morning out had no sunrise and snow...Back to the lodge...The next day was clear and cold, but perfect for capturing Jasper's beauty.
Looking Towards the Home of the Manitou...
52.728668, -117.637931



An ancient wreck of a light house on Lake Michigan after a gray day of rain and solid clouds...Let's just go out and see?
After the Storm and In the Water to my Knees!
45.055239, -87.088962


After a lifetime in heavy industry with too much noise and way too many folks at every turn, the solitude of nature at Sunrise and Sunset, when no one else is out and about has its own reward. Leopold, Muir, Thoreau & Abbey's words are guides and the palette of the lens the window on Gaia's wonder...
Spider Woman's Home...She Brought Weaving to the Navajo
36.114250, -109.437782

The Luminous Landscape Essays are not a magic' how to' and like any thing worth doing, there is an exceptional amount of work involved in imaging this most captivating time...
I have found that only the last or first 15 minutes of sunlight is the true window on the Luminous Landscape...A thing worth doing just for the sake of it. 5 stars...
 
Landscape of Legend
36.980539, -110.094193

 
 
 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Plying with the Nostepinne and Tibetan Spindle New You Tube Video

Watch our Videos on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats/videos
Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...
TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

New Folkways Lesson: Learn to make finished yarn with the Tibetan Spindle and a Nostepinne!
 
For new spinners, we recommend trying a bottom whorl support spindle as a 1st spindle, the cost is low and the learning success rate is high...Many spinners tell us they have quit using all of their other spindles in favor of my Compromise Tibetans.
There are many to choose from in our ETSY Store!
Look for my customer feedback on this tool...
 
The Tibetan Spindle form is an ancient tool and spindles in this style are found all over the world.
The most common of spindle types in the early anthropology texts and early Smithsonian Ethnographic reports. 

Bottom Whorl Tibetan Spindle in Apple Wood
 
The Nostepinne or Yarn Stick and a Tibetan Spindle are all the tools required to make a finished yarn...Great for demonstrating at Festivals. My Nostepinne has a 30-1 taper and that makes a tight ball of yarn very easy to remove 
 

The Ancient Yarn Stick
 
All of the over dyed Shetland Yarn in the image was made on a Tibetan Spindle.
Ready for my Navajo Loom...
Over Dyed with Cushing Acid Dyes...Available in our ETSY Store 
 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Cup-O-Fiber...Artisan Dyed Fleeces Ready to Spin from The Dancing Goats

Watch our Videos on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats/videos
Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...
TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…
 
 
Cup-O-Fiber!
 3 Ounces of fiber in a recycled drink cup...
New Art Bats will be available in TheDancingGoats booth this season...
They will be in a variety of hand spinners wools...
Dori & Oin's Baby Finn Fleeces ready to spin
 
3 Ounce Cup-O-fiber portions for $19 at Festival in various TDG Colorway selections....
Hand Sheared, Hand Picked, Hand Washed, Hand Dyed and lightly mixed and carded in our Cottage Mill...
 
Lightly Processed and a joy for spinning...The same fibers we use for teaching Hand Spinning...