Relief Carving Basics:

TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

Http://TheDancingGoats.com

The image is a high resolution scan in black and white. Click on it then right click the image to save or print.

Free Beginning Woodcarving Lesson

 

This graphic illustrates the beginning steps of laying out a panel of woodcarving. There are many methods of layout & this is the one that works for me when laying out the Jewel cases that I make.

A Little Geometry and Sharp Tools... 

You Tube lessons will follow that include these techniques and the most important technique of all…SHARPENING…

Sharpening is the most important technique to learn in carving…With sharp knives, the imagination is the only limit.

The Rudge Cup and Artistic Inspiration:

 

TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

Http://TheDancingGoats.com

 

Here are two links that illustrate my processes for Artistic Inspiration.

Archaeologica: http://www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm

Talking Bowls from Long Ago: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/12/2012/first-souvenirs-enamelled-vessells-from-hadrians-wall

Just like some of my Navajo friends that view time in reverse, The past is my guide and artistic muse.

The farther back the better…

Copper Bound Talking Bowl

The Archeological news aggregated at Archaeologica is always interesting and
very occasionally an article ties the things I make to the ancient past…My Talking Bowls with their graven rune messages have been very popular and on December 19^th, the article on the Rudge Cup and others proved the value of following Archaeology…Almost 2000 years ago, another maker made bowls for those that spent time at Hadrian’s Wall. The little bowls are inscribed around the top with the names of the forts along the great barrier…The Rudge Cup was found in a well in a ruined Roman Villa in Southern England in 1725… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudge_Cup

Shape Inspired by the Rudge Cup...

 

Ancient Styles and practices have always held a fascination for me & none so strong as the workmanship in these little bowls made when everything was so hard...These items provide a direct connection with things familiar today...

Items Made for a Modern Faire...

 

TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

Http://TheDancingGoats.com

Heritage Craft First Principles: A series of video lessons on topics that underlie the traditional crafts...

Skills are like an onion & layers are built upon, one after another

Short Lessons are free on our You Tube Channel: TheDancingGoats!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats

All Photography is Copyright TheDancingGoats...

The Goats that Dance and Start to Fly...

 

Among First Principles, Knots are the most basic skill. Keep them simple, tie them correctly and use them in the right places for the task & they will serve you well...

12th Night Approaches and the Days Begin to Lengthen...

TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

Http://TheDancingGoats.com

Late Autumn Slumber & Pre Solstice Clockwork Shadows, my new Time Lapse on our You Tube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats

All Photography is Copyright TheDancingGoats...

 

Things that are very fast and very slow...are fascinating. The apparent motion of time is just the movement of a machine and the original clockwork was the Sky, Gaia, Sol, Luna & the Wanderers.

Chimney Rock from the Observation Kiva

 

Shadows...Angles...The Sun's path across a window...Like the great gnomon at the Chimney Rock Archeological Site...Once in 19 years it serves as a marker against the night sky and frames the Moonrise...

 

Water is 1000 feet away, straight down...

 The great Chacoan watchtower and signaling station for monitoring the sky's motion. Observe...Repeat...

 

Just like the 'Beacon of Gondor', Chimney rock was a light tower for signaling Chaco Prime of the once in 19 years major standstill of the moon...In the 3rd photo, right in the middle of the horizon is the direction of Chaco Canyon...6700+ observations required just to catch the major standstill a second time...

 

Chimney Rock: A deeply mysterious and deeply sacred place...Where the Clockwork of the Sky, like a shadow on a window could predict events and perhaps be understood...

 

One of the Great Mysteries in North America...

Music and Making:

Another Interlude from:

Http://thedancinggoats.com

Use the poets name: 'Frost', for a special discount through the holidays on our ETSY site: http://www.etsy.com/people/TheDancingGoats

 

Making things for sale for our craft and fiber festivals is always a challenge.

I never cut corners or hasten a process for the sake of production…

A new Time Lapse Video is up on You Tube on our channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats

Making Whorls is the 1st step in the assembly of the various fiber tools we offer...

 

The Pressure Chuck...

 

There are Journey Person practices though, that take advantage of ‘The Economy of Motion’...The ‘Pressure Chuck’ is one innovation in Turning that elevates productivity in an amazing way…

A very simple cone with a very flat end surface acts as the driver & allows a ‘plate’ to be turned like a spindle with no waste. The Lathe is a 1946 Atlas Screw Making Engine...

 

A Drop Spindle Whorl

 

The Music Track in the video is John Serrie and is an example of the ethereal landscapes that aid a Maker's concentration.

Music and Making:

An Interlude from:

Http://thedancinggoats.com

 

Use the poets name: 'Frost', for a special discount through the holidays on our ETSY site: http://www.etsy.com/people/TheDancingGoats

 

Almost everyone that comes through our studios always and dependably will ask, “What are you listening to”?

Autumn Slumber in 1000NM IR: A perfect companion to an Ambient Groove

 Making is a transcendent experience to me and the “Maker Zone”, where hours pass by in the blink of an eye, are the “raison d'etre” or “Reason to be”…

 Leonardo wrote about it, as did Durer…The mystical landscape of the mind where certain triggers alter the very flow of time…

Source of a thousand woodcarvings...

Music, especially the more ethereal landscapes of the Space and Techno-Tribal artists are one of the tools that comprise enrty to “The Maker Zone”…

The woven flight of the lampyridae weave an Ambient Symphony of light

 Select Ambient Artists for Makers include:

John Serrie….Premiere Space Music Artist: http://www.thousandstar.com/index2.html

try, Planetary Chronicles 1 and 2

Steve Roach…Tribal Ambient Projekt Master: http://www.steveroach.com/

try, Western Spaces or Kiva, recorded with Hopi Elders…

Anything from the Spotted Peccary Label: http://spottedpeccary.com/

try, When Thunder Sleeps…

All of the Between Interval discs are very unusual ambient journeys… http://spottedpeccary.com/artists/between-interval/

Coyote Oldman was way ahead of the Ambient curve  http://coyoteoldman.com/collections/music

try Thunder Chord or Tear of the Moon…

Ambient Light is a Similar Wavelength

 

Et in Arcadia ego

Follow Autumn's Red Lanterns

 

 A new video illustrating the use of the Russian spindle is up on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats
 

The compromise Russians that I make have been very popular and are used
by folks that make long trips on busses and trains. The spindles are very compact and portable and by practice, all of the action stays close to your personal space.

An Ancient Tool Form

 As a veteran festival craftsman, my inspiration & muse is derived from Tolkien’s vision of rural England during Victorian times and his nostalgia for fabled lost Arcadia…

 My heirloom items are handmade, recycled, rescued, repurposed & lovingly crafted and finished. A Maker knows that Arcadia is not lost...

Arcadia Reclaimed

 You Tube, certainly opens up a new world for the traditional crafts & my videos are a way of giving back some of the things I have learned. A convergent synthesis seems to be evolving on the craft spaces within You Tube…and the Maker community is sharing an ever rising instructional set of tools for Journeyperson Makers and those that dream of becoming…

 Through You Tube, Navajo craftsperson, Clara Sherman helped me learn the principles of the use and to deduce the construction of this wonderful form of spinning wheel. Though her hands are now still, her voice and gentle native wisdom still speaks…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Sherman &
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_p7OIghMVw

Recently, Greasemoth's wonderful & amazing time lapse of her use of the Navajo Spindle added to the ability to understand how to utilize this fascinating wheel type…The thing I find fascinating about the time lapses, hers, mine and others, are the long cycle cadences of motion that are not apparent in real time. Good job Coral!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN0lf3Tdss8

Who says that we cannot reach the Shire or Fabled Arcadia? That it is not real…Not me, not Coral & certainly not Clara who never left…

Aldo Loved the Autumn...