1:  Newsletter Survey - Winners and Results
2:  New Gallery Carvings
3:  New Green Men in the Gallery
4:  Look at this!
5:  Miscellany:
       One for the Bench
       Back issues
       Woodcarving Tuition/Teaching
       Woodcarving DVDs
       Slipstones Woodcarving Manuals

1  Newsletter Survey - Winners and Results

'Thank You!'
- to everyone who took the time to respond to my survey - over 1100 of you!

Here are a few facts that might interest you:

  80% of you live in North America
  90% of you are over the age of 40
  85% of you want more informational articles from me
  60% of you would like tool recommendations.

Congratulations!
The 3 lucky raffle winners chosen at random from all the entries are Dean Johnson (CO, USA), Al Wilson (BC, Canada) and Jerry Watson (WA, USA), who will have received their antique, Herring shortbent gouges by now. Enjoy!

Emerging ideas
For everyone else, let me say that you also win in the long run.
The survey results are very helpful to me and have already generated some exciting ideas from which you'll be able to benefit in the future.
Here's a taste:

  Pod and webcasts
  E-learning opportunities
  Discount on tools
  Membership carving club
  Annual tool raffles
  North American-based, open studio days.

Keep an eye on this newsletter as these ideas take hold - there are some big changes in the offing.

My website and this newsletter are 'dedicated to the teaching, the learning and the love of woodcarving' and, as always, I'm open to your thoughts and suggestions relating to any of the above. You can reply to this newsletter, but do change the subject line.

2  New Gallery Carvings!  

See larger and further images of these carvings by clicking on the pictures below.   Koi Carp:   Limewood. Height 25in. You can see this carving, which will be for sale, in the upcoming exhibition of new work by faculty, June 14 – September 10, 2010 at the Messler Gallery, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport, Maine.

Green Man     Stained Limewood. Height and width 8.5in. Depth 3.5in. This carving, to which I tried to give an American 'Old Timer' look appeared in the Spring 2010 edition of Woodcarving Illustrated.

Wren:     Limewood. Actual size. Follow the link to see a picture of the whole carving, including the twig, carved from a single piece of wood.

See larger and further images of these carvings by clicking on the pictures above. Main Gallery index here.

 

3  New Green Men in the Gallery  

With this splendid Renaissance-style Green Man by Karl Anderson:  
 
- click on the image to see a larger size.

There are now 37 inspiring examples of Green Men up in the gallery ranging from low to high to pierced relief; plain to stained; left from the chisel to sanded; free-standing to a part of something else; and in all moods and humours.

Have you carved one you'd like to contribute?

See the full Green Man Gallery

4  Look at This!

Hanging on a hook in my studio is a little collection of what look like rings but are in fact spring clamps.

I made them from a large sofa spring - let's call it an ex-sofa spring - the sort that's wide at each end and narrower at the waist.
Such a spring (and bed mattress springs are similar) are normally brass-coated tempered steel wire that, by design, has a lot of 'springiness' in it.

 

Spring clamps will reach around the awkward shapes of a carving and grip a small piece of wood being glued on, perhaps a repair.

This is the best I can do to illustrate them in action at the moment.
I flirted for a microsecond with breaking a piece off one of my carvings but, hey...

 

With a hacksaw, cut the spring into a series of open rings with different diameters.
With a file: sharpen an end for a non-slip grip; round over an end to avoid marking the wood. You can have ends of any spring the same or different.

Open up the spring for a lighter grip.

 

And look at this:

Or, rather, consider: Where is the best place to hide/lose a leaf?
The answer is, in a forest. And the best place to hide/lose a book? In a library.

How about that small piece of wood just 'fallen off' your carving? The sort you might like to glue back on with a spring clamp, if only you could find it again.
As those of us who've been humiliated into crawling about under the bench will know: among the thousands of similar pieces on the bench surface or floor...

Here is a very unassuming, screw-top plastic box that sits readily to hand in my studio.

As you can see, I wrote its function on the lid. I don't use it for anything else.

Any small object that I really don't want to lose goes in there. Straight away!

 

 

 

That's it!

Please forward this newsletter to a woodcarving friend, and anyone else you think might be interested. Thanks!

Joy and success with your carving.

 

                                                   Chris Pye

 
PS: One for the Bench:

"Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization."

           ~ Bo Bennett

BACK ISSUES of this newsletter:

http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/intro/pastnews.html
including zipfiles for 2001 - 2006 text-style newsletters

TUITION/TEACHING 2010

UK (1-TO-1 PERSONAL TUITION)

The best way to learn or improve your carving is to join me in my studio for intensive, custom tuition, tailored to exactly what you need. Easy to arrange; dates to suit.

Click here for full details

USA 2010 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine

  Aug 29 - Sep 4:  Elements of Wood Sculpture

Details on the Haystack website: www.haystack-mtn.org

USA 2010 Center For Furniture Craftsmanship, Maine

  Sep 20 - 24:  Lettercarving

  Sep 27 - Oct 1:  Relief Carving

  Oct 4 - 8:  Carving Tutorial

Details on the CFC website: www.woodschool.org

 
  WOODCARVING DVDs

Full list and details: here

  Sharpen your Gouge
  Essential Lettercarving Techniques
  Ornamental Carving

 
  SLIPSTONES WOODCARVING MANUALS

Help yourself!
You are free to copy any or all of these pdfs/ebooks, send them to your carving friends, or have them available on your own website but you must not charge money for them.

Full list and details: here

  Roman Letter on Grid
  5 Big Thoughts about Carving
  Learning to Draw - Henri Ruukki
  Chris Pye Signature Slipstones
  Deep Undercutting Tools
  Key Notes on Sharpening Woodcarving Gouges
  Master Woodcarving Secrets
  Quick Carving Questions - 1
  Quick Carving Questions - 2
  Quick Carving Questions - 3
  Quick Carving Questions - 4
  Selecting & Sharpening Your V Tool
  Learning to Carve
  Learning to Carve 2
  A Guide to Safe Woodcarving
  Mistakes and Woodcarving
  Fundamentals of Woodcarving
  Slicing, And The Value Of The Inside Bevel