1:  The Late Slipstones Interactive Woodcarving Journals & Newsletters

- archived and available!

2:  The Big 5...
3:  Miscellany:
       One for the Bench
       Back issues
       Woodcarving Tuition/Teaching
       Slipstones Woodcarving Manuals

1   Slipstones Interactive Woodcarving Journals & Newsletters

 
Slipstones Interactive Woodcarving Journal & Newsletter was an online venture that ran for nearly 3 years, ending in January 2003.

Readers subscribed and the content of each issue was made up from the comments and questions that they had, along with tips and hints, workshop and other news.
If you were one of those subscribers - many thanks for your support! I really enjoyed writing each issue.

I've decided to make Slipstones Interactive Woodcarving Journal & Newsletter available free: there are many interesting seeds of information lying therein and I feel they would be more useful sown into the wider fields of woodcarving.

I have archived the pdf journals into 3 zipfiles and I suggest they'll make more sense if you read them in chronological order.
Please enjoy. I hope you find the contents profitable!

Full list of other Slipstone manuals at the bottom of the page.

Here is the link to the download page - do read it first!

More and more, carving seems to me an 'inner game'.

I often think that I only do a few 'things' - let's call it 5 - when I carve. These are not so much techniques as attitudes that I have; focuses; ways of working.

It's hard to overemphasize how profound these things feel to me sometimes. I mention them to students ("Here's a pearl. Catch!") but I'm never really sure if they get it since I also understand how banal or drippy these things must sound.
Anyway, judge for yourself.

Here's the fourth:

"It's a horse".

Now, I've been there, done that etc. The best thing to do in these circumstances is not to panic (well, not straightaway). I always start my reply with a long, drawn out "Mmmm..." sound.
So, wits gathered, I now asked to see the carver's horse drawings, pictures and reference material. There were none

"I know a horse when I see one!"

Well so do I.
And they don't look as if they climb trees and eat nuts.

Anyway, cut to the old joke, which we've all heard: 'How do you carve an elephant?'
Answer: You remove everything that doesn't look like an elephant.

It's sort of true of course. But incomplete.
One of the things it doesn't address is that the carver must know what an elephant looks like. The idea of "elephant" is not "in the wood"; it's in your head! If you don't know what it is you are carving, what you are 'aiming for', how can you hope to get it right?
If you do know because, say, you have spent the last 20 years carving elephants, then you probably do have enough information in your head and could start into a block of wood and successfully carve one.
Nevertheless, you might never have carved an elephant doing exactly this - I don't know, hanging from a branch eating nuts or something - so you may well still need to find out more: pose an elephant or whatever.

So "seeing": visualizing, knowing where you are heading, what wood you'll likely need to remove - "seeing" is all important. The wood is in the way and you are going to have to clear it away to your subject and then stop.
You need to have your visions clear enough in your mind before you begin - that is my first point.

My second is that the very act of carving will give you a different result from what you see in your head.

The way in which you clear the wood away, the tools, your abilities in handling them influences the result.
If I were modelling, the elephant would come out looking very different.

In both cases there is a degree of exploring or "finding" going on. And this is true for every craft, including writing: I only had a rough idea of what I wanted to say when I started and it developed into the finished piece as I've gone along, influenced by what words I know and whatever skills I've developed using them.
It follows that the more skills and techniques you have the more you can explore and find.

Of course there are carvers who deliberately start into their wood with no vision or preconceptions; who may of may not have much skill. They have a lot of fun and satisfaction, and are happy when squirrels look like horse.
I have no problem at all with this approach but it's not how I work and I still think my points hold true:

The results of your carving will be depend on a mixture of what you "see" and what you "find".

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:

"People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love."

           ~ Chuck Palahniuk

BACK ISSUES of this newsletter:

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

TUITION/TEACHING 2007/8

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.
Full details here:
http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/tuition/t_custom.html
 

USA 2008 (Center For Furniture Craftsmanship, Maine)

  July 21 - 25:  Relief Carving

  July 28 - Aug 8:  2 week Intermediate/Advanced

Details later in the year on the CFC website: http://www.woodschool.org

SLIPSTONES WOODCARVING MANUALS

Help yourself!
You are free to copy any or all of these 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:
http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/index.html

  Chris Pye Signature Slipstones (pdf only)
  Deep Undercutting Tools (pdf only)
  Key Notes on Sharpening Woodcarving Gouges (pdf only)
  Master Woodcarving Secrets (pdf only)
    (Sponsored by Tools for Working Wood)
  Quick Carving Questions - 1
    (Sponsored by Tools for Working Wood)
  Quick Carving Questions - 2
    (Sponsored by Classic Hand Tools http://www.classichandtools.com/)
  Quick Carving Questions - 3
     (Sponsored by Preferred Edge Carving Knives & Supplies)
  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 (pdf only)

  PDF versions of all Ebooks