Part Two: Making the Metainsectivore. Whittling and carving an imaginary creature based on the HI-MEMS project from found and recycled timbers

Once the idea of a predatory mammal that would eat the 'metainsecta' creatures had been settled on as the subject, it was time to set about making the sculpture.

First of all, sketching out a few ideas on paper helped to give a clearer vision. It allowed me to work out  how the different features such an animal would have evolved for it's lifestyle could come together and also what kind of pose to show it in.

Then, I made a very simple clay model to further settle things in my mind. The model is very different from the final sculpture. but it has a charm of it's own. I think it looks a bit like an aardvark!

With the pose of the animal starting to become more apparent, it was easier to choose a block of wood for the body. I settled on a piece of locally-grown cherry wood. It was the right size and colour and not too strongly grained (which might have interfered with seeing detail). It is also great to carve - it would certainly be in my top three favourite timbers to work on.

Sketching out the form of the sculpture very roughly and directly onto the block showed where to cut away material to get the basic form. I cut some waste away with a bandsaw, but the piece of wood was a little too large and difficult to secure whilst cutting. Instead, roughly shaping with a Holey Galahad seemed a better option.

This tool is a metal disc shaped like half a ring doughnut and covered with small, tough metal spikes. It fits onto a standard angle grinder and spins round, removing timber, with the holes in it allowing the user to see where they are cutting more easily. You need to be careful when using it, but it's a handy tool to have.
You might notice the steel-toed boots, dust mask, safety specs, ear defenders and chainsaw gloves in the photo above. Not taking any chances!

The Galahad roughed out the shape from the block nicely, but then it was time to turn to more traditional carving methods. With the piece still fixed onto a woodcarver's adjustable stand, it came back into the workshop...

The shape of the head, body and the limbs was then carved by hand during the next sessions using traditional gouges and chisels, some over a hundred years old. This process took over 35 hours.

The hands and feet were whittled from apple wood, picked up in the garden of my rented accommodation years ago. I used a four inch long Opinel lock knife, the same one that I taught myself to carve with about nineteen years ago. It is still my favourite carving tool and can achieve some surprisingly delicate work with a bit of practice. 

The colour of the apple wood contrasts nicely with the cherry. It's very different to most apple timber that I've come across before.

Before being fitted, the hands and feet also had their claws glued on with two-part epoxy adhesive. The claws were carved from locally-grown holly using the Opinel and then sanded.

Whilst working on the hands and feet, the muzzle and eyes were also taking shape. The muzzle was whittled with the Opinel from an offcut piece of English Walnut, with the nostrils and whisker holes shaped using a Dremel hand drill. The mandible was carved from the same cherry timber as the head and body, the teeth are locally-grown boxwood and the tongue a piece of Yellow Box Gum, a didgeridoo offcut picked up whilst travelling in Australia.

The eyes were carved from an offcut of Pau Amarello that was being thrown away at a woodyard. I wouldn't choose to buy this timber newly cut as it grows in Brazil, even though it isn't classed as threatened there. However, it seems wrong to chuck away any offcuts of an exotic timber and I also keep even the smallest potentially usable pieces that are offcuts of my own carving.  The same is true for the ebony inlaid as the pupils in the eyes. I believe that Madagascan ebony is endangered and shouldn't be bought in any circumstances, but I have lots of small bits of African ebony that were broken sculptures or were going to be thrown away by other people and I save them down to the smallest usable piece. When it is gone, that's it. I might experiment with charred holly or something similar instead.

The eyes were finished with gloss varnish to give them a shine. The varnish can be better dripped on than painted on, to avoid brushmarks. They were set in using two part epoxy mixed with wood dust, to give a tiny differently coloured ring around them, like an eyelid membrane. They are quite staring, which suits a creature that is supposed to be a nocturnal hunter.

The next job was to  carve the fur texture. The Dremel hand drill was good for this, using two differently sized rotary burrs (ridged spherical bits). The rounded burrs gave a smoother, less coarse appearance to the carved fur.

After all the components for the mammal were complete it was time to glue it together using slow-drying two part epoxy ( I used Araldite):

...and while it was setting, there was time to carve the pupa that it is about to eat. This was whittled using the Opinel from an offcut of English brown oak and was inlaid with boxwood, plum, cherry and holly, all grown in the local area.

The pupa was finished with Danish oil, as this gave a slight sheen to the surface.

The base on which it all stands was reshaped from a piece of Honduras mahogany that had been salvaged from the renovation of a school in Exeter in Devon. It was varnished and then had a bit of sawdust sprinkled on it, to look like a taxidermist's vignette. It proved surprisingly difficult to find the correct shape of branch to complete the piece and it took about an hour of searching around the woodyard and a shortlist of about ten candidates to find the right one!

Finally, it was time to assemble the sculpture. I glued it together using slow-drying two part epoxy. The quicker-drying stuff really isn't worth bothering with, it has no strength in it. All the pieces were supported using a selection of blocks and sticks while they dried. The whiskers, made from fibres of bamboo from an old skewer, were glued in at this point.

Finding the right finish for the areas meant to represent skin and fur presented a bit of a problem. Waxes and oils would give a slight shine to the surface, which wasn't appropriate for the 'furry' finish. I chose instead to use wood preserver, which doesn't have any kind of shine at all when it dries. It was only applied to areas that hadn't already been finished with, for example, varnish.

So, after over one hundred hours of work, the metainsectivore was finished and ready to show.

If you have come here from my website, clicking here will take you back there.

Part One: Designing 'Metainsectivore' - an imaginary creature in the 'Metainsecta' series carved from found and recycled wood and inspired by the HI-MEMS project

This piece was carved to show in the 'Inspired' exhibition, but there really isn't enough space there to  talk about why it looks the way that it does.

Metainsectivore is part of a series that I've been working on for several years based around the 'HI-MEMS' project. This is funded by DARPA, the US defence department's research and development division. The project seeks to implant control devices into insects in the pupal phase, when the juvenile (the caterpillar or maggot etc.) breaks down inside its casing and reassembles as the adult (also called the imago).

Instead of individually implanting control mechanisms into each pupa (especially given the number of potential offspring of insects), it would seem more logical to implant a nanofactory instead. This would be some kind of nanotechnology that could not only create the devices desired inside the host creature, but could also recreate itself to be passed on to offspring of that creature.

Of course, once such hybrids were in the world, it could perhaps be hard to recall them. Particularly when the rapid process of reproduction in host and technology could give the opportunity in both for mutation, variation and so evolution. Genetically modified crops are already commonplace in the US and in a future time of war, perhaps modified animals would be released without too much thought.

What would these creatures become? Being that other living things would also adapt to take advantage of them as a food source, what would their predators and other animals in their environment come to look like? These are the themes that I've been exploring. There is some artistic licence of course; for example, I don't think that adapted pupae would have external electronic-looking boards. I have also used features of insects that don't have a metamorphic stage inside a pupa.

I've also tried not to give an obvious strong value judgement on the project that inspired it in the series, although I have my own opinions which probably come through. This series is as much about the potential for strange beauty that could arise, even if it is also unsettling. 

One piece is inspired by record players and by the genetic engineering in the film 'Bladerunner'. It is a weevil that walks around and plays a record through mouthparts shaped like stylus, in a future where fragile vinyl discs are rare and valuable commodities and genetic engineering is commonplace. Such a creature would be unable to feed so could not live for long.

All of the sculptures are carved entirely from wood, occasionally powdered and fixed in resin (even the 'vinyl' record above is charcoal dust in resin). This is partly for the technical challenge as a woodcarver and partly because I like the idea of using quite a few traditional carving methods and tools with more modern techniques to create these strange, futuristic creatures. That's why the pieces also have a feel of the Victorian naturalist's preserved specimens. Maybe the detachment of those 'collectors' relates closely to that of the scientist involved in the HI-MEMS programme.

The Metainsectivore is a mammal that would feed on the new insects. It is loosely based on a number of existing creatures, including quolls, cats, tarsiers and aye-ayes. Its adaptations to its lifestyle include:

Large eyes and ears suited to nocturnal hunting

A beak-like snout covered in tough hair (like a rhino's horn) to protect its face from dangerous prey

Small, sharp teeth

A relatively long, flexible neck to allow its head to grab food or to get out of the way quickly

Hands and feet adapted to move quickly through undergrowth in pursuit of food and to be able to pick apart food to remove inedible parts

One long claw on each hand to pick out indigestible pieces from prey or to prise them out of crevices.

The timbers used include;

Cherry from a local tree surgeon

English walnut from an offcut given by a friend

Boxwood from Gloucestershire

South American mahogany from a bookcase taken out during a school renovation in Exeter and due to be thrown away

An ebony offcut given by a cabinet-maker friend who was going to get rid of it

Pau Amarello from a pile of waste offcuts of bowl blanks at a timber yard

Apple from a garden in Birmingham, UK

Holly from the local area

Yellow Box Gum from ann offcut of a didgeridoo

An offcut of brown English oak from a friend who was building a bed

Plum from Gloucestershire

... and whiskers made of bamboo fibres from an old skewer! 

If you have come here from my website, clicking here will take you back there.

The preview for 'Inspired' at Ashton Court

The 'Inspired' exhibition at Ashton Court is looking fantastic. The invitation-only preview was held today and gave a chance to meet the other makers who are showing.

Today began at 6.45 am with a chat to local radio about the wooden model of the Matthew figurehead that I'll be carving at the exhibition during the coming week from 10am 'til 4pm. Unfortunately I can't really remember what was said as my brain wasn't really switched on at that hour!

The work in 'Inspired' really is inspiring. As with all of Sue's shows, the quality is superb and it's great to be exhibiting next to such interesting pieces.

My contribution is a mammal that would feed on the insects depicted in my 'metainsecta' series. The whole piece is made from found and recycled timber.

I only managed to take a few shots of some of the other work there, before my camera battery ran out. Here's those few to give a little taste of what can be seen. I hope to post some more when I revisit with full battery power;

The table and chair in the foreground are by John Makepeace, the chair and lamp on the far left by Nick Crossling, the glass vase in the window by Becky Wills of Yellow Dog Glass and the bench by Dan Burrough.

This sculpture is by Glenn Morris and is inspired by his travels in the Arctic.

Avril Farley makes these beautiful ceramics with their interesting crystallised glazes.

These sculptures are by Margaret Lovell

This little yew wood stool is by John Makepeace, who is exhibiting four pieces 

I like this chest from Waywood a lot, it's hard to resist touching the surface of it!

Graham Ilkin's 'Betty' chest is full of interesting wood colours and patterns

Jonathon Markowitz's 'Humby' desk and chair have a very cool, clean-lined modern look to them.

The exhibition is on until the 4th August at Ashton Court Mansion, Bristol. You can visit between 10am and 4pm and admission is free.

'Inspired' at Ashton Court, Bristol 28th July to 4th August 2013. Also showing; John Makepeace and Margaret Lovell, amongst many others

Yesterday the finishing touches were applied to my sculpture "Metainsectivore', which I'll be showing at the 'Inspired' exhibition at Ashton Court in Bristol.

It's an exciting opportunity to exhibit work with some of the biggest names in British furniture making. In fact, I've taken two days off in about 6 weeks to try and make something good enough!

The sculpture represents a creature that would feed on the hybrid insects illustrated in the 'Metainsecta' series that I've been working on for a few years. If you would like to see more about this series, click on these links which will take you to my website:
http://www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk/insects.html
http://www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk/new%20insects.html

Here's a bit of the finished 'Metainsectivore' piece. Not all of it - it seems a shame to give the game away too much before it is put on display! It is carved entirely from found and recycled wood (including the eyes), using a variety of techniques both old and modern.

Speaking of traditional carving techniques, I will be carving a wooden model ('maquette') for the new Matthew figurehead onsite during the course of the exhibition, using a piece of Lawson Cypress that was felled during recent landscaping work at the Ashton Court mansion. Come and say hello if you are in Bristol!

As for the other work on show, there are thirty-eight exhibitors exhibiting everything from glass work to fine furniture. If you are interested in crafts, applied arts, design or even just beautifully made things, it has to be on the to-do list.

The exhibition is open from 10am to 4pm every day, from the 28th July to the 4th August. Entry is free.

You can see more here:

http://inspired-to.co.uk/

A few recent projects: A giant creepy-crawley to hand carved oak signs

There's been some very varied projects recently...

This giant Arthropleura (an ancestor of millipedes and centipedes from 300 million years ago) is the seat for a bench to be installed at Pucklechurch, near Bristol. The bench project has been in motion for a while now, but discussions with a local landowner have slowed things up a bit. I thought I'd get on with making the seat anyway, so it is ready for installation when things have been sorted out. It was mostly carved using power tools: chainsaws, Arbortech, Galahad and other angle grinder discs.

The seat is about 2.5 metres (approximately 8 feet) long and is carved from oak sleepers. The holes are where stainless steel threaded bar holds the sleepers together. They will be capped with wooden dowels when the bench is installed. The backrest has already been carved;
(see http://carvingswithstories.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/tutoring-brisfest-and-giant-scorpion.html)
but I'm waiting to see where the bench will be situated before deciding on what kind of legs to fit to it.

Whilst working on the huge bug, I was also carving this charming gift for a commission. The quote: "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature" was written by the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. The plaque is about 30 cm (12") long and shows an oak leaf, which ties in nicely with the oak timber that was used for the plaque.

Continuing with the carved oak plaques, this much larger one is destined to be fitted at the entrance to a new housing development near Bristol. All of the lettering was cut by hand and the sign is 159 cm (about 63") long . I am particularly happy with the contrast of the white lettering against the dark oak. The large 'V' is the logo of the developer, NT Voisey and Co.

9th October 2013:

Martin of NT Voisey has just very kindly sent me some pictures of the sign installed in place. Here's one of them:

At the moment, I'm focussed on sorting things out for the exhibition at the end of this month: 'Inspired' at Ashton Court, Bristol. Here's a sneak preview of the sculpture in progress. It looks quite cat-like at the moment, but will eventually be a strange-looking creature that would have evolved to eat the semi-mechanical insects from the 'Metainsecta' series ( see the previous post for more details).

Speaking of which, I'd better finish posting and get on with some carving - not long now before the exhibition opens!

The one hundredth post! What's going on this month then? 'Inspired' at Ashton Court!

Yes, one hundred posts published! Time for a cake to celebrate! And then some carving, I think I'll need the energy...

There's a very busy month ahead. I've been invited to show in the 'Inspired' exhibition at Ashton Court in Bristol from the 28th July to the 4th August 2013. It's quite an honour as there are some well known people exhibiting in the same show...

The organiser, Sue Darlison, is a very talented furniture designer and maker who regularly shows at the prestigious Cheltenham Celebration of Craftsmanship. Her work is beautifully executed and always worth seeing.

John Makepeace is probably one of the most influential post-war British furniture designers . He founded Parnham, where many of the top contemporary makers trained. It will be very interesting to see what he shows at 'Inspired'.

Margaret Lovell is a sculptor who trained with Barbara Hepworth. Her sculpted forms have a similar beautiful, elegant simplicity of form.

I'll be showing a piece in the 'Metainsecta' series in the gallery (you can see more about this series at my website by following these links. you can return to this blog via a link on the website homepage or the 'Latest News' page:
http://www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk/insects.html
http://www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk/new%20insects.html
http://www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk/Predator%20Bird.html )

In addition, I'll be carving a maquette for the 'Matthew' figurehead and chatting with visitors. Should be a lot of fun, although there's a lot of work to be done in preparation. Entry to the exhibition is free, why not come and check out the work on show if you can make it to Bristol?

Oh, I'm also going to be doing the first half of my training to become a Forest School Leader this month. Busy times!

For more information about 'Inspired', you can go to:
http://inspired-to.co.uk/

Some of my favourite projects

I thought that, since quite a few people may just visit my blog and not my website, I'd put a few images on this blog of some of the pieces that I've made. It certainly isn't an exhaustive list, as the number of carvings done since 1994 (when I really got into carving properly) is well into the hundreds by now. These are not all of my favourite pieces either, just some of the ones that have sprung to mind - often because of very personal reasons such as the time and place where they were made .  I hope you enjoy seeing them!

If you would like to have a look at the website and see more of my work, just click on this link to go there: Website  

These are two views of the first carving that I made as an adult , which was the start of all of this. It is a walking stick which was carved in Ironbridge, Shropshire in 1994.The timber is hazel, from the woods in nearby Benthall Edge. The stick is carved most of the way down and took two months to make. It came in very useful when scrambling around on the steep slopes surrounding Ironbridge Gorge. The knife used was a number 10 Opinel knife. I still use the same knife to this day.

This little sleeping gryphon was carved from rose gum picked up in Australia in 1998. The wood was hard to carve and he turned out well. For those unfamiliar with 5 pence coins, they are 11 sixteenths of an inch (18 mm) in diameter. 

Most of my early carvings were small, as I spent a lot of time travelling and living out of a backpack. There are also limits to the size and type of carving that can be produced using only a lock knife and sandpaper.

This flower was carved in 1998,whilst staying at Onekaka, in the South Island of New Zealand. The wood is a shard of walnut from a broken shotgun butt. The blue crystal is kyanite, which I found in a nearby stream. The whole piece is about 8 inches (20 cm) long.



This pipe bowl, representing the green man, is carved from a special kind of stone called meerschaum. It was carved on and off over a period of several years from 1997 to about 2002. Hidden in the foliage are birds and fruit.

These are actually tools to eat wild cactus fruit,which were plentiful around the caves that I was living in at the time in the Canary Islands of Tenerife and La Gomera in the year 2000. They are carved from brezo, the timber of the tree heather which is also used to make briar pipes.

The pronged tool, representing a cactus flower, is pushed into the fruit and then used like a handle to pull the fruit off the spiny plant. The spatula-like tool is then used to slice open the skin of the fruit and remove it. Any tufts of troublesome spines remaining on the fruit could be scooped out using the small gouge on the spatula. The fruit was then de-spined and ready to eat.

    

This carving was made on the 1st January 2000 on the beach at San Pedro in Andalucia, Spain. The wood is azinho (holm oak) from Portugal and the stone is calcite from the valley, rubbed down with an old whetstone. The tangled shape of the carving could refer to my uncertainty about what the coming year would bring, or the state of my head after a very big party the night before!

This was the first stonecarving that I ever produced in 2001. I still like it, even though it must be admitted that some of the facial proportions aren't perfect. The face seems to take on different moods depending on the lighting on it.

This carving, which I call 'Power slug', was made in 2002 from a variety of woods. The theme was to be continued a few years later in the 'metainsecta' series (see below).

The bowl shown above, like most of my work, was made from found wood, in this case from Fernworthy Forest on Dartmoor in Devon. The textured and smooth surfaces are wonderful to touch. When carving it in 2004, I was studying the work of the artist Richard Long, who can condense the tale of a walk of a thousand miles into a picture of a spiral which traces the path. The text carved onto the bowl tells a little about where the wood came from, so hopefully beginning the process of holding tales which the bowl was made for.

This 'scorpion fly' was carved in, I think, 2005. It is about 3 inches (7.5 cm) long. I have made a whole series of these carved critters and you can find out more about them by clicking on these links... Mechanical insects and More mechanical insects.  

In August 2008, I curated a group exhibition called 'Metainsecta' in Bristol. The scorpion fly was one piece exhibited. The show was a great success and led to two more 'Meta' themed shows, as well as the chance to exhibit some pieces in Bristol museum's Natural History section.

The piece shown below, called 'Velocivenator satiei', was shown in the second of these 'Meta' shows. To find out about the odd places that I picked up some of the timbers used and the meaning behind that strange name, click on this link:   V. satiei

In January 2009, I was offered a commission to repair an ebony sculpture by the late Zambian sculptor, Friday Tembo. The piece had been accidentally knocked from a mantelpiece and had broken into several fragments. The sculptor was a personal friend of the owners. Friday Tembo was one of Zambia's top sculptors, who exhibited internationally and had given them the carving himself. It therefore had great sentimental value to them, particularly as he had since passed away.
It was a real privilege to be given the opportunity to repair and restore this beautiful and interesting work. It represents a shaman in the process of         transforming between a man and a fish form.

Also in 2009 came the opportunity to make this 9 feet (275 cm) long oak bench, which was commissioned by the National Trust and is installed on Stokeleigh Camp iron age hill fort in Leigh Woods, Bristol. It was a fascinating project to work on and  the bench is carved all over with information about the rare wildlife and long history of the surroundng area. More information can be found by clicking here

..and in the same year, I carved this owl as part of a privately commissioned sculpture. I like what I see as his slightly disgruntled expression.

The 'gramophone weevil' was made in 2010, entirely from timbers collected at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. Even the 'vinyl' is actually dust from charcoal burning there, cast as a 12" in resin. More information about this sculpture can be found by clicking on this link

A commission in 2010 saw me carving in Leigh Woods again, putting a memorial inscription onto a bench. One of the highlights was when the two young sons of the person being commemorated came to visit and had the opportunity to help carve some of the lettering themselves.

A commission in 2011 gave me the chance to carve the handle of a knife similar to my own Opinel. I had always wanted to try it, but never got round to it. The carving was done with my own number 10 Opinel, which you can see next to the carved one in the lower picture.

Also in 2011, I was commissioned to make a shop sign from solid oak. The design was worked out through discussion with the client and the finished sign measures 3 feet by 3 feet (90 cm by 90 cm). The project was a joinery one, a little different from my usual line of work, but I was very happy with the result:

And finally, I have to include working at the Boiling Wells site for St Werburghs City Farm in Bristol. Since 2009, this role has covered all kinds of things, from running green woodworking courses to renovating hazel coppice to working with young people who are out of education. It has been a chance to meet some incredible people and to work in one of the most beautiful secret places in the city.