July is here, and that means a New Project and Pattern!
I've decided that a new Wine Bottle Holder carving is in order so I created a couple of pattern ideas in my iPad using the Amaziograph app. I like how easy it is to generate various pattern ideas to get the creative juices flowing.
I settled on a basic pattern design and then switched over to the Pattern Wizard to refine the design.
Here's the first version.
I thought this turned out nicely and I went ahead and printed it off and applied it to the wood with my Pattern Transfer Tool.
But after I applied it and stared at it for a bit, I realized something that took this pattern from good to not very good. Can you see what I noticed?
All of the chips were quite large! Even on the edges! Too many big chips would result in a carving that looked rather "clunky". And "clunky" is definitely something you don't want to feel when displaying a nice bottle of
wine.
With that in mind I made the following changes.
But I still felt the edge 3-corner chips were too big so I made one more change.
And that's how I arrived at the new Pattern for July.
One thing that makes a good pattern is variety in chip size. I'm anxious to carve this and show you the results.
The Wine Glass Holder in the Store is 3/8" thick. Troy made this one
thicker so he could personalize this wedding gift. He selected colors to match the wedding colors. I really liked the way it turned out and I'm sure the couple will cherish it. What do you think?
AG's recent work
He mentioned to me that he had some problems with the horizontal leaves, but apart from that, he was relatively happy with the result.
He requested some comments so I did so as found below.
After an email exchange, these are the chips that were a problem.
This is one of the items covered in the Chip Out Course acronym, DOGS.
S for Short Grain. There's short grain in many places on the vine
border.
The purple arrows show some of these weak, short grain areas that are prone to chip out. Enroll in the Chip Out Course and learn what to do to prevent short grain chip
out!
The Summer 2023 issuer of Woodcarving Illustrated ($7.95 value) can be yours for FREE with any additional item ordered greater than $10. Five copies are
available!
