to carve or not to carve

[zman7458]

I've noticed there are some here who carve their patterns and some who don't, I'm just curious why you either do or don't. I was taught to carve everything aside from what I call accents, you know like folds in fabric or leaf tips and such. but I see alot here who don't carve anything and bevel everything in. my problem is that I like both, but my question is how do you know if a pattern or object will look best carvied and when does it not. this subject has all the earmarks of being something that folks who do and folks who do not would argue over, thats not my intention here, and I don't want to stir the pot as it were. I'm just curious from a learning stand point, and would like to pick the brains of those who do and do not. thanks, Phil

[Oscar B]

I do both. You are talking about inverted carving? Will test some of the ideas first out on scrap. When I want the project to look flat will use inverted.

[TwinOaks]

Zman,

I've learned a lot about this subject looking at the different carving styles of many of the artists here. I'm pretty sure it was ClayB that laid it out most clearly for me. Carving a line more or less makes a 'hard' line in the leather. Using a modeling tool, for example, to mold the line without cutting the leather softens it. A good example is muscle tone on animals, and wrinkles in skin. Apply the same philosophy to Sheridan style carvings. It allows the artist to add a detail, without bringing focus to the detail. It's also useful for when you don't want a defined line- just smooth the edges out a bit and it's the same as blurring a pencil line.

I recently combined the two in a carving. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...20&start=20

I carved the majority of the bird's body, but only modeled (no cuts) the lower half of the wing to indicate the blur normally associated with watching a hummingbird. If you look closely at the whole piece, you'll notice the floral is beveled much more than the bird. That's because it was the March Floral challenge, not the March hummingbird challenge. I wanted the focus on the floral, so I cut and beveled deeper on it.

[JohnD]

TwinOaks explained it very well.

I also tend not use a swivel on areas where I think it might look sloppy,or the swivel knife may be too big to make a neat cut, If that makes sense? An example would be: I had a problem with my lettering coming out sloppy, I would over cut with my knife. I think it was Kate who suggested that I didn't have to use the swivel knife on everything and that I should try experimentimg with what might work. Now, On smaller lettering and smaller details in general, I skip the swivel knife and just tool in the details.

John

[ClayB]

The other thing to remember is that you should vary the depths of your swivel knife cuts depending on what you are cutting. Study Paul Burnett's free lessons. They will help you understand this. Most cuts should fade out towards the end, just as when beveling these lines, your beveling should fade out. This will help give realistic depth to your carvings. Areas that you want a lot of depth, carve deeply. Areas that you want less depth, dont carve as deep or not at all. This is especially important in figure carving for things like muscle structure and facial features like lips and eyebrows. The more practice you do, the easier it will be to figure some of this out.

[zman7458]

okay that makes sense, if a sharp line is needed, or focus is wanted then you cut. and visa versa. thik I'll try a whole pattern that I cut before and try just beveling it to see how much it changes. thanks for the advice guys.

Clay, I do tend to forget this and I think my carving wound gain dimension if I could just keep this in mind. perhaps a sticky note on my work area 'how deep did you cut that?' thanks again, Phil

[TomSwede]

Hey, just thought of something. I think you should look up Beaverslayers vest tut. As I recall he didn't carve anything, just scribed lines and beveling on that one 'cuz he didn't want to sacrifice strength but better look it up, I could be wrong on this.

Tom

[zman7458]

Hey, just thought of something. I think you should look up Beaverslayers vest tut. As I recall he didn't carve anything, just scribed lines and beveling on that one 'cuz he didn't want to sacrifice strength but better look it up, I could be wrong on this.

Tom

I think I saw that one, it was one of the reasons I started paying attention to see how many carve, there are a few here who don't carve at all I believe, and their work looks just as good as those who do cut. the sacrificeing strength point is well taken. especially since I 'm working my way towards a tooled bike seat myself. I think a bike seat might be one of the items that would profit from not being cut, I could be wrong. thanks for the input Tom

Edited April 13, 2008 by zman7458

[Beaverslayer]

zman, with the vest shoulder pieces, I don't carve (cut with swivel knife) as the leather is only 2oz at best, and seeing as the shoulder piece is very suseptible to flexing a lot I don't want the cuts in it. There is on occassion when I've actually broke through the leather just by using a steep beveler, and then you have to toss that one into the bin and start over.

With a bike seat, you use much thicker leather so there is no real concern about using the swivel knife on them.

Ken

[zman7458]

zman, with the vest shoulder pieces, I don't carve (cut with swivel knife) as the leather is only 2oz at best, and seeing as the shoulder piece is very suseptible to flexing a lot I don't want the cuts in it. There is on occassion when I've actually broke through the leather just by using a steep beveler, and then you have to toss that one into the bin and start over.

With a bike seat, you use much thicker leather so there is no real concern about using the swivel knife on them.

Ken

thanks Ken, so you recomend carving as prescribed above, but only on leather that is thick enough to handle it. thanks again for the tip.