Old Joke
This is my current work in progress.
I've had some pictures for several years that I love. They feature a bunch of old people from Mongolia(?) who have obviously lived in the sun their entire lives. Their skin looks like leather and every bit of their faces are covered with wrinkles that are so deep they are more like creases and folds. They are all smiling or laughing, and the few with open mouths have most of their teeth missing. One picture has an old man who appears to be picking lice from his wife's head. I'm not sure what they're really doing but she has a full wide open mouth laugh -- and has no teeth whatsoever. Her husband also appears to be having a good chuckle over something. I love that couple and all of the other pictures of these wizened old people.
I decided I wanted to incorporate these images into a carving. Old Joke is a jester who is going to be ancient, covered with deep wrinkles. Since he's a jester he's going to be laughing, with a full wide open mouth, with no teeth.
Just to make the carving a little more interesting, Joke is wearing a deep Victorian ruffled collar. You can see drawing on the side of the collar where Vic was instructing me on how to do it.
I think I'll have enough wood that the front and back dongles on his hat will be able to arch out and down. The sides will loosely hang down. Each of the dongles will have a brass bell on the end. The dongles are attached to a leather skull cap, which means NO EARS (yeah!!!). I would normally leave straps hanging down on the cap, but with the full collar and the dongles I think the straps will be tight (if they exist).
Normally you place eyes looking to the side in a carving; however it just didn't look right to have a full mouth laugh and look to the side. The problem with looking straight ahead is that you invariably make a mistake in size or position, and the eyes just don't look right. Looking to the side simplifies life. I didn't want to have him look to the side, and I didn't want to run the risk of making him look wrong while looking at you, and I wanted his eyes wide open (often your eyes are closed when you are laughing hard). But there was another option for a joker, so yes he's looking cross-eyed at you.
I still haven't got over the chemical reaction I used with Raven, so I'm going to use it again with Old Joke. He will be wearing a brown stained leather jacket; and his shirt will be black. Then I'll go back over the black, inlaying copper diamonds to create a harlequin pattern on his shirt. I think he'll be gorgeous. Someone said he would be disqualified in competions because he now would be considered mixed media, so I might change my mind. Then again, I'm in this for my enjoyment.
Old Joke decided he'd have a joke on me. It turns out the wood has shakes. That means the wood wants to separate along major grain patterns. I had to reglue both the hat and the collar while working on him. There are 3 large grain sections that keep wanting to fall off. I think it'll work out, but the front dongle is going to be a real challenge; I think the ruff will survive OK. Someone else in the class gave up on his piece after just starting out because he had so much trouble with it. Vic had never seen shakes in butternut before, but this piece definitely has it.
The pictures aren't great, maybe I'll take better ones soon. This took 3 days to get this point. I don't know when I'll get back to him, but he's got a good start.
I've had some pictures for several years that I love. They feature a bunch of old people from Mongolia(?) who have obviously lived in the sun their entire lives. Their skin looks like leather and every bit of their faces are covered with wrinkles that are so deep they are more like creases and folds. They are all smiling or laughing, and the few with open mouths have most of their teeth missing. One picture has an old man who appears to be picking lice from his wife's head. I'm not sure what they're really doing but she has a full wide open mouth laugh -- and has no teeth whatsoever. Her husband also appears to be having a good chuckle over something. I love that couple and all of the other pictures of these wizened old people.
I decided I wanted to incorporate these images into a carving. Old Joke is a jester who is going to be ancient, covered with deep wrinkles. Since he's a jester he's going to be laughing, with a full wide open mouth, with no teeth.
Just to make the carving a little more interesting, Joke is wearing a deep Victorian ruffled collar. You can see drawing on the side of the collar where Vic was instructing me on how to do it.
I think I'll have enough wood that the front and back dongles on his hat will be able to arch out and down. The sides will loosely hang down. Each of the dongles will have a brass bell on the end. The dongles are attached to a leather skull cap, which means NO EARS (yeah!!!). I would normally leave straps hanging down on the cap, but with the full collar and the dongles I think the straps will be tight (if they exist).
Normally you place eyes looking to the side in a carving; however it just didn't look right to have a full mouth laugh and look to the side. The problem with looking straight ahead is that you invariably make a mistake in size or position, and the eyes just don't look right. Looking to the side simplifies life. I didn't want to have him look to the side, and I didn't want to run the risk of making him look wrong while looking at you, and I wanted his eyes wide open (often your eyes are closed when you are laughing hard). But there was another option for a joker, so yes he's looking cross-eyed at you.
I still haven't got over the chemical reaction I used with Raven, so I'm going to use it again with Old Joke. He will be wearing a brown stained leather jacket; and his shirt will be black. Then I'll go back over the black, inlaying copper diamonds to create a harlequin pattern on his shirt. I think he'll be gorgeous. Someone said he would be disqualified in competions because he now would be considered mixed media, so I might change my mind. Then again, I'm in this for my enjoyment.
Old Joke decided he'd have a joke on me. It turns out the wood has shakes. That means the wood wants to separate along major grain patterns. I had to reglue both the hat and the collar while working on him. There are 3 large grain sections that keep wanting to fall off. I think it'll work out, but the front dongle is going to be a real challenge; I think the ruff will survive OK. Someone else in the class gave up on his piece after just starting out because he had so much trouble with it. Vic had never seen shakes in butternut before, but this piece definitely has it.
The pictures aren't great, maybe I'll take better ones soon. This took 3 days to get this point. I don't know when I'll get back to him, but he's got a good start.