A New Style of HF For Me...

[Wally Dickerman]

Okay, one more for the road... JK, here's another style that neither of of us has seen from me.

I'll admit to some inspiration from David D's pieces on the form. However, it's a piece that has been in my head for a while. I may go a little further with this.

It's BL maple burl and ebony. About 9.5 inches tall. Personally, I think that there may be quite a bit to critique in this one. Have at it.

My wife and I are heading for Portland in a few days for Christmas with the family. Probably freeze our butts off. Our great grandson's first Christmas. Should be fun.

My wife says that I'm in my second childhood...Heck, I never left the first one:)

[John Keeton]

Wally, what an interesting form!!! Beautiful wood. As always, your execution is superb. It is a little hard to tell from the angle of the pic, but were I doing it, things I might consider would be the size/mass of the form vs. the size/height of the pedestal, and I may have altered the very top of the pedestal to force the bulb of the stem down a little. But, those are strictly my personal tastes. This piece is well done, and the carving is excellent. Your finishing is always just beautiful, and this piece is no exception.

Hope you have a great visit with family and Portland will be a major climate shock this time of year! Grandson's first Christmas will be a wonderful time for you.

[Richard Allen]

Looks great Wally. I look forward to where you take this form with the next one and the one after that.

Your beads would look terrific on the lower portion of the flower.

The petals would look great if they were asymmetrical.

The petals would look great if they were different sizes from each other.

The petals would look great if they were double petals.

The base would look great if the connection to the BLM were scalped.

The form would look great if the "stem" were eccentric so that the flower leaned back towards the stem.

I wonder what the piece would look like if a pattern were burned into the bulb of the flower.

What would the impact be if the interior of the "flower" were gold leaf?

What if a thin silver wire (say 20 gauge) were wrapped around sparsely up the ebony stem?

How about the petals rolling up with the tips pointing down a little?

Wally the turning looks terrific. If you made 20 of these and they all looked the same they would all look terrific. This artistic form has tons of possibilities. This picture is a keeper to remind me what could be done if I work hard enough and long enough.

Thanks for sharing.

[Wally Dickerman]

Looks great Wally. I look forward to where you take this form with the next one and the one after that.

Your beads would look terrific on the lower portion of the flower.

The petals would look great if they were asymmetrical.

The petals would look great if they were different sizes from each other.

The petals would look great if they were double petals.

The base would look great if the connection to the BLM were scalped.

The form would look great if the "stem" were eccentric so that the flower leaned back towards the stem.

I wonder what the piece would look like if a pattern were burned into the bulb of the flower.

What would the impact be if the interior of the "flower" were gold leaf?

What if a thin silver wire (say 20 gauge) were wrapped around sparsely up the ebony stem?

How about the petals rolling up with the tips pointing down a little?

Wally the turning looks terrific. If you made 20 of these and they all looked the same they would all look terrific. This artistic form has tons of possibilities. This picture is a keeper to remind me what could be done if I work hard enough and long enough.

Thanks for sharing.

Richard, sounds like a years worth of work you've outlined for me. At least some of your suggestions sound like something that I might explore. Thanks.

[Wally Dickerman]

Wally, what an interesting form!!! Beautiful wood. As always, your execution is superb. It is a little hard to tell from the angle of the pic, but were I doing it, things I might consider would be the size/mass of the form vs. the size/height of the pedestal, and I may have altered the very top of the pedestal to force the bulb of the stem down a little. But, those are strictly my personal tastes. This piece is well done, and the carving is excellent. Your finishing is always just beautiful, and this piece is no exception.

Hope you have a great visit with family and Portland will be a major climate shock this time of year! Grandson's first Christmas will be a wonderful time for you.

Thanks John...are you saying that you think that the pedestal should be shorter or taller?...it's actually 2/3 the height of the top portion. The photo angle makes the bowl part appear to be shorter than it is. I used that angle so that all 5 petals would show.

[David DeCristoforo]

Very cool, Wally! I have had similar thoughts about where this form could be taken. This has a very "organic" feel. I like it!

[Don Alexander]

i lack the experience to really critique it but i do know that i like it alot its a great looking piece

[Baxter Smith]

That is neat Wally. I wouldn't know where to begin to critique for 'improvement' since the form is so different. I do recognize the center part as distinctively yours(and one I admire:)).

[John Keeton]

Thanks John...are you saying that you think that the pedestal should be shorter or taller?...it's actually 2/3 the height of the top portion. The photo angle makes the bowl part appear to be shorter than it is. I used that angle so that all 5 petals would show.Wally, the angle may be part of the visual problem. For me, the mass of the form seems a bit much for the pedestal, but that may be an illusion. Hard to know without a straight on shot.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Interesting variation on a flower/pod theme. Beautiful wood! I like the pedestal - reminds me of the Oscar for some reason. Keep coming back to the piece - wondering what it would look like with a finial that duplicates stamen?

Looking forward to seeing where you take this form!!

Have a safe trip and lots of fun in Portland! I always enjoy our grandkids... haven't had the pleasure of great-grandkids yet!!

[Dale Miner]

Wally,

I've looked at this several times. Since the recent post by Dick about critiques, and your request to have at it, I been trying to figure out what it is that seems missing. The angle of the photo might be giving a viewpoint that makes judging the components inaccurate, but here goes.

The bulb of the form, even though smooth flowing, just seems to squat. I suspect that the angle of the camera is giving the form a birds eye view and making the proportions seem off. I think the pedestal is fine as is, the base of the pedestal may be just a touch to small (1/8"?) but again, the high camera angle might be making the form look larger than it is.

I've came back for a look here, and on AAW. While looking at the AAW website it hit me. The piece seems to have an identity issue. Is it a rose seed pod or is it a hollow form on a pedestal? With a lid and finial it would definately have an identity as a hollow form on a pedestal.

My minds eye sees improvement from the addition of a finial with a base that follows the curve of the top of the form and a finial that rises to the top or slightly above the top of the petals. Even though the petals increase the heigth of the piece, my eye stops at the juncture to the form. A finial rising from the center would pull the eye into the center and upward to the tip of the finial.


The workmanship is flawless and the finish perfect for the piece. The combination of the maple and ebony works for me. Is the ebony that black on it's own? The stuff I have is close, but has a brownish tint.

Okay Wally, your turn, fire away.

[David E Keller]

It's a beautiful piece of burl, Wally! Without looking at the other comments, I'll give you my thoughts, but I think recent viewings of DD's pieces may have skewed my perspective a bit... This is certainly different from David's pieces. I think the pedestal is fine, and I especially like the way you handled the detail at the bottom. The upper portion of the form is a bit heavy to my eye, but much of that may be related to the angle of the photo. I like the idea of the petals at the top, but they seem a bit out of place given the abrupt transition from lower form to pedestal... It seems to me that petals should flow upward from the lower form.

I've had a few attempts at petal carving, and I've been disappointed in my efforts every time so far. One of the reasons that I've disliked my own attempts is that natural petals curve in all three dimensions, and I've yet to attempt to make them that way. I suppose my '2D' representation of a '3D' thing has left me wanting. To some degree, I think the petals here suffer from the same lack of a 'third dimension'. I freely admit that I've not accomplished what I'm suggesting here, but I think adding a bit of depth to the petals would improve the form.

Best wishes on a safe and enjoyable trip to the see the grandson. It's probably about time to take that little fella to Gilmer and teach him about coveting beautiful wood!

[Wally Dickerman]

Wally,

I've looked at this several times. Since the recent post by Dick about critiques, and your request to have at it, I been trying to figure out what it is that seems missing. The angle of the photo might be giving a viewpoint that makes judging the components inaccurate, but here goes.

The bulb of the form, even though smooth flowing, just seems to squat. I suspect that the angle of the camera is giving the form a birds eye view and making the proportions seem off. I think the pedestal is fine as is, the base of the pedestal may be just a touch to small (1/8"?) but again, the high camera angle might be making the form look larger than it is.

I've came back for a look here, and on AAW. While looking at the AAW website it hit me. The piece seems to have an identity issue. Is it a rose seed pod or is it a hollow form on a pedestal? With a lid and finial it would definately have an identity as a hollow form on a pedestal.

My minds eye sees improvement from the addition of a finial with a base that follows the curve of the top of the form and a finial that rises to the top or slightly above the top of the petals. Even though the petals increase the heigth of the piece, my eye stops at the juncture to the form. A finial rising from the center would pull the eye into the center and upward to the tip of the finial.


The workmanship is flawless and the finish perfect for the piece. The combination of the maple and ebony works for me. Is the ebony that black on it's own? The stuff I have is close, but has a brownish tint.

Okay Wally, your turn, fire away.

Okay, I'm getting some real critiques here...that's good. I should have taken a straight on shot, because the one I used gives a somewhat distorted view. It does make the bulb appear squat when to my eye it actually isn't. I used the angle that I did so that all 5 petals would show. It also makes the base appear smaller than it is. I really feel that the proportions are fairly close to being right.

When I designed this piece I didn't have any particular flower in mind so perhaps it ends up just being a HF with petals. A lid and finial? Back to the drawing board. There are a lot of possibilities here. More than I had in mind when I designed the piece. I really don't know where I'll go from here...if at all.

The ebony is just black. It has an oil finish and I've found that the sometimes brownish ebony often goes black with oil.

Dale, I appreciate the critique. There should be more like it.

[Wally Dickerman]

It's a beautiful piece of burl, Wally! Without looking at the other comments, I'll give you my thoughts, but I think recent viewings of DD's pieces may have skewed my perspective a bit... This is certainly different from David's pieces. I think the pedestal is fine, and I especially like the way you handled the detail at the bottom. The upper portion of the form is a bit heavy to my eye, but much of that may be related to the angle of the photo. I like the idea of the petals at the top, but they seem a bit out of place given the abrupt transition from lower form to pedestal... It seems to me that petals should flow upward from the lower form.

I've had a few attempts at petal carving, and I've been disappointed in my efforts every time so far. One of the reasons that I've disliked my own attempts is that natural petals curve in all three dimensions, and I've yet to attempt to make them that way. I suppose my '2D' representation of a '3D' thing has left me wanting. To some degree, I think the petals here suffer from the same lack of a 'third dimension'. I freely admit that I've not accomplished what I'm suggesting here, but I think adding a bit of depth to the petals would improve the form.

Best wishes on a safe and enjoyable trip to the see the grandson. It's probably about time to take that little fella to Gilmer and teach him about coveting beautiful wood!

David, this is what Dick's post yesterday was all about. I'm getting some good feedback. The angle of the photo does give a distorted view of the piece. I need a second straight-on shot.

I agree with you on the shape of the petals. To give a true petal shape would involve a lot more carving than I've done here. I haven't done a lot of carving on my work and I'd like to get into it bit more. At age 90 I'm fortunate to still have steady hands and good eyesight, so piercing and pyrography aren't a problem. Carving shouldn't be either.

Thanks for the critique. It's all very helpful.