Another work in progress

[Kees Heiden]

Slowly (too many distractions...) I am nibbling away at my bathroom cabinet. It is highly inspired by the kind of chests made in rural England in the 17th century and made popular again by Peter Follansbee. My home had no need for a chest with a lid, so I make it with 3 small doors in the front and a fixed top.

The carving is coming along, only need to do one other door panel. This kind of carving is very primitive, very well suited to my limited skills. It is mostly simple pattern, carved with a rather loose hand. A bunch of punch work for additional decoration. The design of the panel isn't mine, it is more or less copied from antique originals, pictures I found while browsing the internet.

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These door panels remind be a bit of leather work or textiles. Just as if the owner couldn't afford nice curtains, so he settled for this instead. The third door panel will be a more conventional quatre foil pattern.

[ken hatch]

Slowly (too many distractions...) I am nibbling away at my bathroom cabinet. It is highly inspired by the kind of chests made in rural England in the 17th century and made popular again by Peter Follansbee. My home had no need for a chest with a lid, so I make it with 3 small doors in the front and a fixed top.

The carving is coming along, only need to do one other door panel. This kind of carving is very primitive, very well suited to my limited skills. It is mostly simple pattern, carved with a rather loose hand. A bunch of punch work for additional decoration. The design of the panel isn't mine, it is more or less copied from antique originals, pictures I found while browsing the internet.

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These door panels remind be a bit of leather work or textiles. Just as if the owner couldn't afford nice curtains, so he settled for this instead. The third door panel will be a more conventional quatre foil pattern.

Kees,

Very nice. In most art I like to see the hand of the artist. Perfect can be boring.

ken

[Kees Heiden]

Funny thing is, close by it looks awfull but with just a few feet distance everything blends nicely together :)

[Derek Cohen]

That's very striking, Kees. The curves on the rail is amazing! I'd love to see some close ups as well as technique photos. I was considering doing something like this at the start of my current project, the apothecary chest, adding a few sections, perhaps layering the front of the drawers. Perhaps next time. But I am interested in the technique and would like to see more.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Frederick Skelly]

I like it Kees!
In the final picture, you show a tool. It looks like a punch that makes 12 marks at one time. Did you make that tool or buy it?

Fred

[Kees Heiden]

That punch I made myself. Like everything in this project it is very much freehand. A piece of mild steel, a few layout lines and a triangular file. And then file until you are happy. After this job I might want to touch it up a bit.

Derek, i'll shoot some pictures tonight. It's really simple, a lot of V-tool work and some gouge cuts. I had quite abit of trouble with reversing grain in this long rail, the wood isn't very straight grained. So I used some sandpaper.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

My wife and I were in the national gallery years ago, and I was looking closely at one of the paintings (can’t remember who, famous American artist out of the Hudson River school).

Thought it looked terrible. But when you step back to 5-10 feet, it looked great.

I think it explains a lot about why we always think our work looks like garbage, and friends/relatives love it. We are looking at it from chisel/plane distance, they are looking at it from living distance, and that makes all the difference.

I look forward to seeing yours done. I think it will be great.

[Kees Heiden]

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Here is a close up pictures of the arches. I mark the arches with a compas. Cut them with the v-tool. Bevel the edges of these (remarkably difficult to make it look even!). Then the pattern inside the arches is a vertical v-tool cut and some gouge cuts. (You first cut straight down into the wood, then you scoop out some material from the side).

[Kees Heiden]

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And some more work in progres pictures. After drafting in the lines with a pencil and straightedge, using a pair of dividers to get a nice division of the elements, I cut them out with the v-tool.

Second picture is removing some background areas (pretty roughly with a shallow gouge), and bevel a few edges. This makes it all look quite horrible, and almost took my apetite to continue.

Finally decoration with gouge cuts again and a lot of punch work. I used the home made punch pictured a few posts earlier, I used a nail set to dimple the area where I had removed the background. I also used a homemade punch with a star motif. It's a smart idea to do a sample beforehand, but I went to town on the real subject immediately.

[Kees Heiden]

Oh, and here is the original, just to prove that not every craftsman from long ago worked to the highest standards.

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[Jim Koepke]

Great work Kees.


But I am interested in the technique and would like to see more.

me too!

jtk

[Mel Fulks]

I've always liked those chests, and the old ones are plentiful and affordable, compared to many later styles. Looks like the workman of old got a late change order on those panel sizes ! Nice interesting project.

[Kees Heiden]

The best teachings in this kind of work I know, are the video's from Peter Follansbee. Available from Lie Nielsen. The two dvd's "17th century New Englan carving".

[John Kananis]

I've seen those Follansbee videos. They are good and thought of them as soon as I saw the arches you've made.

Enjoying this. Thanks.

[michael langman]

I really like the carving Kees. Your cabinet is going to look fantastic when done.
The geometric patterns used rusticly add so much to the project. Maybe I will attempt it with a much smaller size project to begin with.
Be sure to show the finished cabinet when completed.

[Kees Heiden]

I sure will keep the forum updated, bit there are 4 trips abroad planned this summer, so, don’t hold your breath!

[James Pallas]

Looks great Kees. The best part is it's fun also. I wish I had more time to spend doing that work. I like the part that allows you to change your mind as you go.
Jim

[Jeff Ranck]

Very impressive. I've always wanted to try my hand at carving, but can't quite bring myself to trust that I could ever be any good at it.

[Phil Mueller]

Nice Kees! There is an old world charm to your carving that you just can’t get with perfect lines and machine work. It’s going to be a very nice piece. Thanks for posting.

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks!

Now I feel motivated to continue. 😉