John Fry
04-13-2007, 8:24 PM
Well I haven’t posted anything in a while and I’m still not ready to post my latest project. It is a heavily carved wing back chair for a very petite lady. It will be another upholstered piece so even after I get it ebonized and gilded, it will need to go to the upholsterer.
So for fun, I though I would post one of the carving elements because this was almost a “project” of its own.
This chair has ball and claw feet on the front legs, and the clients liked the undercut talons that John Townsend and John Goddard made famous. But for a chair, I didn’t like the undercutting they would sometimes do at the top of the ball. I felt it removed too much wood for the forces that chair legs must endure. The clients allowed me to use my input and go with a webbed upper ball and I wanted to do the tapered ball, rather than the stubby round balls.
Here is what I came up with.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc.jpg
I started by milling the cabriole leg blanks from 12/4 black walnut, and finished them to 2-3/4” square. The pattern was made out of 1/4 “ ply and was drawn on two faces of the rift sawn blank.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc1.jpg
The mortises were cut on the FMT, then both faces were cut on the band saw. I made one extra leg just in case I messed up and needed a “do-over”.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc2.jpg
The “cabriole” shape of the leg was sculpted and the block for the ball and claw remains. Note that there is extra “meat” on the knee for the upper leg, relief carvings later.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc3.jpg
The first step is to lay out the guide lines on the base of the foot. These will be used at each step of the carving. I shaved off about 3/32” from each side of the block to make the ball and claw a little more petite.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc4.jpg
I start by carving the front two faces and using the outer circle as a guide to form a cylinder. This outer circle is the widest circumference of the ball. By leaving the corners, you can see the claws start to form.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc5.jpg
The leg on the right shows the front two faces, and the one on the left shows the back two faces which are done a little bit differently. I can’t carve a vertical cylinder because the location of the “ankle” forces the creation of the top of the ball and the back webs.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc6.jpg
Now I return to the front of the ball and start to shape the cylinder into the desired shape of ball. This design is a “tapered” ball, so the apex is set high and the top is rounded in to form the front webs and the bottom is more of a straight taper down the smaller circle on the bottom layout lines.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc7.jpg
After the balls are shaped, the claws are rounded to match the shape of the ball. I used a compass to mark the height and location of the knuckles.
So for fun, I though I would post one of the carving elements because this was almost a “project” of its own.
This chair has ball and claw feet on the front legs, and the clients liked the undercut talons that John Townsend and John Goddard made famous. But for a chair, I didn’t like the undercutting they would sometimes do at the top of the ball. I felt it removed too much wood for the forces that chair legs must endure. The clients allowed me to use my input and go with a webbed upper ball and I wanted to do the tapered ball, rather than the stubby round balls.
Here is what I came up with.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc.jpg
I started by milling the cabriole leg blanks from 12/4 black walnut, and finished them to 2-3/4” square. The pattern was made out of 1/4 “ ply and was drawn on two faces of the rift sawn blank.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc1.jpg
The mortises were cut on the FMT, then both faces were cut on the band saw. I made one extra leg just in case I messed up and needed a “do-over”.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc2.jpg
The “cabriole” shape of the leg was sculpted and the block for the ball and claw remains. Note that there is extra “meat” on the knee for the upper leg, relief carvings later.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc3.jpg
The first step is to lay out the guide lines on the base of the foot. These will be used at each step of the carving. I shaved off about 3/32” from each side of the block to make the ball and claw a little more petite.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc4.jpg
I start by carving the front two faces and using the outer circle as a guide to form a cylinder. This outer circle is the widest circumference of the ball. By leaving the corners, you can see the claws start to form.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc5.jpg
The leg on the right shows the front two faces, and the one on the left shows the back two faces which are done a little bit differently. I can’t carve a vertical cylinder because the location of the “ankle” forces the creation of the top of the ball and the back webs.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc6.jpg
Now I return to the front of the ball and start to shape the cylinder into the desired shape of ball. This design is a “tapered” ball, so the apex is set high and the top is rounded in to form the front webs and the bottom is more of a straight taper down the smaller circle on the bottom layout lines.
http://www.chiselandbit.com/cgi-script/CSUpload//upload/Wing_Back_Chair%252edb/bc7.jpg
After the balls are shaped, the claws are rounded to match the shape of the ball. I used a compass to mark the height and location of the knuckles.