My Langara Reconciliation Carving Journey: Guests, Wisdom, Design and Carving

We had SPECIAL GUESTS yesterday in class (I will share more about this in another post.).
That was really fun.

Wow, we cover so much in the day and a lot of it is subtle, so I just try to absorb as much as I can.
Someone asked me what stood out for me yesterday so here's a little list, no random or importance

-We attached a frame to the panels- actually I arrived a little late, so I watched and took photos! ha! ha! still I tried to remember for if I have to one day.

-We talked about the rings in the boards in the panels. We talked about how old they actually be..possibly 500 more or less

- Talked about old growth wood and what it is and how it grows, how in the forest the young trees race to the top of the canopy but then they are spindly and then the thicken over many years and the lower branches drop. How people thought the could reproduce forest but they can't...the new lumber just isn't the quality

-Talked about grain, which way does it go, how to feel for it, ... how cutting a board is so different than splitting cedar...and how cedar was just shipped to Europe almost as junk. So so sooooooooooo sad.

-Talked about what kinds of sand paper I should use on my knives and about the stone I bought.

-Talked about cedar, where to buy it and things like that.

Shane shared special things with us.

Our special guests shared powerful moving stories about their lives that touched my heart and motivated me, inspired me, saddened me, made me laugh. Made me laugh so hard my cheeks hurt.

Yes, it was a great day.. and emotional day. I never get through a day in this class without a lot of energy and emotion...

Emotion, that's what stood out, there was great emotion when we were close to deciding on how to design the panel. We are getting so much closer all the time. It's getting really exciting.

Anyways, here's what I did today. We decided that we are going to have one large circular image in the centre, split between two panels and then 9 circles each side.

That is the plan so far and so, what we are doing is designing and carving a piece of our own and it will be attached. When we finish our pieces we can help on the big panels. So this is just for fun, all I actually have for an assignment is to create a new design, so here is an idea and them for fun and practice my attempt at carving it.

So today I went and bought a piece of yellow cedar and here is my attempt and my new design.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Guests, Wisdom, Design and Carving