ESSENCE OF WOODWORK

Posted By admin on August 31, 2011

“Merewife”

These marquetry/intarzia art pieces are created by Manuela Cuccu from Marche region near Sardegna, Italy.

Manuela Cuccu does not have an art education, she is a self-taught woodworker.
Both Manuela’s parents are artists, mother is a painter and father is a well-known restorer of antique furniture in Italy.
Watching father’s work she learned the technique of inlay and used it to create beautiful fantasy pictures.

Fantasy artist Paolo Barbieri  has greatly influenced Manuela’s art.

In her pictures Manuela uses both natural and chemically stained wood.

Her picture “Lilium” is so far the largest and measurement are 115x80cm.

About picture “Light and shadows” she said:
“Inspired by the eternal struggle between good and evil, the representation of how the good wins over evil is like a flower against a sword or like sometimes a wave of light can destroy something strong from the shadows.”
And about “Leave Out All the Rest”:
“I sometimes feel that the world is upside down for me, I’m different …”

Manuela Cuccu’s motto is “Lilium Inter spinae” (The lily among thorns).

In about five years that she has been engaged in this art-form ( and become quite proficient in this ) she has created approximately 30 paintings and had two successful exhibitions.

More art by Manuela Cuccu can be seen in  www.facebook.com/pages/quadri-intarsi-in-legno

Category: art and craft, marquetry | 8 Comments »
Tags: art and craft, marquetry

Posted By admin on August 27, 2011

You know you’re a woodworker if/when:

1. Your 3-year-old has a favorite wood, its Padauk.

2. Your 3-year-old can pick out a piece of Padauk from the cut-off bin at rockler, and convinces me to buy it because we used up all of ours.

3. Your brother-in-law (a woodworker) makes your 3-year-old a really cool hardwood loader for his birthday, he criticizes it for not having any padauk in it.

4. You ask you Grandson if he wants to help make a project for him and he says “No Grandpa I don’t want to get all bloody like you”.

5. the grandkids don’t get their toys out of the garage/shop at least once a week they can’t recognize them under the sawdust.

6.  Your purchase of a new home is regulated by the amount of available shop space.

7. before a storm you spend days insuring the shop stays dry but forget to close the windows in your house.

8. You start a fire in the fireplace using coals because you could possibly someday consider thinking about maybe begin to plan on making something out of the tender and logs.

9. the pastor says we will now sing the Old Rugged Cross and you ask what kind of wood is it.

Category: woodwork humour | 2 Comments »
Tags: woodwork humour

Posted By admin on August 25, 2011

These furniture pieces are designed and made by Judson Beaumont from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Judson Beaumont was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1960.
Judson studied art in Vancouver BC at Capilano College and graduated from the 3-D department of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1985.
He sed about time in art school:
“I never did art classes as a child, it wasn’t until graduating high school that I started to look into it as a profession.
 Art School taught me that I could come up with my own ideas instead of building off of established designs.
I looked at what was out there, and I started to bend it and twist it and shape it.
A person must dare to drift away from the tired and true in order to give a piece energy and interest.
Be influenced and inspired by the norm, and then challenge it, change it, melt it, stretch it, alter it for the better.”

In 1985 he founded Straight Line Designs Inc., creating one-of-a-kind furniture pieces that almost always lean towards the whimsical and unusual .
The majority of Straight Lines work is commercial and includes store fixtures, trade show booths, commercial and movie props, and play areas for childrens hospitals.
But the company also builds custom pieces for private residences. Judson Beaumont: “I found a lot of adults who don’t want to grow up either. They like to have fun stuff, too.”

More outstanding creations of Judson Beaumont can be seen on his website:  www.straightlinedesigns.com

Category: sculptured furniture | 5 Comments »
Tags: sculpted furniture, unique furniture

Posted By admin on August 23, 2011

“Bluebell Wood” by Alan Townsend

These wonderful pictures in style of marquetry are done by Alan Townsend from Chelmsford, United Kingdom.

After leaving school Alan Townsend started work at a piano making factory and after about a year and a half he was given the opportunity to help out in the veneer shop as a trainee veneer preparer.

Alan says about himself in that time:
 “ It was there that I saw my first piece of marquetry being made by the old guy who eventually showed me the basics of veneer preparing.
Having seen his attempts at a very simple picture I decided if I could not do better then maybe I should change my trade!!!
After several attempts my very simple pictures, completed during lunch and tea breaks, became quite popular among fel­low workers.
I started making about one a week and selling at ten shillings each (That shows my age).
Chessboards, cribbage boards soon followed and even a fire screen with a kingfisher on it laid with Scotch glue and pressure applied with a toolbox! ”

Alan Townsend founded the “Chelmsford Marquetry Group”. From an initial group of six people in Alan’s front room a Committee was formed and the Group was started in 1984.

Source:
www.marquetry.org
chelmsford-marquetry-group.org.uk

Category: marquetry | 3 Comments »
Tags: art and craft, marquetry

Posted By admin on August 22, 2011

Woodcarving by Janet Denton Cordell

These sculptures are carved by Janet Denton-Cordell from Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States.

Janet grew up deep in the Boston Mountain Range of the Ozarks, as the second daughter of the well-known Denton family with more than 175 years of combined woodcarving experience.
The art of the Dentons has been featured many times over the years, from articles in magazines such as National Geographic and woodcarving journals, to newspapers and television documentaries.
Janet Denton Cordell has won hundreds of awards for her carvings and is recognized as a master woodcarver by the state of Arkansas.

Janet has been teaching woodcarving since 1986, and in 1994 opened her own school of wood sculpture.
The Ozark Mountain School of Sculpture is currently housed in a log cabin on the family property, where the quiet, undisturbed atmosphere and close proximity to nature foster creativity.

Janet Denton-Cordell is a gifted woodworker, known for two rather different styles of carving.
Her elegant sculptures of women exhibit a fluidity of grace that is also echoed in her carvings of animals.
But her other remarkable contribution to the world of woodcarving is her revival of the production of the jointed wooden doll.
Popular from Victorian times, these dolls are especially evocative of a simpler time, when the fact that a wooden doll’s arms could bend at the elbows and knees provided endless fascination.

You may see more examples of Janet’s work on her web site:  www.janetcordell.com.

Category: sculpture, woodcarving | 5 Comments »
Tags: sculpture, wood carving, woodcarving