Door carvings

These doors were sent in with carvings to be added to the top arches. The molding wasn't attached making my job easy. I designed some Acanthus leaves that would appear to be draping over the molding. It doesn't as the molding simply dives under the first maybe 1/4 inch of the carving. I coped the carving to match the curves of the molding itself then just carved the rest of the leaves.

The initial blocks are routed out from the back so they can lay on both the upper rail/style and the inset panel. After that the moldings that will look like they are under the leaves is coped into place.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark Yundt

I coped the carving to match the curves of the molding itself then just carved the rest of the leaves.

---

Mark, your modesty cracks me up.

Beautiful work, as usual.

Thanks. But really , I figured out a trick to doing this which makes it easy. Trying to cope the end of the carving around the molding would be a real pain and not very accurate as you can imagine.

what I do is keep the vertical and the horizontal ends of the carving square to the molding it will meet. Then butt a piece of the molding against the square end of the carving , trace the profile onto it and carve that area away far enough under the carving block just past any leaves. THEN finish bandsawing the outline of the final carving and when done the coped profile will be there. Of course you leave it a bit full and you only need to make incremental adjustments to get it to fit perfectly and appear as if you cope it into the end of the finished carving.

might sound convoluted but makes sense. I think I may have photos if need be.

Crisp lines once again. Nice!

Is there any rule of thumb as to how many curls/raps is used in an acanthus? I noticed these have more than most.

They can be whatever you need as there is no such thing as average or a standard.
Here , this bracket has quite a few. As do the leaves in the second photo which has even more. This was one of 13 curved pieces that fit on a facial for a curved staircase.
Design them for whatever the situation requires. Fussy tiny little pieces with many leaves or simple and fluid such as on the door carvings. Something too fussy there with the other stuff in the area wouldn't have looked good.

After re-reading your post I think I may have answered the wrong thing. I think now you may have been asking about the volute. The almost cinnamon swirl looking part. Here too there isn't a hard and fast rule. Generally on a bracket/corbel there are fewer as it looks aesthetically more pleasing . Here I did a bit more so it didn't end up looking like a big blank disc.
And when two "shoots " spiral out from a common center it kinda' makes sense. Sort of like watching a Fiddle Head fern unwrap.
Designing things like this you have to have the mindset that if these leaves were really wrapped up what would happen as they unfurl ? What did they look like prior to that. This also tells you what the leaves should be doing as the come apart. Makes drawing a design much easier.

here is an example for what it's worth of how even strips of curled paper ( done like you pull a ribbon over the back if a sharp edge) can curl, unwrap, and give you the basis for a design. Just a quickie but you'll see the rhyme and reason.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark Yundt

here is an example for what it's worth of how even strips of curled paper ( done like you pull a ribbon over the back if a sharp edge) can curl, unwrap, and give you the basis for a design. Just a quickie but you'll see the rhyme and reason.

---

Mark, I always seem to learn something from your posts, what a nice concise way to explain how to think about laying out that piece.

I think I might personally like the upper part slightly better without the last two leaves on the end. Although I have to generally say that your designs (including this one) are top notch, its always interesting to see how you fit the design into the surrounding area. A lot of architectural carving can seem overdone to my eye but you have a nice way of fitting it in so it feels more "natural" than much I've seen.

Thank you Ryan. Very kind of you to say.
I like to think my designs have a more natural flow as I lean towards the nature of things to lead the way. In this case there was a bit of a space constraint . Compromises are made. I generally ( as in the carvings for the staircase) like to have the outermost leaves be longer and " lighter" if you will. Had I filled more if this area out towards the end of the upper horizontal leaves be fuller it took on an appearance of being too fat and crowded. A preliminary sketch at least showed me this.
You sort of have to consider this larger cluster of leaves , as opposed to the shorter , vertical one, the older, faster growing and the one to spread out more. Like a tendril basically. I didn't wan a bunched up look. More area I naturally could have resolved it a bit better. And, I also had to consider covering the bulk of the molding without having to cope my way back to the volute !
essentially though designs can't be reduced to a formulaic process. Most would like a recipe to follow and their isn't one. Reducing it to that leaves a mechanical looking design that I personally feel falls flat. But as the curled paper shows , what things do naturally provides the basis for a natural looking carving. Just copy it. Monkey see, monkey do!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark Yundt

You sort of have to consider this larger cluster of leaves , as opposed to the shorter , vertical one, the older, faster growing and the one to spread out more. Like a tendril basically. I didn't wan a bunched up look. More area I naturally could have resolved it a bit better. And, I also had to consider covering the bulk of the molding without having to cope my way back to the volute !

---

Yeah keeping the molding covered while making it look good complicates this one a fair bit.

Just for my own edification I went ahead and quickly photo shopped in a couple of alternatives (I hope you'll forgive me butchering your work here but its an easy way to see what it might look like). It was somewhat difficult to avoid "exposing" the molding (virtually speaking :D) and maintain some semblance of flow (also I didn't try to get the curves on the door just right either so this still looks a bit wonky).

Eyeballing the original I'd thought that perhaps simply dropping the outer two leaves might look better (pic on the right).. but it very clearly doesn't. It looks truncated and incomplete; your version is definitely much better.

Collapsing the outer two leaves (on the left) into one is quite a bit better than simply removing them but comes at a cost of having to make that leaf bulkier in order to maintain coverage over where the molding would be if it carried through (also had to carry the second leaf down a little to make it work and didn't account for the detailing that would be on the side of the new end leaf which might well make this not work). I can't really decide if this is an improvement or just makes the piece look heavier... Possibly the latter. Amusing to try it anyway.

I also tried just elongating the third leaf in somewhat, but imho that looked even worse :rolleyes: so I won't distress anyones sensibilities with it.

Anyway, I do appreciate you taking to time to explain your design thoughts and methodologies - quite educational and interesting.


Attachment 298662

Don't mind one bit!!!!
To me that's so cool you took it and ran with it. That's what posts SHOULD get people to consider and try. Love it. That makes the exercise all the better and the posting worth it.
Thank You.

ps, I have no computer skills so I do it the old fashioned way. I'm sure it's possible on a computer but as I rough sketch in lines I can as my hand sweeps in lines I can adjust them in a few sweeps as they fall in place. And in my mind's eye I watch it take shape.