An Early Project Related to My Walking Sticks

Wand from Poplar wood.

Bark feathered at the knot and wire covering a crack

 

A holiday weekend is coming up.  Labor Day weekend is one of those days we spend with family and friends and I have been busy getting ready for entertaining.  In my last blog post I had mentioned that I had a stick project that used runes and that I would show it at some point.  I guess the time for that is now, because I am so busy that I won't be able to start wood burning on the stick until after the holiday.  Although it is a wand rather than a walking stick, there are some valuable lessons to be learned from it that are also useful in making walking sticks.

I needed a wand as a prop for a public costume event.  Those of you that know me know that I go into overdrive when it comes to costumes.  A plain stick just would not do.  At the time that I made this wand I had not yet started to make walking sticks.  The lessons I learned from this stick saved me from making a big mistake when I did start to make walking sticks.  It also taught me a few ways to handle things when sticks go wrong. 

When I made this wand, I needed the piece for an event the next day.  (It seems that I am always working up to the last minute on costumes.)  Anyway, I needed a stick, so I went out to the back yard and picked up a stick that had dropped from a Poplar tree.  I stripped the bark off the stick as well as I could.  When I reached the knot towards the end of the stick, the bark was stuck to the branch and no amount of scraping was getting it to come off.  I suppose power tools could have overcome this problem, but I did not have a lot of time.  I learned that when something like this happens, make it a feature.  Feather the bark down as well as you can at a transitional spot and make it look like that was the plan all along.

Next I marked on the runes, which were then carved in with the engraving bit of my Dremel tool.  About half way through the process, the stick started to crack along the length of the stick in two places.  This was the biggest lesson that I learned from this project.  You can't just pick up a stick and get to work on it.  If you strip them when they are completely fresh they crack.  Sticks have to be seasoned before you start working on them.  I have given some detailed information on seasoning sticks in some of my previous blog posts on walking sticks, so I won't go into a lot of detail here.  I invite readers to search my blog's archive section for other posts on walking sticks.

Anyway, so there I was, half way through the project and the thing is developing a crack in the middle and at then end of the stick.  I realized what the problem was, but this was the stick I had and there was no time to look for what I needed, so I just had to deal with the issues.  I finished carving the runes in and painted them red.  Then I carved a well into the tip and glued in a quartz crystal.  It looked unfinished just sitting in there.  It definitely needed something and I also had to deal with the unsightly cracks.  I decided that I would cover the cracks and the area where the crystal was joined to the stick with something to cover the defects.  Of the materials that I had on hand, it came down to ribbon (too fru-fru for what I was portraying), twine (the twine I had was too bulky for the project), leather strips (stiff and no time to condition them), or copper wire (at least I had enough of it).  I covered each of the areas with the copper wire using epoxy to glue it in place.  It looked like a somewhat unusual decorative element.  If I had more time I might have inlaid some of the wire in fairly intricate designs to help tie the themes together.  But sometimes with costume props, you go with what you can do in the time you have.

So, the main thing I learned from this project is don't use a fresh stick. The other lesson I learned was that when a crack happens it is not the end of the world. A little wood glue and some decorative elements can save something that you might otherwise have thrown out.  As the saying goes, consider mistakes to be "design opportunities".

Shaman Staff-Part 2-Fitting the Story to the Walking Stick-Photos

Registration marks keep the lines even.

Fitting the story to the stick.

Here I am again at the beginning of a new project.  As I blogged last time, the walking stick will have a written story line as well as decorative wood burning in tribal patterns.  It seems to me that getting started is always a slow proposition.  Before I can get moving I have to have at least some vision of what I expect the outcome to be.  I find that this idea may evolve over time as the piece progresses.  I try to find some mid-point between what I want and what new ideas come along as the piece develops. 

My first objective was to develop the story line.  Creating the story is one thing.  Having the story fit on the stick is quite another.  Both criteria have to be met to have the story come out successfully.  You can't have the story too short, or it just ends somewhere in the middle of the stick.  You can't have it too long, or you run out of stick before the story ends.  It is a matter of editing and testing until you get the story to a point that you have a cohesive story that ends close to the end of the stick. 

Another consideration is Font size and style.  The story is going to be wood burned into the walking stick.  The size of the letters needs to be large enough that you can burn them into the stick easily.  The style of the Font is also going to need to be one that can easily be transferred and wood burned into the stick.  At one point I considered runes because of their linear marks could easily be burned into the stick, but then, very few people would be able to read the story.  (I actually have made a project using runes.  I'll post a picture of that at some time during this project.)  So I experimented with different sizes and styles of Fonts until I found one that would work. 

Of course with the larger size Font, even a sentence was too long to fit on one line.  I had to cut each line apart and tape it back together.  All the sentences would have to be taped together and wrapped around the stick  in order to make sure that it was going to fit on the stick properly.  The strips were different sizes as some letters were capital letters and some letters had portions that dropped below the line.  I used registration marks to get all the lines to match up properly.  (See photo)  I also numbered the lines so that I could keep them in order.  Although the strips are all taped together for the test, they will be removed and separated after that.  If I left the strips taped on, they could be damaged as I am working on wood burning the stick.  Each section will be transferred to the stick and wood burned individually.  The registration marks and numbered strips will come in handy then.

Once I had the story printed out, it was on to editing.  I had worried that my story was going to be to short in its initial form.  It turned out to be several lines too long.  I had to cut a number of sentences.  That changed the story slightly but it still gets the point across.  After that, I renumbered the lines. 

At the moment it looks as if there won't be much room for decoration, but that is an illusion.  Only the words will be burned on.  The paper surrounding it will no longer be in the way.   It is not just a case of fitting the story to the stick.  You also have to check to make sure that there aren't going to be any surprises such as knot holes in the way of a word.  Fortunately this stick is rather smooth, and did not present any major problems.

That is as far as I have gotten on this project so far.  Although it seems like such a small amount, it really is a very significant portion of the project.  I will begin transferring the first section onto the stick shortly.

Shaman Staff-Part 1

I'm posting later than usual today because I had an appointment this morning.  I prefer to post earlier because I'm at my most productive int the morning.  Sometimes life gets in the way of my art.

I have made some progress on the written portion of the story for the staff.  At this point I'm not quite sure how long it has to be to end where I want it to end on the staff.  I will have to cut what I've written and tape it into strips and start wrapping it around the staff to see how it looks.  I suspect I am going to have to make it longer, but at least this is a start.

At this point, I don't want to publish the particulars of the story, but it is basically a story that starts with a creation myth and goes on into shamanic concepts of past/present/future happening all at once and the manifestation of form.  It is a reminder to the shaman that he or she is the vessel that contains all who came before and all who will come afterwards.

Anyway, the work has begun.  Next post there will be new photos.

On to the Next Project-A New Walking Stick Project-Photos

Natural inclusions almost create a face.

At the beginning of the year I blogged about my goals for the year.  I blogged that my main goals for the year were to make a carousel and another walking stick.  Regular readers know that I recently completed the carousel.  After a small digression into painted boxes, I am ready to begin on the walking stick. Although I have more walking sticks than I need, I just enjoy making them. 

Insect damage and dark spots add to the design.

Many of my readers come to this blog either by finding pictures of my sticks in Google images or by doing an internet search on how to make walking sticks.  The posts on walking sticks are some of my most regularly viewed posts.  I hope my readers will enjoy following along while a try to turn this stick into a work of art.  If it comes out well, I think it is going to be something special.

This walking stick is a very old stick and has a bit of a history to it.  It has been with us for at least twenty-five years waiting for something to be done with it.  The reason it has been around for so long is that it has some natural inclusions that one can imagine as some sort of animal face.  (In some ways it reminds me of Grumpy Cat from the Cheezburger website http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/lolcats/tag/grumpycat)  The trouble is that it is almost an animal face, but not quite a face.  The execution of turning it into a face is the challenge. 

The sat around for years waiting for my husband to figure out how to transform it into an animal head staff.  The inspiration just would not come.  Then the stick did a stint as a bat for playing stick ball in the back yard when we played with our kids.  (Stick ball is rather like playing field hockey, but with a soccer ball.)  Eventually my husband passed the stick on to me.  I stared at it for years as well, waiting for the idea that would help me turn this into an animal face.  It is one of those sticks that is so nice on its own that you don't want to ruin it by doing something that does not come out well.  So it sat around for more years.  Finally I realized, "Think something else."  Once I did, ideas started to fall into place.

I started thinking in terms of the stick being old, and having history.  Then my thoughts wandered into how history was transmitted in ancient cultures by oral history stories, hieroglyphics, pictographs, and dance.  This was the starting point for the plans for this walking stick. 

When my husband and I were in Oahu, Hawaii a few years ago we spent a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  (If you ever go to Oahu, this place should definitely be on your list of things to see. It was a really interesting place.)  Each of the Polynesian cultures had their own area in which they taught about the history and culture of that particular group and also how that culture adapted to the Hawaiian islands.  Before writing, some of their history was told through memorization, symbols, and dance movement.  I'm hoping to incorporate some of what I learned there about how they transmitted history into this walking stick in order to tell a story.

The story won't be about Polynesian culture, but will tell the story of how a culture evolved, survived, and came to be personified by a shaman.  I plan to have a written,
wood-burned  story line that spirals around the staff.  The rest of the staff will be decorated with glyphs resembling tribal pictographs.  Some areas may be left bare to show the trails of insect damage that the wood sustained while living.  That will add to the impression that this is an ancient artifact passed down through generations.  The animal face will become some sort of stylized face as one might see on a totem pole in the Pacific Northwest. 

This is a tall order.  As usual at the beginning of a project, I am feeling I've taken on something more than I can pull off successfully.  However, I know that once I get into it and break it down into small parts and get going that I will be okay.  Step One is to get the story line down.  Not only do I have to have a story line, but it also has to fit while spiraling around the stick and end where I need it to end, preferably close to the bottom of the stick.  I already have a few ideas, but nothing down on paper yet.

This project will take a while.  I'll be blogging about the progress of the walking stick, but may from time to time show some pictures of other things I am working on.  I find that taking a small break from time to time to experiment with something helps to keep me from growing bored on a long project.  Also, this project is going to be somewhat weather dependent because I'll be doing the wood burning on the outside work bench.  The smell of charred wood tends to leave an unpleasant odor in the house.

Halloween Painted Box and an Interesting Discovery

I wasn't able to post to my blog this past Sunday.  Once again we were without electricity due to severe thunder storms in our area.  We were without power for a couple of days.  Much of our time was spent cleaning up the debris left by falling branches.  We had the top ripped out of another one of our poplars.  But I'm back now and ready to get back to the painted boxes.

I have missed working on Halloween projects.  My projects this year have been about everything but Halloween.  I decided that taking the time to make a Halloween themed box would help keep me from digressing from my next project.  More on that in the coming Sunday blog.

As usual, my painting and drawing skills lag behind.  I just keep reminding myself that continued practice will eventually yield better results.  Everything is out of proportion and the perspective is all wrong, but it was fun to paint a Halloween picture.

The interesting discovery came when I was finishing the box.  I had used the box that had been base coated in Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.  After I had finished the painting on the front, I decided to finish the box off by painting the rest of it in orange and black diamonds.  I painted the box with Cadmium Orange.  The color brightened up the color, but it was so translucent that the underpainting showed through.  It wasn't what I wanted, so I decided that I would go ahead and paint the black and then go back and repaint the orange.  I laid down painter's tape in a grid and painted the exposed area with black paint.  When I removed the tape, the orange showed through.  I had not noticed it when the whole box was orange, but against the black, the orange parts of the box look as if it is on fire!  Unfortunately, it does not photograph well.  But, in person this box looks like it is blazing!  I decided not to repaint the orange.

For a long time I have been frustrated by trying to paint fire in a realistic manner.  Now I know what the problem is.  Hopefully it will improve some future painting.

Next blog post will be about the new project.
 

The Second Painted Box

Flowers on the Garden Wall

This is the second painted box.  I call it Flowers on the Garden Wall.  I feel a need to name these practice paintings, although I can't say that they are anything I really care about.  This painting is on the box that had the green background.  Once again, I am using acrylic artist's paints.

The good news was that this box was of sturdier cardboard, which made it easier to paint.  The challenge this time was that it was a smaller box.  The first box had 54 square inches on it's largest painting surfaces. (8.0 x 6.67 inches).  The box was only 42.75 square inches.  (4.5 x 9.5 inches) That resulted in 11.25 square inches less painting area.  I had to use some very small brushes.  Fortunately, I occasionally paint Artist Trading Cards, so I had the brushes I needed. 

Because of the box's long narrow shape, I had to decide whether to do a tall narrow painting or a wider panoramic painting.  Obviously I chose long and tall here.  The good thing about the small size is that it cuts down on some of the detail you can add.  I used this box because it was the one that came along at the time I was ready to paint.  I would recommend using larger boxes if you want to add more detail to a painting.

I am never really satisfied with my paintings.  As they say, you have to paint a lot of bad paintings before you start to paint good one.  I just don't draw well enough to do really good paintings.  If I were doing this painting over, I would make the stem of the vase smaller and have it look more like a garden urn rather than a goblet.   I feel that I could have added a little more detail to the far background trees though.  And some more highlights on the flowers and the wall.  However, I'm only playing in between big projects.  When you are playing, you reach a point when it is time to put the brush down and move on.

One more box to go before I think about starting another big project.

Underpainting the Boxes

This week just flew by.  It has been one of those weeks when time was not on my side.  About the only thing I accomplished as far as painting goes was to under paint the boxes.  Hopefully, I will be able to get on with painting the next box and have it mostly finished to post on Wednesday.

The picture shows the under painting of the boxes.  The green box is a muddle of Hookers Green, Wild Lime, Ultramarine Blue and Dioxazine Purple.  (I used Liquitex and Windsor & Newton artist's paints, not craft paints.)  For the brown box I used Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.  Before beginning the muddle, I brushed the box with water in order to allow the paints to flow better.  If you look at the brown box, you can see that I missed a spot at a seam on the right.  The white is showing through.  I have found that you really have to scrub into the seams to make sure the white gets covered.  It is better to do it at this stage rather than later in the painting.

I think that if someone wanted to paint boxes as gift boxes without doing a painting, that you could almost get by just doing the muddle.  I could see embellishing the brown box with some gold paint and using it as is.  However, I have committed these boxes to having a painting, so I will continue on beyond this point.