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Senin, 02 Mei 2016

Progress on the Thomasteppich June July 2013

Diposting oleh wawa , di 09.34

We have taken one photograph each day when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich and turned these into a small video. Anne first outlined the scene in black and then started filling the parts with the coloured wool.

The medieval toolchest woodcarving knives

Diposting oleh wawa , di 06.49

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I have been busy with chip-carving a sella curulis lately and this is done with one tool. the (wood) carving knife. We know this tool was used in medieval times (and even up till now) based on the furniture and other wooden utensils that are left from this period. There is not much archeological evidence or illustrations (e.g. in miniatures) of medieval knives that can be directly correlated to woodcarving. Knives that are found can be used for many reasons and many trades.

In Novgorod, Russia, however, some medieval knives of the 12th and 13th century could be linked to woodcarving and whittling of carpenters and coopers. They had a curved blade and a down-turned tip lower than the axis of the handle carving.

Woodworking knives from Novgorod: (a) and (b) 13th century, (c) 12th century. (d) drawing of the blades with the axis

of the handle. Images from Wood use in medieval Novgorod by M. Brisbane and J. Hather.

Our woodcarving knife also has such a curved and downturned blade. The design resembles modern woodcarving knives. The blade of our knife was forged by the German mastersmith David Schütze (Wollschmiede). He is specialised in reconstructions of archaeological finds. The knife was especially hardened and whetted to perfection by him for hard woods like oak. I have added a handle of apple wood to it.

Another use of a knife (or an awl) in medieval woodworking is for marking lines and geometric designs. Many of such marks have been found on wooden objects (furniture, houses, etc.) dating from the middle ages. See the photos below for examples of knife marks on the medieval chests from the Luneburger cloisters (Germany).

(above) Knife marks providing guides for carving on chest TR-NR-400 from cloister Wienhausen, dating 1320. (right) Knife marks on the inside of the chest for the groove of the small tray. Photos from the book Die Gotischen Truhen der Luneburger Heidekloster, from K.H. von Stulpnagel.

A third type of knife for (late) medieval woodworking, which was still used in the last century by carpenters is the so-called shoulder knife (it even can be bought today at specialist tool shops). This knife has a very long handle which rests against the shoulder providing a stable hold. This stability feature makes the shoulder knife very useful for the very precise construction of intarsia, like the (intarsia) self portrait of Antonio Barili clearly shows.

Image of Antonio Barili (1453-1516) from Sienna, Italy. The artist carves the letters: HOC EGO ANTONIUS BARILIS OPVS COELO - NON PENICELLO EXCVSSI. AN.DN. MCCCCCII. (This work have I Antonio Barili made with the carving knife, not with a brush. In the year 1502.). Other tools shown are a gouge, a folding knife and a pencil. The woods used for the intarsia are pear, beech, walnut, maple and palisander. The intarsia sadly has been destroyed during the second world war.

The last knife used by medieval woodworkers discussed here is the spoon-carving or hollowing knife. This knife was exclusively used for carving the hollows of spoons and bowls. Again, they have been found in medieval Novgorod, Russia (11-14th century - along with more than 650 spoons), but also at Arhus and Trelleborg in Denmark (10-13th century).

11th-14th century spoon carving knives from Novgorod. Image from the cd of the book: Wood use in medieval Novgorod.

Progress on the Thomasteppich August 2013 May 2014

Diposting oleh wawa , di 18.17

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Anne and Katinka at work on the Thomasteppich in April 2014.

Like the previous progress report on the Thomasteppich embroidery project, I have made a photo for most of the days during August 2013 till May 2014 when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich, and turned these into another small video.

Of course not only Anne worked on the tapestry. Also Katinka made an enormous progress...

Left: Katinkas part of the tapestry in 2013, and right in April 2014.

Also interesting to see is the back of the tapestry. Only tiny stitches appear at the back of the frame, most of the wool is present at the front of the tapestry. The medieval klosterstitch used has two purposes: it saves weight and expensive wool.

The front and back of the tapestry in August 2013.

Progress on the Thomasteppich May July 2014

Diposting oleh wawa , di 12.17

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Like the previous progress report on the Thomasteppich embroidery project, I have made a photo for most of the days from May till July 2014 when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich, and turned these into another small video.

Progress on the sella curulis

Diposting oleh wawa , di 08.50

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The construction of the sella curulis, a medieval folding chair, is going steady, but slowly. I am currently carving the chairs legs, which is quite a lot of work. This also includes carving test pieces, to check if the design is appropriate and to make myself more comfortable with the carving process of each specific part. The photographs below show the progress and I will give my comments to each step.

After the making the legs of the sella curulis, described in a previous post, I first made the side rails which connect the two sets of X-legs. I have three side rails planned for the chair: two flat ones, that come on top of the chair and will hold the leather seat, and one at the cross-section. The latter one is turned in a medieval style also found with turned chairs. The side rails all end in tenons. The mortises for the flat rails were then made into the X-legs, using a machine drill at a set depth for the rough work and a chisel to clear out the mortise and make it square. The next three photos will give an idea of the final chair.

Frontal view of the sella curulis

Side view of the sella curulis

Top of the sella curulis

The next step consisted of rounding off the edges of the legs. A draw-knife and a scraper were used for this step. The leg was set in a vice on the work bench and first worked with the draw-knife - taking care of the direction of the grain of the wood, and then the edges were smoothed with the scraper.

After the rounding of the edges, two rings were carved to mark the "head" and the "feet" from the rest of the leg of the chair. The photo below shows the rings next to the mortise hole of the top rail.

The following step consisted of carving the central roundel. I wanted a spiral pattern which is also commonly found on medieval chests. A few examples of such chests are shown below. For carving I had much use of a small book (in German) on chip-carving entitled: Das Kerbschnitzen - ein Lehrgang fur Anfanger und Fortgeschrittene by Christian Rubi (1959, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern, Switzerland). According to this book you need only one tool: a chip-carving knife. And of course a calliper/divider is useful for laying out the pattern. A typical saying in this book goes: "A carving does not fail due to lack of talent, or the wood used, but of lack of a strong will to guide the knife on the drawn pattern".

Two 12th/13th century chests from the Musee the Valere, Sion , Switzerland made from walnut. These chests have elaborate chip-carved roundels, but also the arcades in the central panel and legs bear chip-carved patterns. Sizes of the chest are 103 x 201 x 62 cm and 100 x 190 x 50 cm, respectively. B/W photo from Mobel Europas - Franz Windisch-Graetz; color photo form Musee de Valere.

This 13th century oak hutch from a church in Hampshire, United Kingdom, with three different chip-carved roundels.

The chest now resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Sizes of the chest are 50.6 x 109 x 48.2 cm. Photo copyright V&A Museum.

I did not trust my strong will to guide the knife that much, so I made a test piece of the spiral roundel first. It was easier than I thought, but I was glad I made the test piece first. The roundel on the actual leg of the chair was better than the test. After the spiral roundel, I added several smaller roundels with a different "star" pattern (like left roundel on the Victoria and Albert Museum hutch) on the leg. Each star roundel was specifically fitted to the width of the leg at that point. Tricky point here is that you must start with the incisions that sever the fibres, and after that those that follow the fibre. Else, some pieces will break off - luckily they did on the test piece.

The test piece of the spiral roundel.

The actual central roundel with the spiral pattern in progress.

One of the star-shaped small roundels

With the roundels all complete, a zigzag pattern will be carved in the space between the roundels. A zigzag pattern is ideal as it can easily follow the curve of the leg. This is the stage I am now working at. The last two photos show some of the patterns carved on the leg.

Progress on the Thomasteppich August 2014 April 2015

Diposting oleh wawa , di 02.37

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Anne embroidering in the great hall of castle Hernen. The beautiful sun rays were created by the smoke of coming from the fireplace in the next room which had a badly working chimney. Photo made by Geldersch Landschap en Kastelen.

Like the previous progress report on the Thomasteppich embroidery project, I have made a photo for most of the days from August 2014 to April 2015 when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich, and turned these into another small video. During winter time not much was done on the teppich as we were working on our new house. However, the first panels of the tapestry are nearly finished, both that of Anne and Katinka.