I'm late again. Very busy week with a pleasant and very talented carver from Canada. He is very involved with the competitions at davenport in the US. I was surprised to learn that the vast majority of my own work would not be accepted as exhibits for various reasons - mainly lewdness!!

No time to carve now as I have to finish three paintings I have just sold and I must get my vegetable garden into shape before I go to America for 5 weeks and then to Venice for 10 days stopping at Bernkastel and Neuwschwanstein on route - It's a hard life, but we must soldier on!!

I appear to have a bat in my workshop roof, it comes out and flaps like mad when I go in there in the evenings.

At last - the sunshine, which started on Wednesday and is due to end tomorrow - is laughingly called an 'Indian Summer'

Ireland votes on the Lisbon Treaty soon - the streets are festooned with placards predicting doom for those who do not vote correctly. We live in interesting times - there must be a carving there somewhere - perhaps a clown balancing on a razor's edge, or a blind man leading a group of blind men over the cliff!!!

Best wishes

Ian

Pictures are of further progress with the new jester which is 8 inches high

The ‘summer that never was’ continues with an irrepressible persistence, a day of sunshine is a window of opportunity to perform a few outside jobs. One of the upsides of the wet summer are the beautiful fungi growing on a dead elm in the garden.

I have been working on my small jester, making his head from whitethorn/hawthorn, a very common tree, with dense wood not unlike box, but pinkish brown in colour. It takes detail very well. The branch, only 2 inches thick has been in the workshop for about 10 years. I think it is well worth looking at for detail work.

I was sent pictures of an amazing piece of carving by Vladimir in the Ukraine of Ruben’s Battle of Anghiari – His website is well worth a look http://www.woodcarving.com.ua/foto_21_en.html

Pictures
1. Fungi
2. Fungi
3. The head with two halves of the cap

4. The head set inside the hood

Best wishes

Ian

‘On the Riva Di Schiavoni’

I can do no more work on Eve until I get some walnut big enough for her base, so I am off to the U.K. for 3 days to collect a pile of walnut veneer cores and some 8 inch limewood. In the meantime I have started a small jester in boxwood and walnut.

I have finished my latest painting of Venice and must start a new one when I return. Since I only paint at night I am trying out some daylight bulbs to try and get the colours right.

The weather has been exceptionally wet and cool. My vegetable garden is not progressing as well as it should but the slugs don’t seem to mind. The ducks refuse to go down to the vegetables and eat them preferring to hang around the house looking for hand-outs.

I am also bringing some machines back from the U.K. which will be surplus to requirements, so if anyone is interested in a Record lathe, an Electra Beckum bandsaw and a Kity planer, then get in touch.

Best wishes

Ian

The New Jester

Main torso, quartered in boxwood and walnut, cut with a stoned bandsaw

The legs ready for attaching to the torso

The two parts temporarily joined

The arms and one half of the hood

I have been out of touch for some time, having been to James and Ruth’s wedding and taking my daughter on a trip to Europe.

I have also conducted another Masterclass with a student carver from Scotland and one from Puerto Rico.

I have received photographs of the female head from my book ‘Carving Classic Female Faces’ carved in stone by Michel Halleen and quite superb in my opinion http://mjhalleen.blogspot.com/ mjhalleen@gmail.com

The main figure of Eve is now complete and it remains to make the base and the serpent. james will be putting up more work in progress in the next day or two

My current painting is finished and I am beginning work on a small jester in boxwood and walnut. He will be sat on a marble sphere, one of three I have recently obtained from Rose Shelley at Orcadian Stone, for which I am very grateful.

In view of the appalling weather we are experiencing at the moment I can not get out on the garden so I should get plenty of work done.

Best wishes

Ian

The painting commission is finished, the female nude commission and the secret piece are about finished and I can concentrate on 'Eve' - The new work in progress was put on the site this morning at
http://www.iannorbury.com/Work%20in%20Progress/Eve/Eve%20WIP.htm

I had to cut her arm back off yesterday as the grain did not match as well as I had anticipated - Plus the bandsaw is making a hell of a noise - All very irritating - Do't buy an Electra Beckham bandsaw. I'd like to bring my old Startrite back from the UK, but it is so heavy.

It can be trying at times living in two homes, for instance I now have to design the base for Eve, but my books on snakes are in the UK. Hopefully the house in Cheltenham, which we recently put on the market at http://www.rabennett.co.uk/content/009_Results/002_Property/property-sales-rpsRAB-LEC090117-1244564062 will sell soon and I'll be flush, with about three times as many household goods as I have room for, not to mention 2 bandsaws, 2 planers, 2 lathes etc. etc.


At last the first E-book is on-line at
http://www.iannorbury.com/ebooks.htm and james is now working on the new dvd 'Carving the Female Head'. Those of you who know James will be interested to know that he is Marrying Ruth on 25th June and I am sure you will all join me in wishing them well. We will be off to the UK next week for the happy event, nipping to the continent for the day to stock up on the cheap wine and tobacco.


The vegetables are flourishing in this warm damp weather. Unfortunately one of the ducks has hurt her foot, but is on the mend. Yesterday an Irish Hare was in the garden, nibbling the grass - He is quite beautiful.

Best wishes
Ian

Hi Betty here, not Ian, who has had a small accident in the garden and damaged his eye. Having got the gardening bug he's now laying the foundations for a greenhouse, demolishing a rickety ruin for the foundations. While he was smashing the hardcore into submission a piece flew up and hit him in the eye. All was fine that evening, but the next day the eye and surrounding area was protesting strongly and he has had to rest. He is on the mend, but I think he will be wearing his goggles next time.

He has always had sensative eyes and bits in his eyes used always to result in a trip to the hospitals A & E, until a very astute nurse showed me how to effectively wash his eye for him as soon as he got something in it.

James has put up the work in progress for Eve at http://www.iannorbury.com/Work%20in%20Progress/Eve/Eve%20WIP.htm, but the disc I sent him containing the e-book that we were so hoping would be up by now has gone astray in the post. I have sent him a new one.

For those of you who know our son James, you will be pleased to learn that he is getting married to Ruth at the end of June.

best wishes to you all

Back to Ian next week

Betty

Winter seems to have returned with relentless rain, day after day – Ireland revealing its true colours. The sun bathed hills of Tuscany are calling me. No wonder Ireland has a huge trade in exporting people.

However, it has allowed me to get plenty of work done. Eve progresses well and I will be sending more work in progress shots to James later in the week.

I have come to the feet – What do beautiful feet look like? Crushed and squashed by shoes, the sights you see in shoe shops are the stuff of nightmares – bunions, calluses, twisted toes, hammer toes etc. I looked in books at the feet of native Africans for natural feet – horror, they are worse than ours. Perhaps I should look for adverts for toe nail varnish – they would have searched out the world’s most perfect toes. As usual I will make them up – Isn’t that what art is supposed to be?

I have also completed an oil painting of Venice, started another female nude – a commission – and another very small item which must remain a secret for now.

The main body of Eve should be finished this week, stick the arms on and then the interesting but difficult work can begin.

Also, I will start a new painting today to do in the evenings.

James has sent me a sample of the new DVD which has just arrived looking very smart in its new format. The Masterclasses are filling up nicely – so I might survive the recession – if the vegetables would only start growing!!!!

Best wishes

Ian