Of Artistic Enterprises and an Urban Viking

 I had every intention of posting on Sunday. However, we had some house work to finish prior to my Mom coming to visit. I mopped the floors, by the way.

Since my last post I have gotten myself a little caught "in the weeds" regarding projects. I have taken a short break on the Brandubh pieces--largely because I have learned that I can become frustrated with a project, and can sometimes rush the process. Often these situations lead to me bungling a project. Anyway, I have started a new piece, as well as done some design work and experimentation for some new projects.

When I talk about "experimentation", it's important to realize that I am learning a lot of this stuff as I go along. Prior to the pandemic, I had never carved or attempted to build things. So, there are a lot of latent skills that I learned from my Dad that I'm trying to remember--but there are also a lot of things that I find must be worked out. One example of this is a design that I am hoping to recreate from a drawing to a carved wooden piece. Some time ago, I found myself reading about different animal symbols used in Celtic culture. Initially I was looking for some ideas for a bear design, but also found a lot of stuff about boars. Apparently, there was a Celtic god of war called Moccus who would often appear in the form of a boar. After some study and test sketches, I eventually came up with a sketch that I really quite liked.

You'll no doubt notice a number of other sketch "studies" of boars, bears and wolves--but the inked sketch is the design I decided I wanted to use. After scanning the sketch, cleaning up the image a bit, and finally making a reverse duplicate of the boar (so I could make it the same on both sides), I began trying to transfer the printed image onto the wood I planned to use.

What's cool is that an image printed with a laser printer can be transferred using heat. It works whether the picture is color or black and white. I've used this process to transfer images which I later traced over with a wood burning tool. The results are really cool. So, I had planned to do much the same in this case, but planned to use the transferred design as a template for carving rather than burning it into the wood.

Well, I had a piece of holly which was the size I wanted, and I worked to smooth the surfaces where the image would be transferred, and printed the image. It took some creativity, but I eventually found a way to keep the images relatively aligned on each side of the wood, and then began trying to apply heat to make the image transfer. In the end it didn't work out too well. In places the image was not sharp enough to be discerned, and in other places the image didn't even take. It was a little frustrating--especially after so much prep work.

The good news is that I haven't given up on the idea, I just need to circle back to it when I have a bit more time to work through the issues. So, it will happen, just not as quickly as I would prefer.

In the meantime, however, I have done some research on other items like a "Buddha Palm". I read that the Bodhi Tree under which Gautama Buddha sat and received enlightenment was a fig tree. We have a fig tree in our front yard, and I am hoping to harvest some wood to make a Buddha Palm charm.

I have been working on a Mjolnir charm, as well. I began making it as a gift for a friend. It's actually kind of a joke, really. He was responsible for giving me a nickname at Level Up, and he also happens to wear a variety of jewelry--so, a charm of Thor's hammer would actually be in his wheelhouse.

The wood is red oak, and the design features some traditional imagery from historical examples of the charm. While the piece is still in process, and is in places only roughed out, or sketched, I'll try to describe what is going on with it. At the top is the god Odin, with a horned helmet and missing right eye. His beard and mustache form the handle of Mjolnir. The head of the hammer features a wolf's head in the center, and Thor's two goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr (these aren't typos, I checked the spelling like four times). It's still coming alone quite nicely, but slowly. I have a few other ideas taking shape, but they're still too new to really describe right now.

On Saturday I was able to go to All Hallows' in Davidsonville for an evening service. Iwas great to get to go to church, and Fr. Jeff Hual was great, as expected. The service was nice and intimate, but still a good showing for being the middle of summer. There was a diverse group of ages represented, including a family with two boys both still in their soccer uniforms. Jeff told me later that during the rest of the year that there are families who come from swim meets, and a variety of other sports to be at this Saturday evening service. As it turns out, Sunday morning is at more of a premium than Saturday afternoons now...

Sunday morning I got to do another trail run with a running group. I think I'm getting better at it, but it's sometimes hard to tell. Running trails is pretty demanding, and the group is comprised of people who are really good at running. As a middle aged asthmatic, I do what I can, and my metrics for success and progress are perhaps more modest than some. However, I count not stopping, and maintaining a consistent pace for the better part of the run a success.

I also attended Boxing and Muay Thai classes throughout the week. It was rigorous, and I came home exhausted on the nights when I did double classes. However, I was chomping at the bit to get back to it this week. Last night I am happy to report that I worked the focus mitts like a savage--a well-groomed savage, of course. I was even able to capture a quick video from two of the coaches from Level Up: Coach Leo and Coach Kevin.

Alright. That's more than enough for now. Slainte'!