Throughout history, artists have use images to tell a story or convey some meaning. The word iconography means "image writing." For a more in depth definition, see this article on iconography at Wikipedia.
Paul Wellborn showing some very nice carving.
I also got a picture of Luise Duval with her display.
And (of course) Danny Reb with his carvings and carving supplies.
Here are some of the devices that I use to secure wood while carving. First up is the end-mounted bench vise. A bench vise like this one is very useful for either directly clamping your work or for holding other clamping devices. Note the wooden jaw plates attached to this vise to prevent the metal jaws from marring the work.
This is a carving knee. This one is adjustable in the angle of the knee. Next to the carving knee is a long bolt with a tapered end that can be screwed into the bottom of a carving and the placed in the slot in the carving knee. A threaded handle is then used to tighten the carving to the knee.
Another device that can be used to attach carving to the knee is a piece of plywood with a carriage run through a counter sunk hole. the platform is then screwed to the carving.
This device is also clamped onto the knee using a threaded handle. This works particularly well with smaller carvings since you can use smaller screws and still get a good hold on the carving. Both of these devices used in conjunction with a carving knee give a tremendous range of angles to work with and are easy to adjust.
For relief carvings, I especially like an adjustable stand like the one above. It proves a good work surface with two handles to clamp the work and will tilt to any angle from horizontal to vertical. I came by this one around 20 years ago. I have not been able to find another like it. If you know of a good source for adjustable stands like this, please let me know.
Back at the regular workbench the carving is completed and the lettering is burned in.
The carving will be finished with a water based Minwax stain. First a pre-stain is applied.
After the pre-stain has dried for about 15 minutes, an "English Oak" colored stain is applied.
The stain is allowed to dry over night and then the piece is finished with a coat of Minwax Polycrylic. This will give it a nice hard finish with a nice sheen. I often like to finish with a coat of wax, but since this is intended to go between the pages of a book, I thought it best to forgo the wax.
And there you have it. The lighting in the photographs could be better, but I hope you get the idea.
