Whoops!

I play around with carving elements on the computer before I begin carving. But in this case, I wanted to play with the elements in the shop. I had run across some mid-19th-century sailors’ dioramas online and wanted to experiment further with how they brought elements together. The best way to do that was more holistically than a computer layout would allow. So, it was off to the workshop to grab oddments and physically put them into a composition.

The waved piece of wood represents the waterline. The little schooner is a practice piece I have in the shop waiting for moments like this. I’ve thought about using a carved rope molding for the frame, but the mockup makes me wonder how the entire thing will hold up while being carved. All that end grain will be exposed and weak. That’s why roped molding is straight so often. The other time I used curved rope molding was an actual rope made up for me by a marlinspike artist ( Barbara Merry).

A layout like this sometimes beats a computer layout. We can see the unexpected consequences of our planning ( or lack of it). Sometimes, our goals need to match what’s physically possible. If I continued with the rope molding as planned, it would have certainly cracked at some point.