Category: Readings

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The Home Library

When my oldest son moved out, we joked that the beams of the house groaned with relief as the weight of his personal library was moved to his new apartment. Not for long, however, as my library collections continued to grow. There is a rather substantial maritime collection on the porch ( about 300 titles). And another collection in my back office. Not having worked for years in anthropology, though, a few years ago, I disposed of most of the anthropological collections that no longer engaged my attention or interests. Even so, it’s a lot of books.

Every collection needs a certain amount of weeding once in a while. But I’m careful in what I send to the used book dealers. The reason why the maritime collection is so large is that the titles can be hard to find, and there is nothing worse than needing the lines of the Ida G Wanderlust of 1903 for a portrait and finding that you disposed of the book it was in. Of course, good luck finding a replacement when you need it. So on the porch, that and others sit. And the house groans with the weight.

But somewhere in every collection, there is a little shelf or worn books you’ve found reason to use most often. The small collection pictured above is in that class. Some are very general reference books on carving that I recommend to others, and then there are some specific books on techniques and carvers that I’ve found most helpful to have close at hand. Books on eagle carving, lettering, and chip carving. Then there are favorite authors: Chris Pie, Dick Onians, Wayne Barton, and Graham Bull. All of these have been poured over repeatedly.

These are among the titles and authors I advise students to read. I’d even go so far as to fling down the gauntlet and challenge the serious beginner to master a tenth of what is contained in them. Without apprenticeships, books remain your best resource for learning. No, YouTube videos are great, but your library is still your best friend if you really need to dive deep.

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A Schooner’s Story

The schooner diorama is complete.

But what’s the story behind the diorama? That’s the thing about this type of presentation: there is a story. The schooner depicted here was typical of many built along the Coast of Maine in the eighteen-eighties and nineties,

While researching the carving, you discover the story behind the photo of it departing on a maiden voyage or that wonderful Antonio Jacobson painting. In those images, you never see it going aground off the Isles of Scilly, having a cargo catch fire, or foundering in a mid-Atlantic gale. But that, and “going to the breakers,” was the ultimate fate of many of the vessels.

Most proud owners commissioned and purchased images of their ships sailing on calm seas with all sails set. It’s a dramatic view—the vast billows of sail, the hull cutting through the waves, making its way towards New York or some European port. I’ve carved several similar views. But this one is different. It’s a stark contrast to the typical scenes, a unique portrayal.

The skipper has been caught out, and the crew is scrambling. A good blow is coming on fast. The large stays’ls have been doused as we view the schooner, and the crew is wrestling with the tops’ls. A few crew members have doused the outermost jib ( the flying jib). The mate and skipper are at the wheel discussing further reductions in sail. Later, they’ll rig a sea anchor to steady the ship. Off to leeward, the sky is beginning to threaten, and the seas are running high. 

As a diorama, it’s the sort of scene a sailor might have memorialized years later. It’s something worth recalling long after the ship had been cut down to become a coal barge or gone to the breakers and after you’d swallowed the anchor and taken work ashore.

See more at:https://loucarrerascarver.com/home/a-portrait-carved-in-wood/

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Seed Catalogs

The catalogs started piling up in December, but by a long-standing rule, they stayed by the door until after Christmas. Then they were dropped without ceremony onto a pile of other catalogs until after the middle of January. That date has passed, and now the gardening catalogs are displayed on the table in all their immanent colorful glory.

OK, I’ll admit on the eleventh, I broke down and bought one of those “herb gardens on your kitchen window” kits. I just couldn’t bear it anymore – wait! Let me Italicize that for emphasis I just couldn’t wait any longer!

Things are going to be a bit different this year. I mean it! My hip surgery last August left me evaluating how I use the spatial limits and advantages of the garden and how my physical inabilities butted up against those. So instead of tearing through pages of colorful flowers and veggies, I’ve been looking at elevated planters. I think the days of spending lots of time on my knees may become strictly rationed.

The websites and catalogs are full of goodies promising to make my gardening life easier. But, after an initial viewing, I cut to the chase and went to the many reviews on how these stack up. There are lots of reviews of these products. I am looking at their esthetics, potential longevity, capacity, and pricing. I haven’t made any firm commitments.

For many years I was an advocate of grow bags. They are cheap, economical on water ( rather than watering the whole bed, you just water the bag), and very friendly to be placed in useable but odd locations around the garden. However, their principal problem is that they are ugly and don’t age well. Also, I still have to stoop to weed them. I want to limit stooping and kneeling. Some of the grow bags will go into the further reaches of the garden. Those in poor condition will be repurposed. They are made from heavy-duty landscape cloth, so cutting them up and using them as landscape barriers is a good repurposing.

January tends to be my month for planning and exploring new options in both the shop and the garden. It’s a strategy I’ve found helps me get through the worst of this part of the winter. In February, I’ll start more plants inside, ordering and assembling what I need for spring, and get busy making maple syrup.

If you have the winter blahs, having a plan is essential.

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Ingrate

It’s intolerable. I attempt to edit his work, and he undoes my added spaces, asterisks, periods, and commas. I am almost bleary-eyed looking at the monitor. I could be passive, like other cats, but I have a reputation to maintain. I want to win the prize as best feline editor.

But of course, being that he frustrates my best efforts, he’ll never become an award-winning author who gets up to accept a significant prize and thanks his cat for all the support. I suppose I’ll just go back to sleeping on the keyboard.

Ingrate!!

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Book Hunts

Since my interests as an anthropologist and as a woodcarver have tended towards the maritime, you’d expect that my library would be heavily weighted to those interests, and you’d be right. However, I used library sales and second-hand booksellers to do this for less than a fortune. I could and should recite a panegyric to praise libraries and their book sales. And if you are interested in arts and crafts, you should also.

Here are two ways it works. Mr. Somewhere loves books on the sea and is one of the best patrons of the Quimby public library. So once in a while, they purchase his requests. They do this even though they are so far away from water that no one in town but Mr. Somwhere knows what an anchor is. Ten years go by, and the library is weeding, and someone notices that the book hasn’t been checked out in nine years. So it goes to the annual book sale where a used book dealer buys it.
Eventually, that well-curated collection of Mr. Somewhere downsizes as his family moves to a smaller home, and the personal library gets contributed to the annual book sale. A bonanza for the book dealer.

About two-thirds of my library comes from used books, library discards, sale items, and such. And it’s a nice collection. But, honestly, many of the titles were no longer available new because publishers keep lean inventories and do small publication runs.

So if you are interested in tasteful mother of pearl inlay ( yeah, I’ve got that!) or something on the Freedom of the Seas ( got that as well), the second-hand sellers are where you will wind up.

There are some very reputable dealers for those who haven’t tried this approach. Among the ones I’ve used is Biblio.com. Thriftbooks.com, and of course Amazon. I don’t think there is any dispute that this is the most economical way to develop a collection of books for the craftsperson. So if your interests are tole painting, carving, egg decoration, or knitting, the searches at these sites are easy to do, and what you don’t find, you can put in requests for.

Happy browsing.

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Reads for a Winter’s Evening

It’s still February as I write this, and that means that even if the greenhouse/workshop is warm enough to work in during the day, what about the evening? Every winter, I look for entertaining and educational reads to fill the evening; I lost the TV habit many years ago. 

Among this winter’s reads have been an older book by Betty Padden (Fox Chapel Publishing, 2011)- Lettering & Sign Carving Workbook. It’s a beautiful foundational text for anyone interested in learning the ins and outs of sign carving. It’s exceptionally well illustrated and has a variety of projects from very basic to highly advanced. So much sign work gets robotically routed these days, but there is still room for the unique appeal of a hand-carved sign. If that would interest you, I’d recommend this book.

My next book came out in 2020. It’s A Norwegian Woodcarving Textbook, by Odd Fauske; edited and translated to English by Iain & Evaline Whittington ( published by Whittington, Fursden, 2020). The book was translated from Odd Fauske’s Norwegian original. Text is in English on one side and in the original Norwegian on the other. Fauske prepared the textbook for the Norwegian adult education classes he taught. The book is a valuable compendium of traditional and classic Norwegian wood carving designs, and it is stuffed full of patterns and notes on carving. If you are interested in these carving styles, this book would be a practical reference for your library.

What else have I read; some Roman history and a lot of classic Science Fiction. Everybody needs some escape reading when it’s so snowy that you can’t get the shop door open!

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One Liner Wednesday – 11/25

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.” – E.B. White

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Collections

My mentors were just that, mentors. Several couldn’t afford the expense that having an actual apprentice would cost; others were not interested. But then by the 1960s, the old apprenticeship programs in crafts like carving were gone.
Then there was that little problem of my lack of maturity. When the opportunity to work with them presented itself, I was interested but not prepared. I think that was why several of them guided me in the direction of good authors and their books. Literacy and short-term courses at centers for specialized learning ( like WoodenBoat School) would replace the old system of craft shops and apprenticeships.
Even today, with the internet, there is no replacement for the book. I am working on a portrait of an early 20th-century Steam Yacht. The available information on the internet was useful, but I hardly all I needed to complete my research. Steam Yachts were a type of vessel that I had barely known existed. Using book dealers, I was able to find some titles that filled in the holes in my library. I am reasonably confident that this sort of need is true for boatbuilders, printmakers, musicians, and other professionals as well.
A funny thing happens as you develop a collection of books on your interests: your browsing habits change, and you begin looking to fill holes in your collection. Some of the side effects are less than pleasing. Bookshelves seem to appear randomly around the house; your selection must be housed. Friends with similar interests ask to borrow titles, and you clutch books to your chest, muttering about “…my precious…”
But the worst is the competition of your beloved spouse. My wife has a cookbook collection that seeks to rival my collection of maritime and woodworking titles. Sometimes she doesn’t see the natural superiority of the nautical. I stake out my claims very carefully. Eventually, someone will have to go.

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Choice

<p class="has-drop-cap" value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">Some books make a difference. I've had a favorite game for years; I'll give a friend five minutes to pick the two volumes they'd take with them if they had to leave all the rest behind in an emergency. You can have an entire library, but if you had five minutes to pack, there would always be one or two that you'd shove to the bottom of your rucksack.<br>Sometimes the choices seem counter-intuitive. There have been some surprising choices. People do not always act to what you think is their type: one of my most hard-boiled friends chose Joyce's Dubliners and a collection of poetry. Another emergency medical texts and the Bible. A third, more recently, showed me their iPad which, contained a complete small library – cheater!<br>Some people will go with the sentimental favorites, books they've had from the beginning. For others it's practical foundational material. Everyone has a reason for the choice, but they may be unwilling to reveal them to you.<br>The books I always shoved to the bottom of my rucksack when I was on the road? A book on forestry – because I had dreams of being a timber cruiser ( the boy from the big city, right!), and a compilation of folksongs I liked. So, what would your choices be? Share them if you wish.Some books make a difference. I’ve had a favorite game for years; I’ll give a friend five minutes to pick the two volumes they’d take with them if they had to leave all the rest behind in an emergency. You can have an entire library, but if you had five minutes to pack, there would always be one or two that you’d shove to the bottom of your rucksack.
Sometimes the choices seem counter-intuitive. There have been some surprising choices. People do not always act to what you think is their type: one of my most hard-boiled friends chose Joyce’s Dubliners and a collection of poetry. Another emergency medical texts and the Bible. A third, more recently, showed me their iPad which, contained a complete small library – cheater!
Some people will go with the sentimental favorites, books they’ve had from the beginning. For others it’s practical foundational material. Everyone has a reason for the choice, but they may be unwilling to reveal them to you.
The books I always shoved to the bottom of my rucksack when I was on the road? A book on forestry – because I had dreams of being a timber cruiser ( the boy from the big city, right!), and a compilation of folksongs I liked. So, what would your choices be? Share them if you wish.

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Recharging: a reading list for a snowy winter

December and January. Cold, dark, and not too pleasant to be working in the shop when it’s in the teens outside. The little heater is designed to keep the greenhouse above 32 Fahrenheit. On sunnier days, it gets to the balmy ’60s in there, and I can carve freely. But, today, there is one of New England’s infamous ice storms blowing outdoors; the day will never lighten up, nor will it warm up.

I am settling in by the woodstove. The cat and dog are joining me for an afternoon of study. If you’ve read my advice to beginners, you’ll note that literacy in the craft is very high in my esteem for those beginning. Even more so then for those of us who have spent time maturing in the craft. This post will be about what’s on my reading table right now ( well aside from the Sci-Fi that I read for fun).

1.) Woodworking Wisdom & Know-How, The Editors of Fine Woodworking. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers- 2018

This book is available as a very thick paperback or as an e-book. Neither of these formats will break the budget, and it belongs on many a woodworker’s shop bookshelf – that assortment of books with practical information that you may need on demand. It proclaims itself to be “One Complete Practical Volume!” Well, I don’t know about that, but there is enough to keep you dipping in for knowledge on areas in which you have voids. The paperback was $21.99 (US). The printing is handicapped by the inferior paper quality and a faded look to the photos. The digital form might be preferable if you are comfortable using a tablet. Too bad such a useful book is shackled by poor production.

Being that we can’t know everything relating to woodwork, but might need a comprehensive reference, I advise this as a should buy. The first essay in the book is about cherry ( my favorite wood); OK, I am prejudiced.

2.) Woodcraft- Master The Art of Green Woodworking with Key Techniques And Inspiring Projects. Barn The Spoon ( author).DK Penguin Random House, 2019

I craft many of my treen ( spoons, spatulas, bowls, and such) from green cherry. Otherwise, I do little in greenwood. I picked this book up to expand my knowledge base. It’s comprehensive and offers a staged introduction to tools, techniques and projects. Unlike the Woodworking Know-How book this one is a pleasure to pick up and read. The publisher did a fantastic job on page design and layout. Everything is well photographed or illustrated, and printed on good quality paper. At $30.00 (US) I considered it to be a good shop shelf addition. It is also available in a digital edition. 

Both of the above books are hefty and could double as weights in a pinch around the shop.

3.) Samuel McIntire * Carving an American Style, Dean T. Lahifainen. Peabody Essex Museum- 2007

Not a casual read. I have been dipping into it on and off for a year. McIntire was a polymath who worked as a decorative carver of furniture, ships carver, architect, house builder, and even a musician. McIntire was an influential stylist, and his work continues to inspire and influence design down to this day.

 I’d recommend this book to you as the best researched and comprehensive examination of McIntire’s work and life to date. The many illustrations and top quality photos are, for a carver, worthwhile even if you don’t read the carefully researched text. This book would not be a casual purchase; look for it through Interlibrary Loan unless you are willing to part with $80 – $200.

That’s what I am exploring. If you have favorites send me a message and let me know – Lou