He had gone last year just to see what the expectations would be and it had left a lasting impression on his young mind, for one he had only been at the club for a total of 4 months and he was a yellow belt. He had watched the Poomse part of the competition but once the sparring started that was when the image left a lasting imprint on his mind. The black belt competitors had been super aggressive and it had frightened him to the extent of never wanting to compete in that part of the program.

Now a year later and attaining the level of brown belt he was going to be part of that event but would he enter for both sparring and Poomse.

The Poomse part of the competition was not a problem he could overcome his nerves once the competition started, he was a strong competitor and had managed to gain first place in his Victory club run Poomse competition earlier in the year where probably a total of one hundred and fifty competitors of all belt levels had attended. At this event, The JKI, there would be a minimum total of four hundred competitors that would take up the entire Saturday from the opening ceremony at 9:00am to the last sparring competition at 8:00pm spread over a total of eleven rings, let alone the spectators supporting the competitors.

His instructors Master Chris and Master Claire had been training all the students for many weeks to prepare them for this event. Master Chris had spent countless hours going over the techniques for sparring and had held additional training time for those who wanted to be at the peak of their game come that day. Master Claire had perfected the students on their forms or Poomse to ensure their technique was good and at the right speed and strength to give them the best possible chance to impress the judges.

With two weeks to go before the tournament and the registration deadline looming Master Chris assessed each student and suggested what he felt would be their strengths, in Jackson’s case he said that he should enter both Poomse and Sparring. Jackson was extremely nervous with being entered into sparring but as Master Chris pointed out it is not about winning, it’s about what you can learn from the experience. He said that in his first competiton he had failed to win but had come back with a wealth of knowledge and became stronger the next time because of what he had learned at that competiton. With that said the relevant information was jotted down on a card together with weight and rank providing us with the necessary information so that we could register him for the competition online.

Reluctantly Jackson said he would try his best and that night we enrolled him for the forth coming tournament in both disciplines.

Over the next two weeks training was intense trying to perfect both sparring and poomse, extra lessons were provided for those who wanted to attend and Grand Master Kim provided an open Sunday for a select few of his students giving them invaluable additional training. Jackson benefitted from this extra training but at some point he began to become confused with some of his poomse with the slight nuances between Grand Master’s technique and his daughter Master Claire’s. The difference between the two was a slight change in one of the moves where a more modern version was used by Master Claire. He insisted that he was doing it wrong but once we conferred with Master Claire she explained that both versions were correct and that he would be displaying the modern version.

Still skeptical leading up to the competition he even announced that he just wanted to compete in sparring. With his stress level rising because of the forthcoming tournament now was the time to backoff and have several days leave from the studio.

It’s amazing what a couple of rest days can do, he was back to his buoyant self. With one day to go, he was looking forward to the challenge, knowing he would be borrowing his friends Nintendo DS to help him during the waiting period, easing any anxiety that he may have been having. The morning of the competition was an early start, we had to meet at the Walter Pyramid to collect his credentials and buy our entrance tickets. The doors would open at 8:00am with the opening ceremony at 9:00am with the onset of the competition with poomse starting at 9:45am, his group number was 151.

With the group number starting at 100 a couple of hours would pass before his number would be displayed allowing for several practice runs behind the bleachers. He asked Jose, a second degree black belt if he was nervous and he assured Jackson that he was always nervous before competing which helped him with his own nervousness. Finally his group number is displayed and it’s off to the holding area until a ring becomes available, of course it’s the furthest from our seating arrangement. My wife races over to the otherside of the stadium to video the advent and I stay and capture it with my camera. The Brown belt poomse for our sons group resulted in a victory for him laying rest a lot of nervousness, with one part of the competition complete it is now a waiting game until the sparring starts.

I would have liked to display the video that my wife captured but it was way too large to be displayed so please forgive my poor efforts.

I had calculated that I would need a total of twenty lengths of 4″ x 4″ x 8′ pretreated lumber and twelve lengths of half inch by six foot rebar. The rebar would be cut in to three to provide two foot lengths to pin the lumber in to place. I already had a spare can of the green wood preserve so I’m going to use that up first before purchasing anymore, afterall it was my mother-in-laws budget and I was trying to get the job done at the best price possible. As far as my labor cost, that’s a no brainer, that’s traded off by looking after the children! Once complete there will be some kind of oil based stain that will cover the whole construction but the tone or color can be decided upon later.

With the materials in tow and a selection of power tools, chop saw, electric drill and numerous hand tools my first job was to map out the boundary of the planter box. The patch of land behind the mobile home was pie shaped to a certain degree meaning that the planter box could be slightly wedged shaped so as to reduced the effect of the angle on the remaining land between the mobile home and the planter box. I needed to know to what degree the angle would be and the person best qualified to decide that would be my mother-in-law, afterall when all is complete she would have to live with the end result.

The block wall that seperated the mobile home estate from her trailer was approximately eight feet tall with a concrete base that spread loosely below. This in effect reduced the growing room so we had to make sure that there was enough soil at ground level at the small end of the wedge so that the plant roots could travel deeper if required. Another requirement was to leave enough room between the planter box and the mobile home, so the placement of the first stake would be at this critical point. With string attached to the first stake, the second stake position and angle of the planter would be determined by the taut string once hammered into place.

Now that alignment was set I could remove any soil that would hinder the placement of the first 4″ x 4″ and continue to a length of twenty feet or two and a half lengths. I then cut the corresponding lengths that would tie into the block wall, these had to be cut a little short due to the foundation concrete that spilled out from underneath. The next five layers were cut block wall style, overlaying each seam to strengthen the total constuction with no vertical seams.

With all the layers of the first planter box in position I had to drill the first set of holes that would pin the construction into place. The rebar was of half an inch in diameter therefore I would drill holes of 5/8″ to allow slight misalignment as I drilled through the layers. The spade bit would drill through the four inch thickness and index to the next layer whereas I would remove the top layer and continue with the drilling until the full six layers had been drilled.

Starting from the bottom layer each level was restacked using lengths of rebar to align each set of holes. As the levels got higher I was finding that the clearance hole of 5/8″ was coming into its own. By the time the sixth layer was set in place the rebar had to be hammered down to fully secure the sections and finally sledgehammered the additional length of rebar into the soil to give it a solid construction.

With the rebar fully hammered home the rebar was punched below the surface of the wood by approximately one inch so that a plug could be inserted to give a finished appearance. This was simply 5/8″ dowel rod cut to length and hammered in to complete the look.

With the main planter box in place I could turn my attention to the secondary planter, this would consist of only three boards high giving enough depth to house tomato plants. The totally length for this box would be twelve feet and adopting the same procedure the construction went smoothly with no major problems. The green colored timber eventually gained a stain that would give it a redwood color and blended it nicely with the block wall to the rear.

I found that even though the rebar had been set to a good depth there was still a little movement in the planter boxes but once back filled with the remaining soil it placed enough pressure to eliminate any movement. I knew that I still had to place flagstone and this would account for two to three inches in depth with the levelling sand, locking in the bottom board.

Since starting this project the planter boxes have remained in good shape and the only movement is with the plugs that cover the rebar tips, these have moved just 1/8″ proud of the main surface which I put down to soil movement and swelling of the wood due to moisture.

My next step is to build the arbor that will adjoin the privacy fencing that allows the rear of the coach to be that more private.

Mobile homes have come a long way and this one at barely 10 years old has all that you could get in a regular house except “it’s mobile” you can put it on a trailer and move it to where you want. Anyway, I don’t know too much about mobile homes so I’ll get on and we’ll talk about the plans that we came up with on the yard.

The first priority was she wanted a small raised planter that would give enough ground to plant tomatoes and perennial flowers. The rest would be colored pavers and rock to minimize the amount of maintenance required together with ornamental flower pots. The side of the property would be rock with strategically place pavers, flower pots and an arbor with a gate that would lead to the somewhat private back yard. This was all quickly sketched out on a piece of paper but the details would be left to me and as I have said in previous posts, providing you do have an idea the details will come as the job progresses.

This mobile home was situated on a plot that had an east west aspect, that is, the front was facing west so the sun would stream in the front at late afternoon. The back where the planter will be situated will have sunlight during the first half of the day before falling into shadow. The main concern was not having enough sunlight for the plants but there was little option for anything else, this was the only place it could go. A raised planter would give a little additional light to the plants before succumbing to the late afternoon shadow so we had to decide on how tall it would be.

We had though about using regular block work for the retaining wall but something a little more rustic was required especially as it had to fit in with the privacy panels that would be erected at a later stage. Railway ties were another good option but on inspection these were chewed up pretty bad and way too wide for our requirement. We didn’t have the necessary real estate on one side as it was down to four or five feet from the coach to the back wall so the retaining wall had to be made with material of six inches or less to give a good balance between walkway and planter.

I was hoping to use railway ties because of the weight and by pegging them together it would create a stable fixture but the alternative I had decided on was to use pretreated construction lumber and rebar to pin them in place.

The first process was to cut back the soil on the two sides of the mobile home that would have the rock and pavers. This required a depth of four inches so most of the earth was shoveled to the back of the mobile home to be used in filling the planter but you can imagine how much soil is created from a 40′ x 6′ and 30′ x 6′ area let alone the amount of effort on my part to cut down to the four inch depth. You may be asking why not hire someone to do the donkey work but as the total plan had not been formulated it would be hard to get a fixed price and at the same time I’m getting plenty of exercise. As the amount of soil was gradually building up it was plain to see that a truck would be needed to haul aleast two thirds of it away, leaving just enough for the planter.

This hard labor took three full weekends to establish the foundation for the project but now with the soil cut back I could estimate how much lumber would be needed. It was decided to use 4″ x 4″ pretreated eight foot lengths of pine and half inch rebar to pin the sections in place. The height of the planter would be a full six sections giving it a total height of 21″ a nice height that you could also use as a seat. The rebar to retain this structure in place would be half inch diameter and 36″ long giving 16″ of steel pounded into the soil every couple of feet along the length of the structure. I figured that with the planter built Lego style and rebar to anchor it into position the force of the soil would complete the rigidity. So with the plan in place it’s time to purchase the materials.

Over the past few weeks I have been busy working on establishing some new themes for my carvings but I have also been researching other people websites. My conclusion was that I found many Lovespoon carvings would follow a similiar theme regardless of where you look on the World Wide Web and I have looked at many websites for inspiration but I find many to be repeats of the same but with different levels of carving ability.

There are many that are only carved or have relief on the front face with the back face flat or only have the corners taken off to give some dimension. These Lovespoons I felt would look often mass produced but the prices are so reasonable that it would be very easy for the enthusiast to start a collection but is this a course that I would want to take.

For me to try and establish myself as a carver of some sort, especially with Welsh Lovespoons most of the carvings that I make end up on eBay for auction and it is there that I try to gauge the feeling of how the design is perceived.

The amount of traffic or should I say small amount of traffic for this sort of carving is primarily from enthusiasts who are looking for a bargain and will frequently stop by. If the design is a success I would find six to eight watchers over the course of the auction and maybe six to eight bids at the end of the day, giving me a good sense of achievement. I like to think it is the quality of the carving and the unique design that sells the item and not purely the price but as we all know eBay is the site for bargains.

When I first started this type of carving I decided that both sides would have to have the same amount of detail so that the Lovespoon could be handled and not just be displayed on a board. It is only when it is handled that the true appreciation for the craftsmanship can be determined and the fact that it is hand carved, saying that it also brings the flaws closer to hand.

To determine the themes I have tried to align them with special holidays or occasions during the year such as Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and so on, that way I can focus on those particular elements that are relevant and meaningful.

The big question is, would it be worthwhile to establish a standalone website with Lovespoons displayed so as to sell them as commissioned pieces or just continue on as a hobby. Everyone has dreams of being successful at something they enjoy but when it becomes a job the romance begins to fade and maybe it’s not as much fun anymore. These questions always arise when job security becomes questionable and you start romancing on ways of earning a living and in todays climate that is an even bigger factor than ever before. I know it’s not a practical solution but it’s important to have some sort of goal, it’s the only way to remain positive and be truly independent or as close as.

Well that’s something to contemplate but not for too long, as carving for a hobby is the only option for me right now. Maybe in later years there will be more time to pursue the dream rather than just having one hour a day but then again, who knows what tomorrow may bring.

For me living on the West Coast that wintery feel is only mild to what grips the rest of the country, so having said that, what should I offer in terms of elements for that special lovespoon?

The first thoughts that come to mind when I think about Spring, is love. At this time of year as the days get longer and the temperature rises a few degrees, everyone tends to be cheerier, friendlier in anticipation of the coming warmer months. The first design element I would use, would be the shape of the spoon bowl and in this case it would not be a regular shaped spoon.

I had come to like making heart shaped spoon bowls, they give the feeling of being more personal and intimate, a kind of offering in plenty if that makes any sense.

Getting the shape just right is important to me so I spend time drawing the shape in the first instance and always adjust as I start the carving. The thickness of the timber is also important to attain that right amount of fullness and I still haven’t quite worked out the best thickness for all of my lovespoons but I guess that really doesn’t matter providing the end result looks good.

Now that I had established that the spoon bowl would be heart shaped I decided to continue the theme with a couple of hearts that appear to be embracing and would also appear as one heart. This element would grow from the heart shaped spoon bowl similar to a flower in early spring. It was important to carve as much fullness into the shape as possible to give the impression of a heart full of love.

I noticed during the course of carving the hearts that as I cut through the various levels of the growth rings that the heart shape would be mimicked giving a nice extra element to the carving. This was more noticeable on the darker rings that probably indicated a year that was drier than most.

For the upper level of the carving I had opted for a pair of doves, these doves would be positioned so that they would give the impression of kissing. Many times during the spring you will see these birds going through their courting ritual with wings fluttering as they dance to attract a prospective mate. The spread of the tail feathers would appear to straddle the upper portion of the heart giving the birds balance and dimension.

The final element I had decided on for this spring time lovespoon was an ornate flame. This one element would cement the entire theme together, it had to give the appearance that it was dancing so the end should be a sharp as possible. This proved to be a little tricky as each time the tip would tend to shear off especially as I wanted the top to become very upright. To gain that extra bit I needed I ended up sanding the edges rather than cutting with a chisel, this finally gave the very sharp tip that you see in the image.

The material I used for this carving was Bass wood which is extremely good for carving and once sanded with a fine grit will polish beautifully. Several layers of paste wax brushed on and buffed to a high sheen will seal the grain and if sanded with very fine sandpaper afterwards, the wax will be burnished further into the grain. A final coat of paste wax will shine the wood to a silky smooth finish giving the wood a nice warm glow, perfect for a Lovespoon destined for spring.

Normally, Wedding Favor Lovespoons are offered by the bride and groom to their guests as a memento of this special occasion and as a blessing on their marriage. It is a memento that helps to keep the bride and groom firmly in their guests mind and an item to remember them by in their prayers but how many guests will there be for this occasion?

As you all know carving is a part time venture that I enjoy doing during my lunch break and many of the more intricate lovespoons can take up to two weeks to complete so you can imagine the predicament I would be in if I had to produce several dozen wedding favors in a relatively short space of time.

These small offerings normally four inches or less in size can be as intricate as their bigger brothers which means using smaller tools but that was not the issue worrying me, it was the possibility of having to produce multiples of the same item at short notice. All sorts of scenarios were playing in my mind, one would take possibly three hours by the time it was carved, then sanded and wax polished and that would be the best case scenario for a simple design so multiple that by the said number and who knows what the actual time frame would be. By this time, just looking at the email was giving me a headache, trying to work out the best way to approach the situation and I hadn’t even made contact to see what the real scope of the work would be. I was envisioning many late nights as lunch hours were not going to get the job done.

My first thoughts were to email back and ask what was the expected delivery date and how many items would be required before we got into any specifics about designs. The next question would be, what sort of elements were you looking to have incorporated in the design and would there be any specific timber that you are partial to and would prefer to be used.

Well as you can imagine, the email addressed my thoughts that were running rampant at the time and must have brought a smile to the face of the lady who was enquiring. She had been bidding on one of my lovespoons on eBay and had been pipped at the post and wanted initially a repeat of the large lovespoon that had just been sold. This I had already started and when the additional request for wedding favor lovespoons came through I was much relieved to find it was a repeat customer who wanted to fill a couple of spaces in her collection.

To fill this custom order I developed four designs using elements from some of my previous designs but scaled down to the miniture size. Her initial reaction was to leave the design to me but would like knots and hearts if possible and she was partial to walnut as a choice of wood. With those instructions the final choice was of a classic design that is very popular and one of the more intricate to make especially at the size it would be made. As you can see from the image the large lovespoon bowl is approximately two inches in length and the overall length of the wedding favor lovespoon is four inches.

The one thing I learnt from this experience is to find out the full story before worrying about how to get it done. Don’t get ahead of yourself otherwise it becomes just like a bad dream and the purpose and beauty of actually making the carving becomes a chore, even though at the time I was pretty amped up about the prospect of making multiples of a set design.

To keep it in perspective, the most important aspect of doing these carvings for me is to retain the peace of mind and the pleasure that the carving brings, by being happy with what you are doing will ultimately be reflected by the end result.

My first goal was to offset the fleur-de-lis to the surrounding, by doing this it will allow me to carve a subtle shape giving it more dimension and a more lily like flower arrangement. Much of the carving for this is in the way of cutting on the detail line with a knife then chipping down with a micro chisel to gain some shape. The deeper the knife cut the more likelihood of chip out from the exposed end grain so at this stage I am being careful not to try and pry the chips out but making sure that it is cut away completely.

The knotwork that surrounds the fleur-de-lis is rebated back one third of the total thickness of the carving on both sides giving enough room to shape the fleur-de-lis so that it will standout from the surrounding form.

The knotwork that surrounds the fleur-de-lis is worked in unison so that the shape compliments each other and the exposed end grain is reduced at the same time. Once it starts to take shape fine sand paper is used to further roll the surface and crisp the detail so that it stands out from the surrounding surface, much of the time you will find is in the finishing work which generally accounts for fifty percent of the time. The image to the left gives a rough idea how the emblem will look but right now it’s a long way from being complete.

The reverse side will get the same treatment but the difference is it will flow a lot quicker as all aspects of the design have been decided on the first side.

The last part of the carving is to shape the flame that tops the Lovespoon, here I have incorporated little flower buds or round baubles that continue the theme of the emblem that would otherwise looked a little static. This small detail draws your eye to the center of the emblem where much of the detail takes place. Small hand palm chisels are used to take the edges off until there is resembling of a bud, edges are taken off the flame ensure that the tip remains sharp just as a real flame would flicker.

For a carving of this magnitude some eleven and a half inches in length the clean up of the details will take between four to six hours or even longer. Several grades of sand paper will be used to smooth out the shape and chisels or gouges will be used to sweeten details that were missed the first time around but as you know in any handmade carving, the next time I make this same design it will be slightly different from the first, guaranteeing each one in itself is unique.

So moving on with this carving, after finishing the spoon bowl and back face I decided to work my way up the carving, mainly so I could give myself time to consider how I would approach the emblem. The rose would be carved so as to retain the sharp outline using a Celtic knotwork to enhance the rose. This always needs extra time to prevent the end grain from chipping out but the end result is worth it.

I tried to split the overlap of the knotwork evenly so that it gives the impression of weaving the petals together and keeping the edges sharp so as to maintain the rose outline. If it does chip out I have to cut the overlap deeper so it has to be done with care, the end grain on parts of the rose are less than an 1/8″ in width so any undue twisting will result in the petal cracking.

Moving forward to the cross I’ve decided to carve a triangular section throughout. This entailed marking a centerline with a pencil on the inside of the cross. To carve this angle I use a palm chisel which gives plenty of control and a knife to cut the diagonal corner line to give a crisp intersection. The pencil line indicates the center for the first carved side after which the spoon is flipped over and carved to the center again giving a clean triangular section. Any undue wobble on the inside of the cross is cleaned up with a sanding file and the triangular section made good.

I had noticed, as I continually remove material the Lovespoon is getting more flexible so I’m taking extra care to keep the carving flat on my carving board. This helps as much as possible to eliminate the flex, even though there are times when you have to hold it to get the best vantage point.

I quite liked the effect of the section given to the cross so I continued with that theme through the heart which will eventually link to the Emblem of the Priory of Sion. I have a good idea how I will carve that emblem and I will have to use my micro carvers for that job, things are going to get a little tight in some of the areas so here’s hoping, no chip out.

The first task in the development of any of my Lovespoons is to drill small pilot holes in all of the tight corners. This one procedure eliminates a lot of mishaps with the bandsaw, it reduces the chance of cutting into delicate parts of the design and adds a clean finish to the corners. For this design I used a couple of different size drill bits depending on the complexity of the area. For the heart I only needed a few holes so that the fret saw could be easily maneuvered around the inside of the shape, in contrast the rose needed many small holes to define the corners and present an easy way of controlling the fret saw.

As you can see from the design I have decided to remove material from both the inside of the heart and the inside of the cross making for a light delicate theme throughout. The spoon bowl has also been extended and like I said previously, by leaving these areas open it gave me the option to revisit them as the design formulated in my mind.

With all the pilot holes drilled, the next stage is to cut out the inner shape with a fret saw, for me I use a hand fret saw. The ease with which you can transfer from one area to the next is far easier than releasing the blade on a power fret saw and trying to relock without the blade snapping more than once during the course of cutting out the shape.

I will leave the outside intact until I have cut the inner shape first and by doing this it will eliminate crushing the delicate edges of the design and provide a sturdy grip in the vise. The one drawback from hand cutting is trying to keep the blade square to the line, this would be a problem if the carving was going to be one sided but in my case I always shape the back face as well. In one sided carving you would want the hole to be square through so that you would get the full benefit of the shape whereas I can resolve any issues when I shape the back face. The best way for a square edge in this case would be to use a power fret saw.

Cutting out the material for me always starts at the top, that way I have the majority of the spoon blank secured in the vise preventing any unwanted bending. I want the blade to be cutting with every stroke without the material flexing, that way I get a reasonably clean cutout.

With all the inside cutout, the basic form begins to take shape and I can start to think about how I will shape the heart and cross. Will it be a beveled section or will I decide to round off the edges giving it a more organic look?

While I ponder those design issues I’ll continue to shape the outside on my bandsaw taking care to remove material carefully, I don’t want to catch any of the smaller detail areas with the blade.

Once I have the outside shape I can tell if I have the balance right with all the elements, it’s not as though I can turn back now but it’s reassuring to know if it will look OK at the end of the day. I’ll try to cut as close to the line as possible in a smooth motion. This will reduce the amount of sanding and clean up at a later date, even though the finishing process accounts for 50% of the overall time in making the Lovespoon.

The first part to start carving is the spoon bowl, first I’m going to hone the half inch straight gouge that I use. This gouge, an old Sorby wood gouge was one of the tools that I purchased from a retired patternmaker in 1976 during my apprenticeship as a patternmaker. At that time it was around 40 to 50 years of age, showing a little pitting in the steel due to damp conditions but not enough to hamper the performance of the tool. I still find this one tool the most frequently used for carving the bowl on 90% of my Lovespoons, it just feels right and keeps a fine edge.

As I carve the bowl I can see the different layers, each represent one years growth of the trees life cycle. This layering gives the carving depth and a unique look and it’s something that I find very desirable so hopefully when I come to sell this Lovespoon the prospective buyer also finds it pleasantly pleasing.

When I carve the spoon bowl I generally cut very close to the edge but I’ve decided to leave a little extra this time. I’ve decided to roll the edge over when I do the final sanding, this will give it a much softer look compared to the rest of the detail that is very hard edged. This will keep the main focus on all of the main elements and at the same time be complimentary to detail seen in the spoon bowl.

For now, that’s as far as I’ve got, even though I could explain all the steps to the end of the carving but pictures are worth a thousand words so I will show you the rest of this carving in future posts.

The spoon bowl was also an open issue as you can see by the incomplete drawing. When I glue the paper layout onto the wooden blank I will then finalize the length and width of the spoon bowl. This will also give me plenty of leeway to change the shape so that the balance works with the rest of the elements. When gluing the final sketch onto the wooden blank it always seems to give the project a whole new dimension and I find it then, a lot easier to judge the proportions at that stage.

I decided to add a flame type element to the top of the emblem which also has a meaning of forever, which I find appropriate for this design and it also provides a means of hanging the Lovespoon in place if so desired. The extension of the fine internal lines was decided upon to provide support for the flame and add an extra form as in flower buds. This also gives the Lovespoon an added dimension and adds to the delicacy of the design.

Now with the carving forming in my head I’m quite excited to glue it to the birch and start cutting out the detail. I already know what I’m going to do with the heart and cross but I will show you this in the next post. The images will be self explanatory and will give a good indication of the fragility of this chosen design.