06/08/2018
It may be cliché, but it’s a familiar story among artists. If they can’t find the “thing” – the gadget, medium, substrate, or tool – that does the trick, they’ll invent it. The practice goes all the way back to the creation of paint, so that early man could make marks on cave walls. At Art Materials World, we see innovations that result from a need every year: square-shaped extra-soft pastels, a faster and easier canvas stretcher, and a finish for sculpture that looks like bronze.
Five years ago, artist Diann Kincaid started sculpting with air-dry clay. She would have loved to cast her oversized hummingbirds and ravens in bronze, but she just couldn’t afford it. “I decided to go a different route and find an art medium that would imitate bronze; a ‘poor man’s bronze’ if you will,” she recently told us. “I needed a medium that I could apply to do three things: dry rock hard, protect the outdoor garden sculptures I created, and look like bronze. I searched the market for a year before I started experimenting.”
Thanks to her chemistry background, Diann had the confidence to test and formulate a product that would meet her needs. She started mixing dry goods, liquids, and solid mediums to produce different effects, and after three years she perfected a formula that she calls Bronzee. She sealed her air-dry-clay sculptures in it and began to sell them to galleries. To her delight, they looked just like real bronze. “It was at that moment that I decided to manufacture the medium and bring it to market so that other artists could showcase their work in a bronze-like form without the expense.”
Bronzee adheres to a multitude of surfaces: various clays, canvas, fabric, textiles, wood, gourds, metal and more, Diann explains. She uses it every day to create her 2-D and 3-D artwork. “On a dry surface, I apply one or two coats of the Liquid Sealer first, and then I apply Bronzee in multiple layers. I smooth and sand if necessary until the finished piece glows with a straight bronze look or a patina finish.”
Additional tools needed for application include a flexible brush, soap and water, a protected surface plus Artzee Liquid Sealer.
Diann is currently working on a public installation in Edmonds, Washington – an outside mural for the city’s “On the Fence” project. “I will portray a sense of community, nature, and history in a Cubist/Mondrian style using Artzee Liquid Sealer, Bronzee Liquid Finish, and Glaze Ez Waterproof Sealant.”
For more information, call Diann 206-271-6460.
“Make a spoon or spoil a horn.”
Ohio-based woodcarver Clark Schwenke makes utilitarian coffee scoops, spoons, spatulas, and Swedish-style butter knives. He just started working on small bowls. But the intricate Welsh Love Spoons Clark creates – traditionally given to a girl by her beau as a sign of love, and proof that he has the skills to support her – really illustrate his mastery of woodcarving.
His specialty tools come with descriptive names like “draw knife” and “spoke shave” (both used to round and refine the handle and back of the bowl of a spoon); a “shave horse” (a combination vice and work bench); and a “hook knife” or “scorp” for hollowing the bowl. A small detail knife refines the rim and back of the bowl.
“This is where the Spoon Carvin’ Jack from FlexCut comes in handy,” he says. “It incorporates a shallow and deep hook knife, as well as a medium-sized detail knife.”
The former paramedic and EMS manager has been an avid hobby woodworker for a long time, but just started carving a few years ago. “I made figures as Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews, and moved onto spoons from there,” he told us. “I learned primarily by watching YouTube videos, reading and studying carving styles from around the world, and lots and lots of practice and failure. I’ve created some of the most decorative firewood over the years.”
Before the Spoon Carvin’ Jack became available, he used FlexCut’s Right Handed Hook Knife and the knives from its 3-Knife Starter Set to create the hollows of his spoons. “It was my first purchase for carving, and I’ve been a FlexCut fan ever since.”
He was initially drawn to the company because of its locally-source materials, and the fact that all its products – Clark considers them “world class” – are made in the U.S. A personal plus for Clark was its Erie, Pennsylvania, location – less than a day’s drive from his home.
“I’ve used other tools from around the world; some made more than 100 years ago, but FlexCut products are among the best,” he says. “Their catalog features just about any item that a carver could want, from hand tools to power carving, and from draw knives to scrapers.”
Like artists in other mediums, Clark has to avoid the temptation to work a piece “just a little bit more” or else cause its downfall. “I may begin with a blank that I think will be a beautiful long-handled cooking spoon, but by the time I am finished, it is a coffee scoop or a spatula,” he says. “I’ve spent an hour on a piece only to end up carving through the back of the bowl or having the handle split. Sometimes you just have to stop yourself and say, ‘It’s done.’”
For more information, visit flexcut.com.
Ohio-based woodcarver Clark Schwenke makes utilitarian coffee scoops, spoons, spatulas, and Swedish-style butter knives. He just started working on small bowls. But the intricate Welsh Love Spoons Clark creates – traditionally given to a girl by her beau as a sign of love, and proof that he has the skills to support her – really illustrate his mastery of woodcarving.
His specialty tools come with descriptive names like “draw knife” and “spoke shave” (both used to round and refine the handle and back of the bowl of a spoon); a “shave horse” (a combination vice and work bench); and a “hook knife” or “scorp” for hollowing the bowl. A small detail knife refines the rim and back of the bowl.
“This is where the Spoon Carvin’ Jack from FlexCut comes in handy,” he says. “It incorporates a shallow and deep hook knife, as well as a medium-sized detail knife.”
The former paramedic and EMS manager has been an avid hobby woodworker for a long time, but just started carving a few years ago. “I made figures as Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews, and moved onto spoons from there,” he told us. “I learned primarily by watching YouTube videos, reading and studying carving styles from around the world, and lots and lots of practice and failure. I’ve created some of the most decorative firewood over the years.”
Before the Spoon Carvin’ Jack became available, he used FlexCut’s Right Handed Hook Knife and the knives from its 3-Knife Starter Set to create the hollows of his spoons. “It was my first purchase for carving, and I’ve been a FlexCut fan ever since.”
He was initially drawn to the company because of its locally-source materials, and the fact that all its products – Clark considers them “world class” – are made in the U.S. A personal plus for Clark was its Erie, Pennsylvania, location – less than a day’s drive from his home.
“I’ve used other tools from around the world; some made more than 100 years ago, but FlexCut products are among the best,” he says. “Their catalog features just about any item that a carver could want, from hand tools to power carving, and from draw knives to scrapers.”
Like artists in other mediums, Clark has to avoid the temptation to work a piece “just a little bit more” or else cause its downfall. “I may begin with a blank that I think will be a beautiful long-handled cooking spoon, but by the time I am finished, it is a coffee scoop or a spatula,” he says. “I’ve spent an hour on a piece only to end up carving through the back of the bowl or having the handle split. Sometimes you just have to stop yourself and say, ‘It’s done.’”
For more information, visit flexcut.com.
Infusion Conclusion
When we asked Jacquard what artists were doing with their products, they sent us to Keith Lackner, a Pearl-Ex Pigments fan. Keith, a wood turner, has developed a patented technique for blending colored acrylic resin with wood to make beautiful, one-of-a-kind art pieces.
“Turning wooden pens helped me learn basic skills,” he explained in a Woodcraft magazine cover story last year. “I used some of the money from selling pens to fund my hobby, and before long I started buying resin pen blanks [to turn, as opposed to wood blanks] because of the amazing colors that are available.”
A few years later, he wondered what would happen if he made a blank that combined the two materials so that he could literally turn it into art. “My goal was to make large pieces that popped in a way that no one had ever imagined they could.
It had never been done before, so Keith’s biggest challenge was the lack of information, including what resin to use and how to add color. That’s where Pearl-Ex Pigments came in – he mixes them with Alumilite resin. “I really like the variety of colors, and I love the way the pearl in the pigment comes alive, especially when the sun hits it.”
To make his “Resin Infusion” blanks, Keith removes the dirt, dust and loose bark from a wood blank. He pays particular attention to the cracks and crevices – he wants the resin to flow into them. The wood is then dried in a toaster oven at 220º F for six hours or more. Afterwards, it is secured in a leak-proof mold to keep it from floating when the colored resin is poured in.
Keith puts rice in the mold to estimate the volume of Alumilite resin he’ll add. The Pearl-Ex powders have already been measured and are in separate containers as the resin is mixed.
Keith works fast to combine the pigment and resin – the resin’s open time is just 12 minutes. The cups of colored resin are then poured into the mold, which is placed in a painter’s pressure pot. “Putting the resin under pressure eliminates bubbles and voids, and forces it deep into the wood,” explains Keith. The time under pressure is determined by the mold’s size, and then the resin cures overnight. Afterwards, the blank is cut out of the mold using a bandsaw or table saw, and is ready to turn.
More and more people are woodworking these days, including baby boomers and women, the World Herald in Omaha reported recently. It’s due in part to the accessibility of equipment and classes at community maker spaces like Omaha’s six-year-old space, Bench. The result may be more innovation and wood/art medium combinations.
For more information visit jacquardproducts.com.
