Wednesday 29 January 2014

Chinese Leaf Carvings

Meticulously Handcrafted Chinese Leaf Carvings


What you see below are custom crafted, hand-cut illustrations on dried and treated Chinar leaves. The process involves removing the thin layers of leaf while keeping the vein structure intact.



As the name suggests, leaf carving consists of literally carving an image on to a tree leaf, specifically the leaf of the Chinar tree, a tree native to India, Pakistan and China that bears a close resemblance to the leaf on the maple tree.
"This is a relatively new art form according to Dean Prator, a man in Los Angeles who sells customized carved leaves online. And that's amazing, considering art has been around since the dawn of humanity and trees have been around even longer. "As far as I can tell, it goes back to 1994, when an artist name Huang Tai Shang created this and got in the Guinness Book of World Records.









Creating leaf art is a long and complex process. Leaves are put through a 60 step process such as, manually cutting and removing the outer surface of the leaf while leaving the leafs veins intact which add detail into the subject matter of the carving. Pressing, curing and dying are also just a few of the steps needed to prepare the leaf. 



After special processing, the leaf blade forms a natural permanent pigment, so the colour is stable, and corrosion resistant. An anti-aging treatment helps the leaves exceed the durability of thick paper. The size of these leaves vary since no two leaves are exactly the same. Each leaf is approximately 8 to 10 inches in size. The finished product is strong, durable, natural and beautiful.











Source:
http://www.leafcarvingart.com

Thursday 23 January 2014

Randall Rosenthal and 'Cold Hard Cash'

When you study the work of Randall Rosenthal you can't help but be in awe of this mans talent, the way he emulates a stack of paper from solid blocks of wood reminds me of Livio De Marchi's carving skills when creating his wooden clothing.  Lets start off by taking a look at:

'Cold Hard Cash'   2012 , acrylic and ink on one block of Vermont White Pine, 14 x 14 x 10" 


It doesn't matter how long you look at this piece you cannot convince yourself it is carved from one solid block of white pine then diligently painted. Here are some great shots of the work in progress.







Randall Rosenthal.

BORN:           1947 New York, New York
EDUCATION:  1965-69 Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania






















A personal favourite of mine is 'Cutting Board'  because of the variety of materials he has so successfully copied.


'Cutting board'  in progress.



And here, a selection of some of Randall's other pieces, it's hard to remember these are all carved from solid blocks of wood !








If you wish to fully explore the weird world of Randall Rosenthal check out his website: www.randallrosenthal.com

Other sources:


Randall's forum posts of  'Old Money' on sawmillcreek.org


Saturday 18 January 2014

The 'Waste Less' Chair by Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop

The ‘Waste Less’ chair by Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop is a totally unique chair built from timber off cuts, this was the scrap wood from whole logs which had been milled to make structural beams.




By re-positioning the four substantial looking clamps each side of the seat you can alter the  layout of the timber sections. Each piece held together by heavy weight recessed hinges, turning it from a conventional chair into a reclining chair


or back into it's 'rolled up' position.

Presumably in it's closed position this innovative piece of furniture could easily be rolled into a corner or lifted away with the side clamps. I think when not in use I would be tempted to stand it on end and use it as a plant stand.



Friday 10 January 2014

Wooden Food Moulds

Living in this modern world of plastic food moulds and factory made cakes and confectionery got me thinking about what they did in 'the old days' when it came to decoration on food. So I had a little dig around and found many historical food moulds, the majority made from pear or boxwood. Here are just a few.

Many thanks go to Ivan Day, food historian and television & radio broadcaster for the reproduction of much of the text and images in this post.     http://www.historicfood.com/

Twelfth Cake Moulds


This impressive Twelfth Cake is ornamented with gum paste 'devices' printed from original eighteenth century moulds. The two crowns, standard decorations used on cakes of this kind, were constructed from ten individual shapes pressed from the mould below, a rare survivor from the late eighteenth century. The other ornaments were all printed from two carved wooden moulds or confectioner's boards. Designs for these cakes varied considerably, but the cake above, made with the tools of the Georgian confectioners trade gives a pretty fair impression of these remarkable precursors of the Victorian Christmas Cake.

Eighteenth century crown sugar mould




The front and back of a typical confectioner's board carved with various "devices". This mould is unusual in that it is carved from chestnut. Most were carved from box or pearwood.


A nineteenth century fruitwood mould carved by the celebrated confectioner William Jarrin. Jarrin was famous for his elaborately decorated Twelfth Cakes, which graced the window of his shop during the Christmas season. Motifs of this kind were pressed out of gum paste and stuck back-to-back to form standing figures. They were probably designed as Twelfth Cake ornaments.

This striking specimen of a Jarrin mould below depicts a winged Egyptian mask signed by him on the side, it is dated - 1820.  It is also exceptionally large, taking up almost the full length of a ten inch long block of pear wood.


English Gingerbread Moulds

These little gingerbreads are flavoured with ginger and coloured with red sanders. Chips of red sanders can be seen at the top left of the photograph. It is the wood of the red sandelwood tree (Pterocarpus santalinum),which before the introduction of cochineal was used as a red food colouring. In sixteenth century London there was such a call for it as a dyestuff that there was actually a Guild of Sanders Beaters, whose job was to grind this very hard brick red wood into a fine dust.


Below are a pair of early Stuart gingerbread Moulds.


A nineteenth century pearwood mould for making Punch and Judy gingerbreads,
and a pair of gingerbreads made from that mould.

A selection of English moulded gingerbreads


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Some high status dishes in the medieval and early modern periods were not merely decorative, but adorned with images of allegorical, heraldic or religious significance. The sixteenth century Portuguese almond paste mould below, carved with an image of Orpheus playing music to the beasts and birds.


Early modern French multi-purpose food mould with hunting scenes and coats of arms.


In the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, pies with incredible baroque pastry decorations similar to those on plasterwork and woodcarving were a common element at important feasts. The pastry cooks who made these extraordinary food items possessed skills which were frequently as well developed as those of artists who worked in more conventional media.



Old Icelandic bread moulds


These carved wooden moulds would be pressed on top of the bread prior to baking, to make patterns in the crust

Inscription:  'Glory be to the Good Giver of Gifts'



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A French pearwood card mould (ca.1780). The card is carved with the components to make a number of objects, including the tazza (below) with its emblematic royal dolphins.


An early boxwood confectioner's mould (ca. 1720.) for making the components of a tester bed (below). There are more motifs on the back. This kind of mould, carved on both sides, was known as a 'card' or 'board'.The bed may have been designed as an ornament for a bride cake.

                             
A dolphin tazza                                                                          The gum-paste tester bed


A Victorian Royal Cheese Mould

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Wooden moulds were also utilised for printing decorative patterns on quiddany, cotoniack and Genoa paste, the principal quince confections of the early modern period.




A quince paste mould carved with the arms of Phillip V of Spain - 18th century.

After this relatively small amount of research into the subject of wooden food moulds it makes me think how boring modern food is to look at by comparison, all these moulds were carved by hand, with our modern technology and CNC carving capability's why are all present day pies, pastries and confectionary not decorated to such a fine detail ?

Many thanks go to Ivan Day, food historian and television & radio broadcaster for the reproduction of much of the text and images in this post. His highly informative website can be found here:   http://www.historicfood.com/