More Woodcarving

This is Axel again. It has been a while since I posted my woodcarving projects, so I thought I would put up what I have been working on over the last couple of months.

Two carvings I did for a bookshelf for Heavah's room. I did the one on the bottom in one day. I was pretty proud of myself. And it was on pine. Which BTW is a crap wood to try and carve. It chips all the time. Lots of superglue on this one...

It turned out better than the one we got at Ikea.  And was about the same price.

Before Linda left she found this blank one and asked if I could carve one of the local snake eating gods.



So I did. It was fun. She helped me on it too. It was a lot of fun teaching her to do it. She is really enthusiastic when it comes to art, which I love about her.  I am glad my mother in law, mother and wife all care about art.  Heavah and Xay are in to it too, so the cycle continues on. 





My dad sent me some carving tools and with them this piece of wood that I think is basswood. I did a carving of a celtic looking cape buffalo in honor of our going to Africa this October.



This one is a pair of 'Nepali' carvings I did from ideas of ones around the city. The first is a lady dancing with a snake, which is common here ('em, and ready to be submitted to the Ensign for art projects...) Then I figured if I did a woman with a snake I should do an Adam killing a snake. It turned out more like a Conan the Barbarian killing a snake, but hey, it was my first pair of more 3D carvings...



This is how they are supposed to be displayed



I had an idea to do a headboard for a bed for Terah and I so I drew up this Celtic one. It was also in pine. I am not so sure I want to work with it again. It is a tough wood to carve. One of the hardest parts about carving is the thought process and drawing. It takes a long time to get on wood what your idea was. Once it is on, the carving part isn't that hard.



The first cuts is the deepest. Sorry. Couldn't resist that one...



Here it is done. It has a yin and yang in the center, one being Terah's chinese animal year (the dragon) and the other mine (the rooster). Four columbine flowers to represent our kids, and our love for the flower that we gained during a trip to Colorado when we were first married. Also, two celtic circles that are actually two seperate parts woven together



Detail of the dragon/rooster yin and yang.



Here is the celtic circle and the flowers.



Then I got really excited to do a mesopotamian carving. I saw some of the big reliefs in the Met in NYC and I always wanted to do one. So I researched it and found out they had a tree of life story too. So I drew this one up. It is Terah and I around the Tree of Life (Caballa tree of life) with the Holy Ghost over it.



Here it is done. I did it on Sal wood (whatever that is - some Nepali jungle hardwood). It weighs a ton. I had it stained and I am not sure I like the staining job.



On this side is the male side. With the male God (bull) at the top, Aries the Ram at the bottom (my sign), an Eagle god who is protecting our family (Adam was from the Americas, so it was supposed to be him) and the two boys next to me. 

In between Adam and the animal gods are the Mormon temple sunstone for the celestial kingdom, the moon for the terrestrial and the star for the telestial.

 I also transliterated some cuneiform alphabet (I had some special tools made for that purpose) and put my favorite scriptures about eternal life and the tree of life around the edges.



This is the female side. It has the female Goddess at the top and Terah's sign (Leo) on the bottom. I also put her favorite scripture on the side in Cuneiform.

This is a close up of my Aries one.  I had fun designing this one.


Here are Terah and I partaking of the Tree of Life. The same drawing as above.



This is just me. Notice the ripped muscles. I tried to be as life like as possible.



Here is Terah's side. She has the two girls behind her with a God behind her too. The God is the 'Lion of Judah' or Jesus. Aslan if you will... Hey, if CS Lewis can do it, so can I. He has Alpha and Omega on his clothing and a crown with a Star of David on his head. Then the three degrees of glory too.  Also, the number 12 appears twice on him.

It took me about a month to think up, draw and carve. I am pretty happy with it even though these pictures didn't turn out. I need to do a proper explination on the back of it in permanent marker (I do that on the back of all my art) so when I get old and feeble I will remember why I did what I did.

Some people might get ticked that it is Mesopotamian because Sumner and Akkadia later went on to become Babylon, but if you remember it originally was the location of where Noah landed and Abraham (and Terah, his father) birthplace. So I think at one time this area definitely had the truth, just by the time Babylon came around they lost it. I wonder how long that took? more than two hundred years?

It makes a nice addition to my 'One Eternal Round' art collection I am doing. Different cultures and arts that have parts of our truth in them. Next I need to do a good Mesoamerican one. Also Greece, Roman and early England. So much art to do, so little time... And with Qatar coming and me having to travel three weeks out of the month, even less than I had here...

Typical Day

Since you asked, Stacy, and because I have nothing interesting to say these days:

5:00 am - Wake up to a baby yelling, "Mommy, Daddy? Where are you?" As a result, all other children awake.

5:15 - Scripture study and 'feature family member' (when we all say something good about our spotlight family member and the family member must say something good about him or herself. Since Sedona and Asa are too young to participate we just smother them with kisses).

6:00 - Check email and Internet (if we have electricity). Axel works on his various projects, currently woodcarving. Kids play outside.*

6:30 - breakfast and playtime outside.

7:45 - Heavah leaves for school.

8:00 - Xavier does reading and math with mom.

8:45 - Xavier leaves for school.

9:00 - Talk about the day with Axel, send him off to work.

10:00 - Play with Sedona, prepare for homeschool lesson.

11:00 - Go to gym, kick my butt. Take steam/sauna.*

12:30 - Get picked up by my driver and come home to a prepared lunch. Or sometimes, I meet my girlfriends or Axel at a restaurant.*

1:00 - 2:30 - Run errands or send driver and maid to run errands, depending on whether I want to read a book or sew.*

2:30 - Kids arrive from school. Depending on their moods, they will play for a bit or we will start homeschool.

3:00 - 5:00 - Participate in various projects with the children like, write in journals, read books, play math games, do art, etc.

5:30 or 6:00 - Axel arrives home.

6:15 - Eat dinner.

7:00 - Read books together and then read independently.

7:30 - Kids asleep and depending on whether we have electricity, Axel and I will enjoy a DVD show and work on our various hobbies or we will read a book.*

9:00 - Fast asleep, everyone.

*If I am working, it trumps all the fun stuff.

Tappy-Tap-Tappers

This is Axel again. About a month and a half ago Terah and I were out on a date and we stopped by this wood carving store. It is something I have always wanted to learn, as my dad used to do it and he claimed his grandfather used to do it as well back when he was a kid living in SLC during WWII. It always seemed too hard for me.

But talking to this guy I decided what the heck and asked him if he could teach me. He agreed, and we set up some time to do it at night.

Om, My Mr. Miyagi

I did that with him for about three weeks and finally gave up. It was too hard to get away at night (something always made me stay late at work the nights we agreed I would come), he wanted me to sit on the floor like they do and it was always in bad light.

When Asa got sick and we took him to the scary clinic, across the road as we were waiting I met Manish at another woodcarving shop. His work was really good and after talking him up a bit, I asked him if he could come to my house in the morning to teach me. He agreed and he now comes three times a week for an hour a time and gets a whopping 4.50 an hour for doing so.

I can't tell you how great it is to do it in the light, in the morning (he comes at 7 and is gone by 8) and we sit in a chair. The chisels they use here are just strips of metal beat out into different shapes. 21 of them cost me 30 bucks. Terah made the really sweet carrying thing for them.

Manish teaching me how to do it.

Whenever I work on something and show it to him he always says 'Hmmm, this is a little bit good' and proceeds to clean it up. I get ticked off when my Nepali staff just tell me what they think I want to hear, but somehow with Manish I don't mind it. I am working to hear him drop the 'a little bit'.

You can see my new Lady Amherst pheasant in the background.

My first picture frame I worked on. This leaf is something very Nepali. They say if you can make the leaf and the flower you can make anything.

My first big project. It is a Tibetan Buddhist design. It was a real pain to get all that wood out but very fun.

How the frame will look when it is done.

Just something I tried out. I want to do a bamboo picture like the leaves here. The flower was something different too.

My first dragon head and a few flowers.

A flower design I wasn't too passionate about, but it taught me some good techniques.

Another design for a picture frame I want to do. It is much harder than the flowers but pretty cool looking.

I always say wherever you go and wherever you live there is going to be something uniquely cool about it and uniquely awful about it. Wood carving is something Nepalis know. While I want to learn their style, I really wanted to do some Celtic carvings. So I made this dragon design:

I ultimately want to make a four post bed for Terah and I. But in addition there are some other great Nepali things they carve I also want to learn. More to come.

Woodcarving Part II

This is Axel. I have finished another three wood carvings. Well, not 100% finished. I still have a few things to do on them but what the heck, I thought I would post them.

First is the Celtic Dragon. I already posted some pictures of this one, but now it is stained and I added the runic writing on the outside. Here it is stained:

On the sides I put our family's names in Runic alphabet.

You can see the top is John Ax el Bromley, the right side says Heavah Saxon Sedona Yael, bottom Terah Reu Bromley and left side says Xavier Connell Asa Frdrk.

Then sticking with the Celtic design I wanted to do one that was the Tree of Life. I also wanted to incorporate the Jewish Kabala Tree of Life. It is composed of a female and male side with different things. (IE, the female side is Wisdom, the Male is Intelligence and when they are together they are Knowledge - True on all accounts).

Here is mine. I still have to carve in the Hebrew in the circles and the fire on the flaming swords of Cheribum aren't done yet either, but you get the picture:

A shot of the top and bottom. You can see I tried to get the Ankh in there too. It is also the symbol in Egypt of life:

Then since I did one of the Tree of Life I thought I would do one of the Tree of Good and Evil. I still haven't finished the leaves on the top, but it is mostly done.

The top has 9 fruits. Or 3x3 to symbolize the Godhead. I am going to put in Elohim on three, Jehovah on three and Holy Spirit on three.

Then of course the Serpent. You can see how deep this one is. It was a pain in the butt to do. I think I am only going to do shallow ones from now on. This one took three times as long to do.

On the bottom I did the Ying and Yan to symbolize that Good cannot exist without Evil and viceversa.

Also if you look the roots are the Jewish star of David. A triangle pointing down (representing Eve, or the female reproduction power) and a triangle pointing up (Adam - male reproductive power). With the serpent/Satan intertwined with them both as they chose to follow him first, not God.

Anyways I don't know if I am going to stain this one or paint it.

Lastly is the sarcophagus lid to Pacal Votan found in Palenque.

Here is what it looks like for real:

It was long said that the pyramids in Mexico were NOT the same as the ones in Egypt because the ones in Egypt were for burial and the ones in Mexico were for other religious rites. UNTIL this pyramid was found and it was proven that they also were for burial. Here is the pyramid:

Anyways, here is mine. I simplified it as you can see. Hey, I am still learning....

The top of the tree/cross you will see a bird (Quezltcotal or the White Bearded God - Jesus). Some flying angels nearby.

Then the Tree of Life, with a Cross clearly in it, then Pacal Votan himself in supplication.

and finally a monster of the underworld below him.

It was a hard one to to as it is twice as long as the other two. But it was fun. The whole thing is VERY Book of Mormon. A good one to have in the house.

Anyways, this one I am going to paint in Mayan/Olmec colors. I don't know how it will turn out. I like the Aztec pictures. I think I will do a few more of them. I want to do one just of Queztlcotal as the feather serpent. Then maybe one of a Mayan warrior. And put up 'In defence of our lands...'

But it might take a while. Now the sun comes up at 730 and it is really too cold to do it outside and load share is every night, so no electricity to do it inside. I think I am done for the winter. I will start up again when the sun comes out again. Plus I want to go to Thailand to get some good chisels. The ones I have now are not that good. The Thai are the masters of wood carving. I mean how do they do this???

I have a ways to go.... Maybe one day we will be stationed in Thailand and I will get a chance to learn from the masters.