{"id":1387,"date":"2014-09-25T21:39:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T21:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stichler.co.uk\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2014-09-28T21:13:31","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T21:13:31","slug":"oak-gargoyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/09\/25\/oak-gargoyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Oak Gargoyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was contacted by a lady from Manchester who wanted a gargoyle carved in oak for her partner;\u00a0 because of her partner’s interest in wartime aircraft, she requested that the gargoyle be wearing a flying jacket, hat and goggles…..different!<\/p>\n

I had a bit of difficulty sourcing a good chunk of oak, cut away from the heartwood, but Piercy Hardwoods in Aberdeenshire was recommended to me, and before long the block of oak was delivered.<\/p>\n

\"allen-stichler-gargoyle-carving\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"gargoyle-allen-stichler-carving\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The customer had approved the drawing, so I then transferred the design to the block of oak.<\/p>\n

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I don’t like using electric tools, but sometimes you’ve got to be sensible. I had a lot of roughing out to do, so used my Arbortech to get rid of a bit of the waste. After taking the bulk off (first picture) I was back in my comfort zone with a chisel and mallet.<\/p>\n

\"oak-gargoyle-allen-stichler\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"carved-gargoyle-allen-stichler\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"allen-stichler-oak-gargoyle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gradually shaping the Gargoyle.<\/p>\n

\"oak-gargoyle-allen-stichler\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"carved-oak-gargoyle-allen-stichler\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Slowly adding more detail.<\/p>\n

With the body well on the way, I turned my attention to the wings, again using the Arbortech to get rid of the large amount of waste.<\/p>\n

\"stichler-carving-gargoyle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a bit of a surprise as I got further into the Gargoyle’s left wing and found a big lump of rot, or a knot, or maybe even a bit of knotty rot!<\/p>\n

\"stichler-gargoyle-carving\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \"oak-carving-stichler-gargoyle\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"gargoyle-oak-stichler-carving\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There wasn’t a lot I could do, so I just decided to work with it; a damaged wing actually complimented the fighter-pilot theme! Another issue was the big thick leather jacket ~ if I kept that the same between the wings, the wings themselves would look quite stumpy and small. As it was I dropped his back beyond the jacket, showing his spine; it would mean that his jacket had been cut to fit around his wings, which is possible, isn’t it? Rather that than stumpy wings anyway.<\/p>\n

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The wings carved with bat-like folds, and the spine.<\/p>\n

The it was time to give the collar and cuffs a textured finish, to look like a flying jacket, and\u00a0 give him a few coats of oil.<\/p>\n

\"wood-carved-gargoyle-allen-stichler\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My partner Annette christened the little chap\u00a0 “Giggles~ a mixture of Gargoyle and Biggles ~ and I’m pleased to say this name has stuck with his new owners!<\/p>\n

Strictly speaking Giggles isn’t a gargoyle at all ~ he’s a Grotesque; gargoyles generally carry water ( “Gargoyle” having the same root as “gargle”).<\/p>\n

Many thanks to this customer and her partner too , who travelled for two hours to pick up the sculpture. Thank you both very much.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was contacted by a lady from Manchester who wanted a gargoyle carved in oak for her partner;\u00a0 because of her partner’s interest in wartime aircraft, she requested that the gargoyle be wearing a flying jacket, hat and goggles…..different! I had a bit of difficulty sourcing a good chunk of oak, cut away from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carving-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1423,"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stichler.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}