New Bishops Crest

[mark yundt]

Confused yet?
The other thread, Bishops Altar and Tabernacle is for the outgoing Bishop. And the new Bishop get's a new Crest for the main Cathedral.
That's this project.
And true to form the new Bishops right hand man sent me this sketch of his current Crest. The actual crest I'm going to basically copy is currently in New York. Now what I have to do is to incorporate this design into one whole crest.What that means is to use the style and form of the current one and add this to it in place of the outgoing Bishops design.
Usually what happens is one half of what is essentially a shield is the symbolism for the Dioceses' and the other half has the design of the sitting Bishop.. all in one design. So one half will always stay the same,, and as Bishops come and go,the second half changes.
See,, simple!
Now I just wait until Thursday and the Bishops' man with the crest in tow is supposed to show up at my Studio and let me run with the design. Plus he wants to discuss ideas for his own church as well. It's about an hour from here. So till then I have this to look at ( yipee) and keep wrapping up as many loose ends till I have to turn my attention to this. Another one of those last minute type deals but it's not an issue. I'll make it SEEM like one,,a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth with a bit of tearing my clothes for effect.... but not a big deal.
I'll recap this of course as well as photo's on the blog once I get rolling with it. So till Thursday then......


I guess it's the type of file ( don't ask me) but if you click on it,it gets big and straightens out. sorry 'bout that. You'll get the idea anyway....sort of funky but neat. Also came with two pages of description of each element. I think he got carried away a bit here. Too much info,, just show me what you want and let me design it and carve it. But then again,, interesting ,, and things I'll file away for future reference as to what all the symbolism means. Maybe someday I can use it to impress some other client and make them say "OHHHHH"

[CarverRog]

Re: New Bishops Crest

Tassel,ribbons and birds, oh my! LOL! Looks like money in the making. If you pickup work for that other church the wife gets a new fur coat, right? LOL!

[mark yundt]

Re: New Bishops Crest

Oh yeah,,,money in the making. As you said,,"looks" like it, we'll just see how that goes. Ha. My luck I'll have to work for it. They'll want this design squeezed in with half the Dioceses' design on a shield that's 6 inches X 6 inches or something ridiculous like that. I have no idea how big this thing is going to be. Thursday will give me what I need to know. Till then I don't have to think about it. Maybe too I'll get over the fact that this Eagle looks like road kill. But it is a known style,, I know that,,but,,,,I used to be a bird carver.

Yeah,, another church. Go figure. Me and my big mouth. Talked my way into another mess. Put the bug in his ear. Now just get me in front of him,,or anyone interested in carvings,, I'll do what I call my "Dog and Pony Show" and walk away with some ribbons. I don't do shows per say,, but I win ribbons none the less. They are all green with pictures of dead presidents on them.LOL,,,a friend just told me that,, I had to use it.
A fur coat? Remodeling? Another trip to Europe? I'll find something to do with them.

Compared to the Blue ones they are much more useful to me. Banks, foodstores, wine shops , restaurants just look at the blue ones and wonder what to do with them.

LOL,,,sorry,, just being silly.

[mark yundt]

Re: New Bishops Crest

Oh I shouldn't be so quick to make a joke! I said the panel would be 6" X 6". NO,, they were generous,, it's 7 3/4 X 8"!!!! Wow,,, so much wood to use right?

Wrong!
The OVERALL crest will be that size ,, but the design they sent ,, on an 8 1/2 X 11" page ,, has to fit into an area only 3 3/4 wide. Almost HALF what I joked about!
Oh really!
OK.. I'm up for a challenge. Now I have to carve this Eagle design,, with all the trimmings into an area 3 3/4 inches by maybe 7 " high.

Well ,, the Monsignor was here at my studio late Thursday afternoon,,, I redesigned their design to suit me ( it was not bad,,,just not really good in my estimation) got to carve on Friday, and part of Sat. ,, and here is where I got to so far.
No,, it's not done,, and I don't have it on the Blog yet... but just a sneak preview of where I'm going with it.

Now I 've read somewhere around here that the MINIMUM wood needed to carve a relief is 1/4 inch of depth. Glad I don't listen to rules as this is carved in just a gnats whisker over 1/8th inch of wood. 5/32nd to be exact,, 4 mm for our European friends. And I think that's 'kinda thin! But it works. Or,, it's enough for me to use.
As Doris pointed out,, I go from carving a 3 ft figure in 1 1/4 inch,, which is thin for the scale,, and now to a carving in 5/32nd of an inch. OK...lets go! It's all relative.Some parts are less than the thickness of a penny. This is fun! Lets see what I can pull out of a penny's worth of wood! And of course using nothing but full size mallet tools.
This is only the preliminary roughout,, the final work will show up on the Blog of course. I'll let you know when it's complete as a story. Not all details will be there,, just the fun stuff.

The photo looks like I'm lying to you doesn't it?
Again,, the story will be on the blog. I'll let you know.

[CarverRog]

Re: New Bishops Crest

Mark, are you talking about the entire piece being the 5/32 or 4mm thick or just the elements on the shield?
I can believe the elements. Nice piece so far.

[mark yundt]

Re: New Bishops Crest

Just the elements Roger,, it is a surprising amount of wood to work with in a relief. As a chip carver it probably seems deep!
And of course here it is not finished carving,,and it gets painted and gilded.
There was a comment that the design isn't balanced. True. That is almost the nature of having to blend the two halves of the shields together,,,AND I had to follow their design ,,, generally. Also,,had I shrunk the Eagle to balance this piece a bit more,, it would be unrecognizable..
Less like road kill and more like a spit spot.