Going With the Grain
Recent family emergencies will impact my ability to keep this blog updated as often as I had planned, and work will likely be progressing slower as a result. But I'll continue to plod on and do the best I can. Since deep critical thinking is not really an option at the minute, today I mostly returned to the practicalities of engraving - this time on wood, which seems much easier to work with than even the rather soft (and at times, flaky) sandstone which I explored last week. The problems with the stone are not so much technique (which I basically picked up as I went along) but rather my own weaknesses to RSI - I used the lightest hammer I have for the purpose, but even that left my hands sore and stiff for the next day or so afterwards. I've prepared a number of experimental pieces of wood to explore the process of creating primitive figurations in this medium: These long, thin sections (from surrounding farm gates, fences etc.), with vertical grain, impose limitations on