more strapwork carving

plus a short video

I began the next box’s worth of strapwork carving today, shooting video as I went for a future series on carving these patterns. I started with a drawing - I used to just dive in, but finally gave in & worked out the pattern on paper first. You only have to draw 1/4 of it - because it’s symmetrical left and right and up and down.

This time the spacing is 2 1/2” side-to-side and the carving is about 6 3/8” tall. I also changed the spacing from the margin to the bottom of the U-shaped strapwork to 1” - an increase of 1/8”. That, combined with the narrower side-to-side spacing gives the arches a bit steeper look than the previous patterns.

Yesterday I was at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts and while there, I poked my head in the gallery that has the wainscot chair by Thomas Dennis - I got some crappy photos - but pulled this one from my files:

detail, Peabody Essex wainscot chair

That crest rail is a short section of strapwork - it’s nicely-done, but nothing special compared to some of the Devon examples.