Rose Follansbee's artwork
A short, free-to-all post that includes woodworking tools, but it’s not about my work. It’s about my daughter Rose’s artwork.
When I teach my carved box class, I bring lots of tools to the workshop. Some are for students to borrow/use. “These are open season, I just need them back at the end of the week” is what I tell them. Others - my everyday tools - are “invitation only.” And there’s a small category that is “invitation only, but you’re not getting an invitation.” I don’t lend these tools out. Period. This plane is one of those - and I keep it off-limits not because it’s any fabulous thing, it’s purely sentimental.
It was Jennie Alexander’s scrub plane. You can see it here on the cover of Make a Joint Stool from a Tree.
https://lostartpress.com/collections/joinery/products/make-a-joint-stool-from-a-tree
So why am I telling you about this plane? Because my daughter Rose is an artist. Here and there I’ve posted some of her work occasionally. About 6 years ago she drew this colored pencil portrait of our friend Heather Neill’s dog Finn:
My opinion of Rose’s work is naturally biased, I’m her father. But I’ve told her many times that if she keeps at it she can get paid to make artwork - citing Heather as a perfect example. Heather never wavered from her dream of being a professional artist, she works harder than anyone I know - but her results prove that she’s been on the right track all these years.
For a long time, Rose concentrated on portraits - also in colored pencil. I asked her to pick one to illustrate here, this is a character from some science-fiction movie. I think. She told me & it went right out of my head.
She’s recently taken some art classes in the local community college, a couple of drawing classes, painting, printmaking - things like that. One of these drawing classes included drawing a still life set up. Seeing her still-life gave me an idea; one that I’ve had knocking around for a long time but never acted upon
What about a still life of some tools? What about a still life of some of Jennie Alexander’s tools? So I talked to Rose about drawing Jennie’s tools and showed her several. She picked out just a pair of them, the scrub plane and a mortise chisel. Little by little she picked away at this drawing and finished it up recently.
So now this post is my attempt to test the waters. We’ve talked of different methods by which to offer it for sale here on the blog. One being an auction, another just post it for sale & take the first person to respond. And - the one we’re trying - in case more than one person is interested, taking names & plucking one out of a hat.
I’ve mounted the drawing in an acid free mat, overall size is 11” x 14”. Image size is
7 3/4” x 10 3/4”. Price is $400, including shipping in the US. We’ll sort payment out when we get to that stage, the buyer can send a check (to Rose, not me) or we can send a paypal invoice for $415.
If you’d like your name in the hat, leave a comment or send an email to me at PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com We’ll pick one out Friday June 12 at noon. Eastern.
And just in case this jump-starts Rose’s career, there’s another tool still life underway. Pertaining to my Craft Genealogy project.
That's good work. I thought the dog was a photograph at first glance. 2nd picture if from The 100 scifi tv show, Lexa, portrayed by Alycia Debnam-Carey. Pretty good show if you like sci-fi or stories about the human condition.
She is really talented and you have the right to be proud of her! All the best in her career.