The Covenant Artwork

 
The artwork is all my own original design inspired by the story
(though the couple were inspired by some royalty free clip art).

 
The sun is on one side, and the moon on the other, and the leaves of
the rowan tree range from autumnal oranges and yellows to summer
and spring greens to try and encapsulate the timelessness of the story.

 

I especially like that the apple tree spirit was not purposefully drawn in
by me, but appeared of his own accord.  The text "shoot" has a little
shoot of a rowan tree growing out of it.


    

The couple in the tree is an homage to our previous Triptych
collaboration.


 

 
The symbols on the top left are the ogham symbols of the four trees
(the hazel, rowan and apple trees in the story, and the pine tree of the
wood itself) to honour the spirit of the trees.

 

The line “You must address yourself to the material in a loving frame of
mind.” especially struck a chord with me, and shows the wisdom of a
master craftsman coming through in the writing.  All crafts people
appreciate the spirit of the materials with which they are working, and
it is in the spirit of addressing oneself to the material in a loving frame
of mind that this piece was carved, and pyrographed .

Originally the quote “You must address yourself to the material in a
loving frame of mind.” Was text only, but I found that it was too plain
looking, so I added some scrollwork to balance it out a bit.

There were a number of new challenges for me on this project. Firstly
this slice of wood (1.6  x 0.5 meters / 5’3” x 1’7”) is by far the biggest
single piece of wood I’ve ever worked with, and I didn’t have a
workbench big enough to accommodate it, so I had to make a
temporary stand of sorts for it. With smaller pieces you can easily
rotate the piece as you burn to get the right angle with the burning tip,
but with such a big piece I had to move around it.

My sander just wasn’t up to scratch for this, and would have taken
about 2 weeks to sand it properly, so I rented a belt sander. The guy in
the shop said “It’ll do a jig on ya” and I learned pretty quickly what he
meant by that! However, the belt sander was fantastic, and the entire
surface was smoothed to a satin surface within 2 hours.

There was a substantial crack on the front, which I had to fill in and
match the changing colour of the wood, which I hopefully achieved. It
looks a lot less obvious now than it did anyway. There was mould on
the back which I had to clean up, and eliminate before reinforcing the
back and strengthening the waney edges so that they didn’t chip.
Thanks to Aldwarke for letting me know that the bark edges are
actually called waney edges. He almost makes me sound like I know
what I’m talking about!

 

This was also my very first attempt at carving a bas relief, and also my
first attempt at a combination of carving and pyrography. I learned
quite a few things along the way.

 

Firstly, carve and sand first and then burn the design afterwards
 otherwise you end up having to re-burn everything. Chisels are very,
very sharp so keep both hands on them at all times unless you want
razor cuts on your finger tips. I found that the habit of brushing away
the carving dust was what caused the most injuries, when I’d
accidentally catch the edge of the chisel.

So the carving gives a lovely 3D effect, and the photos just don’t
capture the texture of this piece. I couldn’t stop running my hands
across the surface. (Anyone who has seen the “Furry Wall” seen in the
film “Get Him To The Greek” will understand the comfort of a calming
texture.)

 

I hope that this carving/pyrograph has done justice to your. I hope that
it will become a physical manifestation of the protective spirit of Luis
that can be passed down as the “great wheel” continues to turn, so
that the timeless joy of the Covenant can be enjoyed for generations
to come.

See more photos here:
snazzie-designz.deviantart.com…

More information about how the project came about....
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The original story on which this project was based:
The CovenantA Fable - The Covenant
The rowan tree stood between a gnarled apple and an errant hazel in what had once been an orchard. Later, left to its own devices, the orchard tried its best to revert to the wild but in time became appropriated into part of the large back garden of a small stone house.
The rowan, the mountain ash, had been planted by Alan’s grandfather and was now surrounded by a wooden seat built by Alan in his youth as a first project in woodworking.
    His granddad, then nearly at the end of his term of life had advised him, told him the about the joints and the most appropriate wood to use. Alan fifteen and full of strength expected to finish the job in a day and became irritable if things didn’t go right straightaway. Granddad advised caution.
     ‘You’ll never make a good job this way, Alan. You must address yourself to the material in a loving frame of mind. You see, this piece of wood never wanted to be a seat. It was qu