Glen asked me to put these photos forward for inclusion on the Kent Woodcarvers website as they are quite different to other members’ carvings. They are mathematical geometric shapes called oloids which have one surface and two edges, which ideally should be knife edges.
The story behind these carvings started with an article in the BWA Woodcarvers Gazette, Spring 2020, where a lady had commissioned a carving of an oloid for her mother. I didn’t have a clue as to what an oloid was, so I looked it up online & found a YouTube video of how to make one. I had some pieces of planed 90mm square construction pine so decided to have a go at home as COVID had stopped us carving at Hamlet Wood. Being just offcuts of construction timber I wasn’t concerned if I made a mess of it so the first one in plain pine was created after a lot of head scratching & a plasticine maquette. It is far from perfect, the edges should be sharp, but being pine it started to split, you can see a crack, bottom left, so I left the edges with some thickness. It is very tactile & rolls with a ‘wobbling’ motion.
The second one, which is from a 3 layer piece of 90mm square construction timber, I made as a ‘thank you’ Christmas gift for a friend who was much taken by handling the first one. The joint between the layers means that the curved surface has to be precise to give the arc between the two layers. I realised when sanding it down that the curved surface is a series of straight lines & could be generated on a belt sander, which I do not have, by rotating the piece whilst moving it backwards & forwards. A close-grained hardwood would probably be a better material to use to give the two sharp edges.
I leave it to you whether you include any narrative, I have given you the background story. Perhaps you could have a website section ‘ What I did during COVID lockdown’, then other members can contribute. My two daughters have requested oloid carvings, so have just started a third one in 3 layer pine!
