Little Brown Bat Homage

[Jim Kelso]

Some of you guys saw this at Ashokan. It's almost finished but I thought I'd post an early shot. The piece is an homage to the extremely distressed Little Brown Bat population in Vermont and New England who are suffering from "White-nose syndrome". Our bug population seemed much increased this summer and I wonder if that's due to decreased bat numbers. Anyway more photos will follow in a few days.

 

The carving style is called shishiai-bori in Japan and all the carving is done below the polished surface. The longest measurement is 100mm (about 4") and the deepest depth is a skosh more than 1mm. 2 inlayed teeth in bone and the eye is turned horn.

 

Edited September 30, 2011 by Jim Kelso

[Paul Estes]

Sweet

[Stewart Light]

Jim, your work always leaves me marvelling. Thank you!

[tsterling]

Awesome, Jim! Any in progress shots?

[Howard Clark]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. I love my little brown bat colony.

[Todd Gdula]

Some of you guys saw this at Ashokan.

the deepest depth is a skosh more than 1mm.

 

I'm one of those that saw it at Ashokan - no picture could possibly do it justice - it has to be touched to be appreciated.

 

Is that how "skosh" is spelled? I had no idea...

[Mark Green]

Beautiful Jim! Is that wrought iron?

Great color on the patina.

 

Mark

[Howard Clark]

I thought it was black wood ?

[Jim Kelso]

Thanks very much guys.

 

Tom, I do have some progress shots with tools which I’ll post.

 

Howard, I’m glad your wee ones have a good home!

 

Todd, “skosh” is I think an Americanization of the Japanese sukoshi meaning”a little bit”. Can’t vouch for the accurate spelling.

 

Mark & Howard, yes it is a black wood. I’m flying a little under the radar due to recent weirdnesses.

 

Thanks again very much!

 

Jim

[Greg Thomas Obach]

very nicely done

-bats are just cool ! the bridge by my parents house usta have a small colony ..it was good fun to watch them swoop out over the lake in the hunt for bugs

 

is there going to be more carving to this piece ?

 

Greg

[Alan Longmire]

I agree with Todd, being another one who saw it at Ashokan. It's just unbelievable...

[Jim Kelso]

Thanks Todd, Alan and Greg. Much appreciated.

Greg, I'm going to carve a tiny moth and some finishing to do on the bat.

 

Jim

Edited October 1, 2011 by Jim Kelso

[Greg Thomas Obach]

I was hoping there would be just a little more to the scene... good to see the hunter has purpose

 

" the chase is on ! "

 

alway wonderful work

 

 

Thanks Todd, Alan and Greg. Much appreciated.

Greg, I'm going to carve a tiny moth and some finishing to do on the bat.

 

Jim

[Jim Kelso]

Thanks again Greg.

 

These photos show something of the progression of the bat carving starting with very light outlining of the whole design. This shot shows the fineness of cut obtainable with the Michi veiner(60 degree). The cut I’m making is actually hidden under the chisel, but the fine curl tells the story. The cut in front of the veiner was made just previously.

 

 

After the outlining I lowered the furthest wing and roughly defined the head. Other than a little burr work right around the face on this step all the remaining carving was done with chisels files, scrapers and a bit of sanding. I love the Japanese “Michi” carving tools. They are forged from laminated steel and take and hold a wicked sharp edge.

 

 

I used a very shallow sweep gouge to remove wood in any shaped or relieved areas like around the head and next to the wing digits.

 

I used the same shallow sweep to carve the initial relief and slight contours in the wings. The final texture of the wings was done with a deeper sweep gouge giving smaller, more numerous “facets.

 

I like to carve with a single source, narrow beam halogen light. I usually have this at a fairly shallow angle to enhance the “chiarascurro” or light/dark effect. As I’m carving I’ll break and move the carving around to see how it looks with the light at different angles, but mostly I check it with the light coming from the top as it would be most often in nature. I’ll also take it downstairs where there is general, diffuse light to make sure it seems right. It might seem like using this shallow light angle would make it look weird in more diffuse light but it doesn’t seem to work that way.

 

Using the shallow light angle also presents effects in the twilight areas, using the mind’s natural tendency to create detail in the shadows, that I may decide to enhance or not.

[J.Arthur Loose]

Seeing the mostly finished piece was one thing, but somehow your fingertips in the photos really put it into another perspective, Jim. It's really an amazing scale.

[Jake Powning]

This is an amazing piece Jim. the way it's all carved below the plain of the wood was a revelation to me. the subtlety of line is truly masterful. It was really wonderful to see this in person at Ashokan!

[tsterling]

Spectacular piece of work, Jim. Thanks for the in-progress shots.

[Jim Kelso]

Thanks very much guys.

I hope to have some more photos later today.

[Patrick Hastings]

Hi Jim,

I think Shishiabori is my favorite technique. I await a more complete picture of the work. The bat looks great.

Patrick

[Jim Kelso]

Thanks very much Patrick. You didn't have to wait long! I agree; shishiaibori is at the top of my list.

Here's an overall. It measures 283mm x 115mm (11.15" x 4.15")

Moth added in katakiri-bori

 

Edited October 5, 2011 by Jim Kelso

[Alan Longmire]

Jim, that's perfect!

 

The contrast between the insanely detailed, realistic bat and the barest hint of the moth's very presence captures something meaningful in ways I obviously don't have words for, but that I feel nonetheless.

 

For some reason I had thought you were going to do the moth in shibuichi, but this is much better.

[Jim Kelso]

Cheers Alan. Much appreciated.

I think at Ashokan I was still thinking "metal inlay moth". There's an interesting story how the final design developed. I have to take a couple of photos to tell it though so it may be tomorrow.

 

Jim

[Jesus Hernandez]

I can't add much to what has already been said but I am very curious as to how the moth came into existence. Personally I think the moth completes the composition beautifully as it is. It all flows now. The "heavier" presence of the bat and the "lightness" of the moth carving balance each other and convey an unfolding story.

[Jim Kelso]

So the moth story is that I had been thinking earlier about inlaying it in something, either metal, lighter wood, sheep horn, the list goes on. It came to me around Ashokan time that no, a contrasting material would be too distracting, so I began thinking that it should be carved and I did a test on a scrap.(middle image below). This seemed fine so I showed it to Shadow Master(wife Jean) who said “oh no, it’s too detailed, you should do something like this”, and proceeded to do an ink painting on the back of an envelope(1st left, 2nd Right). Eureka!

I did a couple tests again on the same piece of wood and it definitely was the way to go. Next was where and what position and how big should the moth be. That took a while……..

 

Anyway I’m happy with it. The photo(overall page1) enhances it more than natural light in which it kind of eludes the eye a bit as you hold the tray which I like. Shadow Master prevails for how many times I can’t tell you.

 

 

Edited October 16, 2011 by Jim Kelso

[Geoff S]

Thanks so much for taking the time to relate some of your process! Often times art only becomes accessible to me when I get a window into its creation.