Tane, Lord Of The Forest

[Andrew Biggs]

The great God Tane separated Rangi and Papa who became the sky father and earth mother and by doing so brought light into the world.

Tane then created the forest and all the animal and bird life in it so he is the God that a prayer (karakia) of thanks is made to before a tree is felled. Thereafter the life force of Tane resides within the timber after it has been crafted into other treasures (taonga)

This bracelet has been carved for our daughter Rebecca out of Sterling Silver.

As usual your comments and critique are always welcome.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Christopher Malouf]

Breathtaking Andrew!!!!!!!

Isn't there something about how the stars were created in that legend as well? Different legend maybe?

 

[vanknife]

Stunning work Andrew !!

Cheers

"VAN"

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Indeed there is Chris.

Tane obtained the stars from his brother Uru Te Ngangana to adorn his father Rangi. They were gathered in a basket that is the Milky Way and a shooting star is one of the children of light escaping. ……………..but that’s a whole different story that needs telling one day.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[jlseymour]

Very nice Andrew, and love the stories with your engraving...
Jerry

 

[Tira]

Fabulous weaving elements. It really draws the eye around the entire piece. Great job!

 

[FANCYGUN]

Ok Andrew
Looking at the bracelet..............OOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh how I hate you !!!!

You have come a long way Buddy. Great layout and execution.

Marty

 

[Leonardo]

Hi Andrew!
I like very much your bracelets and the stories too. You have no limits developing new techniques with great results; in some month you became a sculptor carving bracelets from that Phil post... it is great!
I also like very much your birds-head ending scrolls. Congratulations!
Keep growing, Leonardo.

 

[pilkguns]

supecalifragilisticexpaldocius!

 

[fegarex]

Andrew,
That is just fantastic!! You still amaze me!

 

[Christian DeCamillis]

Andrew Thas just pure talent! Chris

 

[Sam]

Wow!!! That's a fantastic piece of work, Andrew. Brilliant design and execution. This is real sclupting with actual carving of the elements. It certainly takes more time, but the results have a richness you just can't get any other way.

Bravo!!

 

[KCSteve]

As usual, both lovely and informative.

Tons of little details there to reward someone spending time studying it.

One thing that caught my eye: toward the sides, near the bottom, you have some small elements between the scroll lines. Almost looks like Morse Code, although I expect it's not. But I also expect that it is a code of sorts, or at least another reference into the mythos.

I'd really love a casting of this (in the flat) to study. One of these days you're going to have to cast one of these lovelies, at least for study if not reproduction.

 

[D.DOUGLAS]

Andrew, Thats pretty awesome work. Do you use a stone to get your smoothness on the leaves? I was wondering if a hard piece of wood charged with some abrasive in a flex shaft would work. I have some raw diamond fine grit maybe put a little in some vasoline. Just curios because i have been playing with carving a little and getting the field smoothed out seems a little tricky. Great job! Doug

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

Andrew, Looks really good. It is obvious you invested a lot of time and patients. Well done.

 

[Doc Mark]

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto, all of the above!!!! It's frightening to me that you started engraving only 5 or 6 months before I did! Somehow I don't think I'm going to ever catch up. Anyway, I see your style developing into a major influence in the near future for engravers world wide who have been hesitant to develop their own style. It gives them hope that they too can break-away from the norm, without leaving their roots behind.

Also, I am as curious as Steve, what are we seeing "between the lines"?


Cheers Mate,


Mark

 

[KatherinePlumer]

Wow! I can't stop looking at it!

 

[Ray Cover]

Andrew, did you flare cut that initially and then relieve the background?

whatever process it looks great. The guys are right you have come a long way. I remember when you started. your work has seen a steady improvement from that point.

I really like the local influence and originality in your work too. That is one of the things that has really impressed me about what you are doing. Rather than trying to copy what others have done you used the techniques but the artwork is totally your own.

Very well done!

Ray

 

[Dmitry Martinov]

Beautiful as always Andrew ! Especially I like when you provide some story about what you are engraving.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Well thank you for those nice comments. The silver is a bit of a blessing and a curse at the same time. Soft to cut, but scratches and dents really easily. Plus it’s near impossible to keep the edges sharp and not slightly rounded like you can achieve on steel.


To answer a few questions……………..

Leonardo……….Yes, you are quite correct. It was indeed Phil Coggan’s post about carving that sent me down this road. I blame him and Sam Welch for all this

Sam……….Yes, a lot of work. Even in silver it is slow work and removing the background takes almost forever.

KCSteve…….Those wedges that hold the semi circles together are called “pakati” They can be a chevron shape or straight up and down or sometimes a diamond shape. A lot of the spiral designs on the Maori war canoes (whaka) were actually pierced so they needed to hold the spiral together with pakati. This is also carried onto some work that is not pierced and helps pull and hold the design together.

One interpretation of the semi circles are the three fingers, or stages of life. Birth, life and death. This is the interpretation I’ve used.

You have to be very careful in this area of interpretation because Maori are divided into tribes, sub tribes and families and spread throughout the country. Because of this there are distinctive carving styles and interpretations of the meanings of things. So there is no “one” universal meaning or style. To add to the mix there is also different pronunciations of the words as well and in some cases different spelling. This also applies to the stories and legends with most families being able to trace there ancestors back to the Gods and it very much is tied up in the family genealogy.

At a casual glance you can easily say that the wood carvings look very similar but once you start researching the subject then you begin to realise the styles are quite different. A comparison could be made to scrolls. American, German, English etc. To the novice they all pretty much look alike but in reality are very different to each other but share some common characteristics.

D. Douglas…………No flexi shaft. The process is this. Main cuts, relive background, scrape background even as possible, shape leaves/scrolls with a flat shaped like a wood chisel, refine with a scraper, burnish by hand, abrasive rubber, texture background. Be careful with the background as stippling in the black you will lose some of the shadows generated by the carving. The highlights and shadows is what gives the work depth.

Ray………Yip, main cuts then relive background. I didn’t bother flaring the cuts as they pretty much get wiped out. One thing I was pretty pleased about was getting the background even. The depth is approx .75mm so I ground down the face of the small flat to .75 in height and when that was even with the top of the surrounding metal I knew the depth was about right.

Once again thanks for all the kind words, really appreciate it.

Cheers
Andrew