Small Cross Project

[bryan]

Well the girlfriend roped me into a small side project for her Church, after receiving direction from the Father, what he wanted, he let me run with it.

The Cross is made of Red Oak, and finished with Linseed oil, Father wanted no stains or painting on the the project, so I want old school with finish in linseed oil.

Cross is carved on both sides and measures approx 3' x 2' x 7/8"

Base is 4" tall and 16" square.

[myxpykalix]

that is real nice. The finish is great. What is the signifigance of the keltic design?

[bryan]

Thank you. Jack
Father got the idea from a small Cross I made for my Girlfriend,
He liked it so much that he wanted the weave to be in the center on one side and the lamb on the other side,
But he asked for the rest of the cross to be smooth.
Those were all of his request other then size, I don't know signifigance, but now that you asked I'll be asking and find out.
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=26734&stc=1

[Chuck Keysor]

Bryan, I will guess that the priest was able to look at the cross you originally made, and analyze what he liked about it and what he didn't like. Then using his evaluation as a guide, he recommended the changes that he felt would result in a more pleasing design.

While this is highly subjective, I think your girlfriend's priest has a good eye, and the simplified designs following his suggestions are much more pleasing then the cross which you first showed to him.

About 15 years ago, I took some art classes (ceramics, Photoshop and Illustrator) at our local community college. In each of these classes, we would periodically gather to do group reviews of everyone's projects. It was eye opening, to see everyone else's work, and then to get feedback from the other students and the teachers.

It became clear that some people had a gift for coming up with good designs. But more importantly, the teacher in Photoshop had a gift for being able to point out which works were good, and WHY. And she could point out the works that had problems, and make wise observations as to what made these works less successful, and approaches that could be taken to improve the end result.

I personally got stuck at the stage where I could tell something was not right with my design, but I could not easily, or always figure out WHAT was wrong, or then of course how to fix the problem that I couldn't identify. But I think the most important step is in being able to at least be able to tell that something isn't right.

So, the Father gave you a little taste of my art classes,,,, and his suggestions were like proposed solutions, even though he didn't tell you what the problem was!

Thanks for sharing! Chuck

[Bob T]

Hi Bryan,

I have difficulty getting my pockets to come out clean like it seems yours have. Can you tell me your technique?