12th Meeting at Rachmaninoff's

Big thanks to Maggie and Matthew of Rachmaninoff's Gallery for hosting the 12th meeting of BTWC. Thanks, too, to all of the new faces who came and endured small nicks and pricks in the pursuit of creation. Next meeting soon, soon.

The concentrated whittlers sat for hours among facsimile copies of Californian aspen trees defaced by lonely Basque herders.

Adam's work. Salty chocolates on a carved tree-stump.

Abstract collaboration between Maeve and Sophie.

leaf by Arielle

Spartacus whittle

Hair-pin by Pip.

Head by Miles

Unfinished pipe by Lyle

A really cool crown by Louise

Lama sort of comb by Leonn

Whale by Laura

Kuni has made another spoon.

Daisy Duck´s shoe by Ksenia

Even Misha ventured into whittling

Julian´s carving.

Fake flute by Jamie.

Jacob's work

Don't know who did this one...

Cigarette holder by Erika

Camille´s?

Knife and fuzzy stick by Ben T

Green lime-wood carving by new Ben

Adam bird

Aspen

In the mid 19th century a lot of young Basque men emigrated to America to make a living. They clustered in the American West where they obtained work as sheep herders. For months in a row they would spend their time in remote parts of the forest with no other company then the sheep. In the aspen groves of California one can find the expression of the loneliness and homesickness that these herders suffered. There are thousands of trees marked with images and names.

A lot of these show naked women, meeting you at eye-level as you pass through the forest. The dark outline of their curves shine clear against the white bark of the trees.

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In Utah there is an aspen colony believed to be one of the largest and oldest organisms in the world.

Although it consists of 47 000 stems, it is connected through an underground network of roots. It is believed to be genetically one single male Aspen and it is called “Pando” which in latin means 'I spread'.

Long-legged nude woman. Pic from here.

Pando

12th Meeting

Bleeding Thumb Whittling Club at Rachmaninoff's
Wednesday 9th of February 6-12pm

As well as all as all of the usual activities, we are pleased to present two new outputs -- audio CDs -- one with sound work by members, the other containing sound culled from American folklore films, which could be called the aural equivalent of whittling.

We invite you to the twelfth meeting of the BTWC at Rachmaninoff's, to take part in the wood shaving, to consume pickles and coffee (sharp), to take part in the tacit decision of a group to sit in hush, cutting, cutting.

Everyone welcome, tools and wood supplied.

A display connected with the event is viewable by appointment Thursday and Friday 10,11 February.

Rachmaninoff's

First floor, Unit 106
301 Kingsland Road
London E8 4DS
t +44 (0)20 7275 0757
www.rachmaninoffs.com

Molecular carving

The geometric layering of so called 'tramp-art' reminded me of models of molecular structures so I post some images here of boxes from Folkartisans (where you can find more info on this particular chip-carving technique) and molecules from the blog Machine Phase about nano-engineering.

Better than Johnny Mnemonic

A carrier of secret digital information....

BTWC at bStore

BLEEDING THUMB WHITTLING CLUB AT b STORE

b Store
24A Savile Row
W1S 3PR

OPENING Wednesday December 1st, 7 - 9PM

Whittling -- to reduce or eliminate gradually. The word applies as much to an action performed on wood with a knife as it does to some mediation between physical being and an abstract notion such as TIME. For over a year now, Bleeding Thumb Whittling Club has provided tools and wood, pickles and coffee, to those who wish to explore the realm of whittling.

Whittling is an intrinsically modest occupation, yet precisely as such, BTWC views it as a kind of de-alienation process; an effective way to engage with robust experiences of temporality and materiality. Starting out, you can obtain an excellent knife for the price of a pizza; you don't need much wood, so even exotic varieties are cheap (or free, as off-cuts from someone's fancy work-top (or you can go to a forest and whittle what you find there in light filtered through birch leaves and reflected off its white bark)).

Our broader interest in the role of craft versus alienation in the advanced industrial age has led us to look at a score of previous responses to this question. Following Appalachian self-sufficiency culture in pre-war America and the post-hippy "Back to the Land" movement which descended from it, one member has created a rudimentary banjo which will be played on the opening night. Another part of our exhibition touches on the early years of the Bauhaus school of design, where focus was on workshop activity as a way of learning. We are also pleased to present our second publication, where among other things, a utopian marriage of these viewpoints is discussed.

Cut of the Week

Jack´s most recent cut

It seems as though we had a dip in number of cuts for a while. Maybe because there has been less alcohol and more coffee, or maybe because we have sharper knives and more skill & patience. Who knows...

But you can never escape them really. Ever.

10th meeting - Bauhaus

In later stages of its development, the Bauhaus school of design inculcated its students by having them recite the chant "das Quadrat ist rot, das Dreieck gelb, der Kreis blau" ("the square is red, the triangle yellow, the circle blue") every hour, on the hour. All forms not composed of geometric primitives were forbidden, thus everyone wore circular (or equilateral-triangular) spectacles.

Sorry! I lied; it's not true. However, this kind of misunderstanding is commonly trotted out at the mention of the Bauhaus. We at BTWC know better however, and wish to explore and recover the early years of the Bauhaus project: speculation, the role of craft in industrial society, even expressionism. These strands come together in the carvings at the Haus Sommerfeld near Berlin, a building by founder Walter Gropius in 1921. This is the stimulus for our next meeting.

Photocopy hand-out for 10th meeting. Whittlings roaming in Haus Sommerfeld

Utopia

The meeting, our tenth, also marks a year of existence for the club (in fact it's been a bit longer, we just didn't keep track). Since it is a birthday, we will have cake. And we will always have pickles.

Mark is about to cut the cake with his newly made pear-wood utensil

Whittlings by Jacob

Comb by Pete

The Oxfam spoon by Mark

Jacob on the bandsaw. Cheating, but oh so simple.

YSL by Gery

Ben T started on his Bauhaus graveyard

Cut of the Week - Square is Red

- CIRCLE IS BLUE!
- TRIANGLE YELLOW!
-SQUARE IS RED!

From 10th meeting; Gery´s cut of the week...