Yes! For you faithful who have been checking back to see if I've made any progress on this Lesson, I hereby give you progress (this note written on 2/24/08)! After a hiatus with a focus on pictorial research, I've finally started this project. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to write me. These chopines are a duplicate of the pair contained at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. Look at the third picture down on the "Extant Pieces" page in the "Pictorial Commentary" section. I designed these chopines to be 12" tall, although the period piece is actually more like 9.5" tall.
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Based on my research, poplar and pine seem to be two common materials. Pine, although a bit soft, is light and inexpensive. Poplar, although a less dense than pine, happens to be harder, so I chose to use poplar instead. Unfortunately, none of my friends or
acquaintances had stumps of poplar lying around, so I had to make do with what I could find at the hardware store. As you can see, I used three widths of 1.5" poplar for each zoccolo. Notice that the grain is running top to bottom - that is simply the way that I put the blocks together before I examined the extant pieces. What I discovered was that in a several pieces, the grain looks like it runs front to back rather than top to bottom. This makes sense, as it makes the chopine more resistant to chipping from pressure and it is a great deal easier to carve in this fashion. All this, I have learned, so that you don't have to make the same mistakes! =)
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First, the outer pieces were patterned based on the pictures that I obtained from the MFA. Unfortunately, since I was only working from photographs, I didn't really know what the actual dimensions were, since I didn't have a point of reference to judge scale from. So, I did the best I could.
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Then, each of the individual pieces were cut out in roughly the shape as the pattern. In period, this piece would probably have been carved directly from a stump, but as I'm not a terribly experienced woodworker (and the grain was going the wrong way), I couldn't use the same technique and tools. So, I had to rely on power tools to do most of the work.
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The pieces were glued together and clamped. Notice that I drilled a hole in the top and bottom and inserted a dowel through to try and ensure that they remained relatively aligned, even though I was going to be doing some sanding later. |
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Even though I'd cut out a lot using power tools, I found it more effective in some instances to use a hammer and chisel. There are a few things to note in this photo. First, on the far side, I've carved almost all the way to the center piece. This is because I had glued and assembled the slabs before I visited the MFA. During my visit, I took measurements of the actual pieces and discovered that I was making
my replica far too thick. As a result, I ended up doing a lot of extra carving work - in fact, I ended up actually carving all the way to the center slab. So, to save yourself the effort if you're not into carving, I'd suggest cutting out just the top and bottom parts (where they are thicker) and then gluing those on. As I mentioned before, carving the piece would be a great deal easier if the grain had been horizontal rather than vertical, but hindsight always has perfect vision.
You will also notice that the zoccoli tend to chip somewhat easily if you drop them (hence the notch in the top). I had to go back and fill this in with Bondo (since I lost the piece that got knocked out) but if you're lucky, you can just tack the piece back in. I seem to recall some period reference to women chipping their chopines, but I cannot seem to track it down. Again, having horizontal grain would greatly reduce this problem.
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A great deal of carving, sanding, and wood dust later, we finally have the base pieces. In essence, the techniques are the same that were used for Lessons 1 and 2, except that I ended up using a hammer and chisel a great deal more to get off the big stuff.
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Notice how I scooped out a section in the bottom. As I mention elsewhere, I believe this was done not only to make the chopine lighter, but also to make it more stable. All said and done, each piece weighs about 2.38lb. The originals each weigh about 1.92lb. I attribute the difference in weight to the following: 1) The originals were 9.5" tall, whereas my pieces are 12" tall. 2) The center slab of my chopines is approximately 1.5" thick. The original has a thickness of ~1.25" in the center. 3) The final recipient's foot size is a size or two larger than the lady who wore the period pieces. |
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That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned for more updates - I plan to have this pair done by the end of May 2008. |
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