all the hanging knees for the back of the boat, these will be mounted beneath the cockpit decking, so once in place you’ll never really get to see them again without crawling through a tiny space…

this may seem a little pointless…  but they are there because I want them to be.   and they make me feel better.

so there 😉

from left to right: the curtain, baroque, acanthus, ionic order, art deco, newport shell, art nouveau, and wine grapes.

Acanthus leaves are a common part of classical decoration. Part of the classical Corinthian style, they area a motif that has aged well, and can be made to look both classic and modern, sometimes simultaneously.

curiously, much of the acanthus in decor bears little actual resemblance to the leaves of the acanthus plant. This example from the Palatine hill in Rome is a pretty good example.

I have not done a particularly good job of aping the original plant or even the classical motif, but over all I think I got the basic flavor about right…

pictured is one of a set of hanging knees supporting the deck of my boat in the cockpit area. once the deck goes on, this will not be readily visible to anyone who is not crawling around where they shouldn’t be, but it seemed worth it nonetheless. 17 more to go, but I’ll be trying out a different design on each one.

Maybe sometime I’ll add something about my carving technique, but for an initial bit of free info, carving in dry white oak is more than a little bit of a pain in the ass…

The nice thing about building your own boat is that you can add little things everywhere…

there are a lot of parts to the boat that will likely never be seen by anyone ever again once the deck goes on, but sometimes I feel that they need a little extra attention anyway.  I remember the big deal that the Art History teachers made of the fact that the pediment sculptures on the Parthenon were sculpted in the round despite the fact that no one would ever see the backs of them when they were inset into a gable 40 feet over your head.  theoretically to appease the gods, but I suspect more likely that the sculptors just couldn’t leave well enough alone… or were being paid by the hour…

so in this case, on the side of the oak cockpit frame, roughly where your feet would get to if you were completely tucked under the seats sleeping, goes this little flower.

there will probably be more…

side note: two things that this has taught me are a) having a selection of gouges is important, and b) gouges are bloody expensive…