Carved Pine Tree Frame
Like always, the design began in my sketchbook
I worked directly with the clients to create this custom ketubah. After exchanging ideas back & forth a handful of times, we landed on this final design: a watercolor lake inspired by New York landscape with an accompanying custom oak and walnut frame that integrates and enhances the piece. To make it even more unique, the ketubah includes 3 languages: German, English, and Hebrew. Each language has its own stylized font.
I started with the frame
Andy, a local Asheville craftsperson, sourced and created the base of the oak frame, and I took to the walnut pine tree carving. Before creating this piece, I imagined how many times throughout history pine trees have been carved out of wood, and researched images for inspiration. Then, I went at it. I used pieces of second hand walnut. The pieces had beautiful variety of different wood tones. I used a blend of power tools and hand tools.
I used a plunge router freehand; a variety of bits helped me bulk out most of the wood material. While I had already used a variety of hand tools to test out textures, this is when I really got to work. I grabbed an assortment of gouges (curved chisels) and my mallet and removed a lot of material with this method.
Lastly, I attached the forest of pines to the frame and added their wood burned engraving up top. I was happy with the way the splines on the corners of the oak frame matched the width of the top engraving perfectly.
Next, I painted the ketubah and wrote their vows
The vows were in German, English and Hebrew. I had never done German calligraphy before, and it was quite fun to explore stylings.
This project combined wood carving, watercolor, calligraphy, 3 of my favorites. The piece will find a home across the Atlantic in Italy. I enjoyed working the creation process. and look forward to making more unique designs in the future.