athleen Robbins, like so many artistic type folks has worked in many media and with various techniques. She has done two-dimensional art in oils, pastel, gouache, and watercolor, three dimensional clay sculpture, pyrography, gourd carving – which led to wood carving, relief carving… well we can relate to all of that. Some of us just want to try it all. She has been carving for about 5 years as of 2012. We can appreciate what others do for their art but there is another dimension that opens up when we try something new for ourselves.
She often shows her work at the
Mountain Artist's Guild in Prescott, Arizona.
And through it all she has still managed to create for herself a workplace that looks like the cover photo from “Carving Studio Monthly” magazine. It leaves many of us envious. And she shares it with a '32 Ford Deuce Coupe. Yeah, rub it in why don't ya'. I can barely see the floor in my shop, although gravity tells me it's there.
To see any picture in larger format, just click on it.
Kathy mentioned that she had a bit of an accident with a power carver burr while holding a small work piece in one hand and carving on it with the other. Not too serious but she realized that had she held the piece securely in the first place her hand, though she was wearing a glove, would have been out of the line of danger. This is the very reason that Grip-All Jaws was created - safety and secure work holding.
Kathy has the Tilt-top Portable and told us that her husband is eying it as well so she may have to keep her eye on it. Well, Kathy you can always get him one for his birthday or anniversary, or for national This-one-is-mine-so-I-got-you-one-of-your-own day.
But Kathy was adamant about how much she liked her Tilt-Top Portable. However she has bolted it to her workbench which sort of nullifies the whole portable aspect. Nevertheless, this works well for her and that is the real point. We'll let her tell it:
"I’m very impressed with the Grip-All Portable Bench as it allows me to work hands free. Whether I’m using my power carver, mallet tools, palm tools the holding power of the grips and vise keep my work held in one place until I release the vise. It truly is a wonderful addition to my carving bench and one that if I choose can travel with me to carving workshops. I ordered my Grip-All Jaws Portable Bench on a Monday and had it on Friday of the same week…Great folks to work with…I highly recommend the Grip-All Jaws Portable Carving Bench."
Aw shucks and thanks, Kathy.
Here is an interesting carving in Cottonwood bark. We have Cottonwood trees here in the Pacific Northwest as well but they are Black Cottonwood and it's the Fremont Cottonwood in the southwestern U.S.
Holding her work this way, she has the pins farther apart than we might have done. But in this configuration she can hold the work in many different positions without having to reset the grip pins. That's one of the advantages of the system.
Kathy has lots of gouges and chisels but does most of her work with light power tools like the Foredom Tool.
Here Kathy is working on an Indian Girl standing up in the Grip-All Jaws. She likes a variety of woods for carving. She uses local woods such as Cottonwood Bark, Cottonwood Limb, Aspen, and Juniper in addition to basswood, butternut, poplar, and walnut.
"I like the challenge of turning a dead tree limb or root into a wood spirit, mountain man or Indian carving."
Kathy stresses that she never cuts a living tree for wood but uses only fallen and dead wood for her work. That's a good way to do it.
Notice that the grip pins don't have the sleeves on them. We asked her about that and she said that those are extras that she made and they have clear fuel hose on them. That's a great way to do it and we encourage people to make their own custom pins. We even have a blog post about how you can do that.
By the way, we love those white, floor-to-ceiling cabinets. Clean, stylish, and lots of storage. Very professional.
We wanted to show some more of Kathy Robbins' work so here is Roadrunner Pete in Basswood on the left.
This mountain man carving on the right is in Arizona Juniper. I have worked in Juniper, myself and have found it very hard and dense but quite nice to work with.
We would like to send a heartfelt thanks to Kathleen Robbins for her kind words and enthusiasm for the Grip-All Jaws Tilt-Top Portable. It was designed to make a carver's work easier and safer and it appears that Kathy has that all worked out perfectly. And she told us to include her email address so other carvers can contact her. Sure thing: barkladyaz@yahoo.com. Happy carving.
Oh, remember when we said that Kathy works in several media. Well, she sent us a shot of a painting of Sunflowers she did in gouache. For the true woodworkers out there, gouache is a watercolor. But unlike regular watercolors that are translucent or transparent, gouache is opaque so that you can put a light color over a dark color and cover it. It's thick and works sort of like oil paints in that respect. But you get the ease of soap and water cleanup.
But we really, really like this painting. I for one, especially like the sense of filtered sunlight coming through the umbrella.
Thanks again, Kathy and all the best from all of us here at Grip-All Jaws.