Editor’s Notes: With 378 entries and more than 800 online votes, the 2010 contest was a huge success. The staff at Woodcarving Illustrated is thrilled with the quality and quantity of entries and looks forward to hosting the contest in the future.
To see the category winners, scroll down and click on the appropriate contest category.
People’s Choice Griffin Table
By Dennis Zongker, Omaha, Nebr.
Dennis Zongker’s carved table won the people’s choice for the stylized category as well as the Best in Contest Award.
Dennis spent two years working evenings and weekends on this inlaid and carved table.
“I would work seven days a week, not because I had to, but because my work and hobby are intertwined,” Dennis explained. “It was fun working on the Griffin Table because it was everything I love incorporated into one project.”
In addition to the solid basswood legs, Dennis used purpleheart, beech, fruitwood, myrtle burl, and white oak veneer for the top. The table is loosely based on a nineteenth-century French-style table with a few details inspired by Jean-Henri Riesenerer and the Herter Brothers.
“I use lions on the table because I love the way they show strength, loyalty, and pride,” Dennis said. “The eagle wings signify the ability to fly, and the rose marquetry represents love.”
“I wanted to make a piece I couldn’t wait to work on every day,” Dennis added. “It brought out all of my passion in furniture making, from the beginning design to construction.”
Everything except the top marquetry was stained. Then Dennis applied three coats of natural polyurethane to the entire project and an additional eight coats of polyurethane to the top. The top was wet sanded with 800-, 2000-, and 4000-grit sanding discs.
Editor’s Choice: Two Sisters Fighting for a Doll
By Hyung-Jun Yong, Kyonggi do, South Korea
Hyung-Jun Yong created this carving based on stories his mother told him of her youth.
“My mother often tells the story from her childhood where her and her older sister were always fighting for possession of one doll,” Yong said. “When my mother was a child, it was difficult to buy a doll because her family lived in poverty. One birthday, my mother got the doll from an aunt who lived far away. The sisters often fought to play with the doll.”
Yong carved the pieces from almaciga, a wood found in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. While almaciga is technically a softwood because it is an evergreen tree, it tends to be a bit hard and resinous.
Yong hand carved the pieces in the flat-plane caricature style, a style made popular by Harley Refsal, and based on the Scandinavian flat-plane style of carving that many people consider to be one of the predecessors to the American style of caricature carving. Yong spent thirty-five to forty hours working on the piece.
The younger crying sister stands 93/4″ tall and the older sister holding the doll stands 103/4″ tall. The pieces are finished with washes of acrylic paint and a water-based varnish.
