The Form of 1998 Plaque

Here is a photograph of the completed plaque for the Form of 1998. It was dedicated on June 1, 2013 and hangs in the Middle Dining Hall of Coit (The Upper) above the panels that contain the names of all the members of the Form of 1998. Below the photo is the description of the elements incorporated in the plaque design.

The New Hampshire State House dome is the central image for the 1998 Form plaque, and represents the march by over 300 community members from St. Paul’s School to the State House lawn on Martin Luther King Day that year. The march was organized to encourage the State to add Martin Luther King Jr.’s name to the holiday, which was called Civil Rights Day at the time. This is represented by the MLK initials carved in the tympanum beneath the State House dome. The upper right corner of the plaque features an open book with the initials CBA carved onto the pages, representing the beginning of the Rectorship of the Right Reverend Dr. Craig Barry Anderson, Eleventh Rector of St. Paul’s School. The book symbolizes the Rural Record, a journal of day-to-day life that was kept at St. Paul’s School from 1857 into the early 20th century. In the upper left corner is a trophy with the Roman numerals IV carved into it. This represents the four sports teams that won New England championships that school year – field hockey, wrestling, boys’ crew, and girls’ crew. In the lower center section of the plaque a shield is carved featuring an element from the coat-of-arms from the Henley-on-Thames Town Hall. This represents the boys’ and girls’ crew teams’ trip to the Henley Regatta – where the girls’ team won the Peabody cup. The lower left and right sections feature four feathers representing each of the newly renovated Quad dorms. Each of the dorms has a stone carving on the building representing a different bird – an owl for Manville, a pelican for Simpson, a rooster for Brewster, and an eagle for Ford – the feathers in the carving are from each kind of bird.

1998 Plaque Progress: Plaque Completed

The Form of 1998 plaque is now completed.  The above photograph shows a sample of the painted finish on the plaque – the center portion showing the New Hampshire State Capitol dome representing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march.

The completed framed plaque will be revealed on Anniversary Weekend on Saturday June 1st – at which time photographs of the finished plaque will be published online.  Thank you to the representative from the Form of 1998 for your help with this project -  I am looking forward to seeing members of the Form of 1998 at the SPS Anniversary event to celebrate your new Form plaque!

1998 Plaque Progress: Carving Complete

Above is a photo of the completed carving for the 1998 Form plaque.  The photos below show details of the finished carving:

The center of the carving features the State House dome with the initials MLK in the tympanum. This represents the march from SPS to the State House on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (which was then called Civil Rights Day) to encourage the addition of MLK’s name to the New Hampshire State Holiday.

In the upper right corner features an open book with the initials CBA to represent the beginning of the Right Reverend Dr. Craig Barry Anderson’s term as Eleventh Rector of St. Paul’s School.

The upper left corner shows a trophy with the Roman numerals IV representing the four sports teams that won New England championships that school year – field hockey, wrestling, boys’ crew, and girls’ crew.

In the lower center portion of the plaque there is a carving of a shield featuring an element from the coat-of-arms from the Henley-on-Thames Town Hall. This represents the boy’s and girl’s crew teams trip to the Henley Regatta – the girls’ team winning the Peabody Cup.

The lower left and right sides of the plaque feature four carved feathers – each representing one of the Quad dorms that were renovated and re-dedicated on October 3, 1997.  Each of the dorms has a stone carving representing a different bird – an owl for Manville, a pelican for Simpson, a rooster for Brewster, and an eagle for Ford – feathers are shown from each kind of bird.

Once the carving has been sealed with a linseed oil finish it will be ready for the painting process to begin.Check back in a few weeks for a sneak peek photo of the finished plaque.

1998 Form Plaque Progress: Design Complete

The design stage is complete for the 1998 Form plaque. I worked with a representative of the Form of 1998 to come up with a list of events, and the following design elements were chosen:

1998 Form Plaque Design Elements

Plaque designs traditionally incorporate one world news event and three to five School events.

World Event:

• Center: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – the march from SPS to State House to encourage the addition of MLK’s name to the State Holiday. This is shown as the State House dome with the initials MLK in the tympanum.

School Events:

• Upper right: An open book with the initials CBA to represent the beginning of the Right Reverend Dr. Craig Barry Anderson term as Eleventh Rector of St. Paul’s School.
• Upper left: A trophy with the Roman numerals IV representing the four sports teams that won New England championships that school year – Field Hockey, Wrestling, Boys’ Crew, and Girls’ Crew.
• Lower center: A shield featuring an element from the coat-of-arms from the Henley-on-Thames Town Hall representing that the boy’s and girl’s crew teams went to the Henley Regatta – the girls’ team winning the Peabody cup.
• Lower left and right: Four feathers represent each of the Quad dorms that were renovated and re-dedicated on October 3, 1997.  Each of the dorms has a stone carving representing a different bird – an owl for Manville, a pelican for Simpson, a rooster for Brewster, and an eagle for Ford – so feathers are shown from each kind of bird.

I will begin working on carving the plaque next and will post images of the carving as the work progresses.

The Form of 2011 Plaque

Here is a photograph of the completed plaque for the Form of 2011.  It is being dedicated on June 2, 2012 and hangs in the Middle Dining Hall of Coit (The Upper) above the panels that contain the names of all the members of the Form of 2011.  Below the photo is the description of the elements incorporated in the plaque design.

In 2011 the revival of the Club Cup competition was the big event of the school year.  The cup itself is represented in the center of the plaque with the symbol above it of the winning club, the Delphians – the Greek letter Delta surrounded by a laurel wreath.  In the upper left of the plaque a closed book is carved with the initials WRM which represents the end of Twelfth Rector William R. Matthews’ Rectorship.  The book symbolizes the Rural Record, a journal of day-to-day life at St. Paul’s School that was kept from 1857 up into the early 20th century.  The upper right corner of the plaque has a map of Japan with circles radiating out from the epicenter of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred in March of 2011.  The lower left and right sections of the plaque represent the crew team competing at the Henley Royal Regatta in June of 2011.  A shield super-imposed above and to the left of the crew team features an element from the coat-of-arms from the Henley-on-Thames Town Hall.

2001 Form Plaque Progress: Carving Complete

The following photos are of the carving process for the 2001 Form plaque:

This first photograph shows the prepared basswood carving blank ready to begin:

After using a router to rough out the background levels:

Cleaned up from the router and background levels established, with a little of the initial rough carving done:

The finished carving:

Detail of the Democratic donkey:

And of the Republican elephant:

The carving at this stage is ready for the final painted finish to be applied.

Note: Painting was completed during the second week of May, and now the plaque is drying and awaiting the final sealing finish to be applied in time for Anniversary on June 2nd.   I will be posting photos of the finished plaque after that date – stay tuned!

Form of 2011 Plaque Progress: Carving Completed

The carving stage is now complete for the Form of 2011 plaque. Here are a few photos showing the finished carving:

This detail shows the waves and water surrounding the crew team – representing the trip to Henley.

This detail shows the closed book with Mr. Matthews’ initials representing the end of his term as Rector, and a portion of the Delphian emblem representing their Club Cup victory.

The next stage of the process involves sealing the wood and adding the painted finish.

From here forward the project will go undercover: The completed plaque – with painted finish and mounted in its frame – will be kept a secret until it can be unveiled during the 2012 Anniversary Weekend celebration in June of 2012.  Details to follow as we get closer to the date.

I will now begin work on carving plaques for the Forms missing plaques from the last twenty years.  In the works are designs and plaques for the Forms of 1996, 2001 and 2006.  Progress on those plaques will be documented here as with the 2011 plaque, so check back often to see how things are progressing.

Form of 2011 Plaque Progress: Beginning Carving

The following photos show the progress so far on the Form of 2011 plaque. The photo above shows the design outline transferred onto the plaque blank.  Just the major design elements are transferred at this point.

The photo above shows the plaque after the background has been removed using a small format router.  This very rough stage is smoothed over using carving tools, and the outlines are then cleaned up and refined.

Here is a photo of me adding some of the initial detail to the plaque design – the laurel wreath around the Delphian Delta is starting to take shape.

In this photo you can see the finished football center left, and the map of Japan top right.  The book with Mr. Matthews’ initials is almost complete at this stage.

More details need to be added and the lower section needs to take shape, so there is still quite a bit to be done before this carving is complete.  I will update with more photos soon.

Form of 2011 Plaque Progress

The rough draft of the design for the  2011 Form plaque is completed and work has begun preparing the wood for carving.  The picture above shows the piece of basswood that will be used for carving the 2011 plaque.  I cut out the distinctive quatrefoil shape using a scroll saw and am using three grades of Japanese files to smooth the edges and finish the carving blank.  Once this stage is complete I will transfer the design onto the wood and begin the actual carving process.

The 2010/2011 school year at SPS provided some very interesting events to record on the plaque.  The design themes chosen by the student representatives for the Form of 2011 include the following:

•  Central Motif:  The Club Cup was the big event of the school year.  It will be represented in the center of the plaque with the symbol above it of the winner of this year’s club competition (congratulations Delphians!).
• Upper Left:  A closed book will be shown with the initials WRM representing the end of Mr. Matthews’ Rectorship.  The book symbolizes the Rural Record, a journal of day-to-day life at SPS that was kept from the very beginning of the School up into the early 20th century.  The book with initials is symbolic of the recoding the change of leadership in School history .  You can read more about the Rural Record by clicking HERE.
• Upper Right: A map of Japan with circles radiating out from the epicenter will be shown to represent the devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred there earlier this year.
• Lower Right and Left:  This section of the design will represent the crew team competing at the Henley Royal Regatta this June.  A shield super-imposed above and to the left of the crew team will feature an element from the coat-of-arms from the Henley-on-Thames Town Hall.

Very special thanks to Ellie, Joe, Sam, Harvey and Meredith for their help with the design themes!

The Carving Process: Roughing Out

The next stage in the carving process involves roughing out the pattern and removing the larger areas of wood so that the form begins to emerge.  In this photo you can see that the basic shape of the head and neck are in place, and I have begun to work on the curve of the wing.  A few of the feathers leading from the body into the wing have been roughed out to help define the flow of the transition into the curve of the wing.

In this image you can see the rough shape of the nest and the begining of the outline of the pelican chicks.  The opposite wing still need to be roughed out, and once I have the inside curve of both wings completed I will work from the back to finish giving the wings their shape.

Roughing out is usually done with larger carving tool profiles using a mallet.  I started with large gouges to remove the greatest portion of the wood, and then work down to smaller profiles to smooth it to the finished rough form.  The roughing out stage  can be a little awkward as you transition from the clean outline of the pattern to the rough form of the carving.  It can be hard to resist the urge to begin refining areas as you get them to a good roughed out point, but it is important to rough the entire form out to the same degree before beginning on the detail.

As I mentioned earlier, this particular piece of wood came from a selection of wood that has been stored in barns at SPS going as far back as the early years of the 20th century.  Although it is impossible to know how long this piece of wood has been at the school, I did find out a little more information about it.  After an informative tour of the boat house and the workshop, Mr. Bailey (who maintains and restores the crew boats at  SPS) showed me the collection of wood stored there for use in repairing and restoring the crew boats.  This wood is a type of mahogany called Spanish cedar.  This is a deceptive name, since it isn’t from Spain, and it isn’t a type of cedar, but this resinous wood  has a wonderful aroma, and is highly resistant to rotting in water.  Spanish cedar has been long used to make cigar boxes and for the lining of humidors, as well as for making boats.  So the piece of Spanish cedar I am using for this carving was very likely purchased by the school at some point for use in building and repairing the rowing boats – a tradition at SPS that goes back to the 1870s.