Kinda New Here

[MrCash1302]

I thought I would take a moment and introduce myself since everyone is migrating over from Facebook.

Hi, I'm Joshua and I'm addicted to engraving....

I'm not sure how many here are in either Sam or Brian's groups, so I'll pretend no one here has seen my work yet.

I've been studying engraving for three years now. The first two were spent learning to draw, and the last year or so really focusing on cutting.

About me, personally...I'm semi-verbal autistic so I have a difficult time putting words to my thoughts. If I seem rude or abrupt, I'll apologize in advance. I'm certainly not trying to be. Also, I have diffuse Scleroderma, so I have limited use of my hands. Seems odd that I would latch onto a craft that requires extensive use of my hands, but the graver just fits in my hand so well. It's one of the few things I can do, pain free.

Anyway, I'm better with pictures, so here's a few:

 

[monk]

well, your work doesn't show any difficulties resulting from your hand problem. all you show here is very, very nice. welcome to this mad house. tyvm for shaaring your work. your borders are great. i like the "soft" look to some of the pieces. yer shading is quite nice. not much else to say.

 

[mitch]

Hi Joshua-
My main suggestion at this point would be to work on tapering* your shade lines from fine/thin to heavier/thicker as they converge. This creates the nice gradient tones of light to dark and accentuates the illusion of depth between the 'high' areas and the 'low'.

*i suppose it's 'tapering' in reverse since we normally think of a taper as something that goes from thick > thin, but shade lines are cut thin > thick.

best,
mitch

 

[sam]

Welcome to the Cafe, Joshua.

 

[Leland Davis]

Joshua, any limitations you have do not show up in your work. Very nice thanks for posting and keep doing it I want to see more and thanks for posting here those of us who stay away from anti social media may have never seen it.
Leland

 

[John B.]

Joshua, your engraving and overcoming your problems is inspirational to so many.

 

[T.G.III]

I look at your progress and wonder what I've been spending my time on.........

Thank you

 

[TFACARVING]

If that's only 3 years I've got a lot of work to do and I agree with monk I really like how "soft" the scrollwork looks very well done. I've only got about 80-85 hours worth of engraving experience but seeing work like yours is what pushes me to get better

 

[thughes]

Hi Joshua,
What they all said, that is very nice!

 

[tdelewis]

Your work is excellent. I met a gentleman once that had similar difficulty and he produced many beautiful works of art. He was amazing.

 

[Roger Bleile]

Good to see you here at the Cafe' from the Facebook world.

 

[JohnC]

Some good workmanship from what I can see. Did you start with a hammer chisel or power assisted graver? Autistic Spectrum kids live in my area and they can be quite accomplished. One in particular is really into basket ball and has a fetish for basket ball shoes. His is also quite musical.

 

[gcleaker]

I thought I would take a moment and introduce myself since everyone is migrating over from Facebook.

Hi, I'm Joshua and I'm addicted to engraving....

I'm not sure how many here are in either Sam or Brian's groups, so I'll pretend no one here has seen my work yet.

I've been studying engraving for three years now. The first two were spent learning to draw, and the last year or so really focusing on cutting.

About me, personally...I'm semi-verbal autistic so I have a difficult time putting words to my thoughts. If I seem rude or abrupt, I'll apologize in advance. I'm certainly not trying to be. Also, I have diffuse Scleroderma, so I have limited use of my hands. Seems odd that I would latch onto a craft that requires extensive use of my hands, but the graver just fits in my hand so well. It's one of the few things I can do, pain free.

Anyway, I'm better with pictures, so here's a few:

I love your work; I have problems with my right hand and arm from my spinal cord is pinched at the c3 and c2, so I get where you are coming from.