Neo-Celtic...A new style?

[Marcus Hunt]

Hi folks, well it seems that I don't have much to do these days while recovering from my op, so I've spent a lot of time doodling and trying to come up with what all us engraving artists crave....a totally new design! Well this is what I've come up with and any comments would be welcome.

I call the style Neo-Celtic as it's heavily influenced be Celtic knotwork, but not only that - there's a definite Maori influence as well as tribal tattoo designs. First there are some pictures of the preliminary doodles and sketches followed by the knife itself which happens to be a Spyderco Endura that I had lying around.

Anyway, just to see what the public/collectors think I've put it on Ebay to see if there's any reaction. I happen to be quite fond of it so if it doesn't sell I don't really care. The Ebay item number for those who may be interested in following its progress over the next week is: 200091747773

 

[dclevinger]

Marcus, I love it and I think the Spydie collectors will as well. Please let us know how it does. Do you feel that it was easier or more difficult, to design and cut, than traditional scrollwork? David

 

[B_H]

Mr. Hunt, I too love the Neo-Celtic design. Celtic knot work is very difficult to get correctly designed and transferred to the work, you have done it wonderfully. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Marcus.

There is definitely a contemporary Maori influence to it. The funny thing is that contemporary Maori design is leaning a lot more toward the Celtic designs. Traditional Maori design is quite different and is comprised of more scroll work that is referred to as Koru. (Kor-oo)

For those of you that don’t know….Maori are the indigenous (native) people of New Zealand whose origins come from the Pacific Islands. Best guess is that they landed here some 800-1000 years ago led by the famous chief Kupe (Koo-pay). Their legends and myths of how New Zealand was formed are fascinating.

Anyway, history lesson over and back to the subject……….Great design mixing the two styles and coming up with a very pleasing mixing of the cultures. I love it.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Peter E]

I like it very much Marcus. The design suits the knife perfectly. I'd be curious to know how long it took and how the Endura steel cuts.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[Dmitry Martinov]

guys, what is the name of this kind of knives? Which can be opened with one finger like Marcus posted.
Marcus I think you get the good connection in Celtic and Maori. It very good looking as Celtic style interlocking and Maori tattoo. This is interesting and attract the attention.

 

[Gargoyle]

Marcus,
Post larger photos on e-bay, which show the quality and detail level of your engravings, and the bid prices will rise.

 

[Sam]

Marcus: This is a refreshing departure from normal knife layout. I like it very much. Great job! / ~Sam

 

[jacques herbst]

a bigger picture on eBay would surly help sell it better.hope this works out , i like the new experiment.

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Thanks for your input guys. I've adjusted the listing and taken a few more photos which I'll list here too.

The object of the exercise is to see whether or not this type of engraving is a viable option and whether or not it could be offered on a commercial basis. I've heard some kinds of feedback from certain quarters is that younger folks like engraving but don't go a bundle on traditional forms of scroll. My answer to this is that could younger people afford hand engraving. By the time one reaches maturity and can afford something hand engraved generally their tastes have changed from the 'urban graffiti' artwork to an appreciation of finer things.

The question is 'Is it commercially viable?' This style is certainly a great deal quicker to cut than scrollwork but the design stage takes much longer. There may be 'no rules' as such but in fact it was just as complicated, if not more so, to get the shapes and straps balanced. The intertwining of the strapwork doesn't follow the rules of celtic knotwork but was designed to give an impression of such.

The starting price on Ebay is nowhere near what I'd have charged if this was a commissioned piece. In fact its only slightly more than the knife cost me! Hopefully it will sell for what it's worth (or somewhere near).

 

[Mike Bissell]

Marcus
I like the design very much. I'm also interested if there is any commercial interest and I'm sure there are others watching too.
Mike

 

[KSnyder]

Marcus, very clever, for me it looks "new & old" at the same time.
A keeper for sure.
Kent

 

[Eddi]

This looks great to me. I like it better than the traditional scroll work.
Jacques said a few days ago that someone said to him that knives should not be engraved, it was too feminine. Well this looks very "Matcho"

Eddi
I´m not sure about the spelling sometimes. Feel free to correct me.

 

[Otto Carter]

Marcus,
That is a sick design man. However, you missed the boat on the name. Coming from the dark side of the U.S. chopper builders, I would call it Tribal Celtic. I love it. I'm sure it will be used and abused by many people in the future.

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

Marcus, I like the out of the box thinking. I had a customer wanting something with a tribal look to it, a few months ago and what I drew up has some similarity to your design. Turned out the customer rejected it, but I kept the scetch for future use. Anyway, cool knife, interested to see how it will do. Brian

 

[Kerry Bogan]

Marcus very cool, and of course impecable craftmanship. I hope you get a good price, it certainly is worth it. Coincidently I have been using Iain Bains's book Celtic Knotwork to develope some designs but mine are not nearly as unique as your's.
Kerry

 

[Degs]

Very very nice Marcus. I've had requests for a mix of celtic, tribal and maori influenced stuff for the custom bikes etc. A comment was " Scrollwork is very 80's and boring can you do tribal" Have a look at some of the tribal flash artwork for tattooing.
Hope you get a good price.

Degs

 

[fegarex]

Marcus,
Very cool! While I consider myself a "traditionalist" I find this style very interesting and want to play with it myself. Right now there is a million "part ideas" floating around in my head but I just can't to seem to pull them together into a design. You gave more inspiration!