A few years back I was approached via e-mail by a woman in Louisiana asking if I'd be interested in carving a pool table. She had been to my website and seen my style of relief carving, and was intrigued with the possibility that I might be willing to collaborate with her in creating a family heirloom table, as a Christmas present to her husband.

At first I thought she was asking if I would first BUILD the pool table and then CARVE it for her. But she set me straight by explaining that she intended to order a custom pool table from the Olhausen Billiards factory in Poway, California and arrange for the skirt panels (just under the rails) to be shipped to me for carving. Below you can see a picture of the style of table she ordered, without the carved skirts, that is. The skirts are the panels just above the legs and behind the leather pockets.

After a few weeks of sending e-mail messages back and forth, I was reasonably certain that she was serious about this project and willing to invest the time and effort required to see the project through to completion. Design parameters were discussed and eventually settled. Then prices were discussed in a general sort of way, basing the tentative cost of carving on factory-supplied dimensions for the panels. Arrangements were made for the laminated hardwood maple panels to be shipped from the Olhausen plant to my studio 2000 miles away in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The 200 pound shipping crate containing the raw panels arrived in September 2000, and I was delighted to find that the panels represented craftsmanship and hardwood of excellent quality. This would make my work so much easier. Each panel - there were four of them: two long and two short - consisted of hard maple 1-1/2" thick. The longer panels were nearly seven feet long and the shorter panels nearly four feet long. Each panel had a piece of plywood attached to the top, and a piece of maple molding attached to the bottom. These were part of the case for the pool table.

Having the panels in my shop made it easier to calculate the actual carved area and produce a final price for the project, which, to the delight of the customer turned out to be lower than the "ball park" price I had given her earlier. It's always nice to start a project by delivering good news to a customer.

I started immediately to produce patters for each of the four panels. The design process took three weeks in all. As each pattern was completed, it was photo-reduced and faxed to the customer for approval. A total of seven patterns were drawn, including a neat little monogram bearing the initials of the husband, who was eventually to be the recipient of this pool table. Thankfully, the communication between myself and the customer was clear and concise, allowing us to agree on the final patterns for the pool table skirts with only minor modifications to one panel.

I should explain that the shared intention with this project was to produce a pool table that would instantly become a family heirloom. All decisions made regarding design and rendering of objects focused on that single goal. Each of the six panels were to depict various wildlife scenes. The husband is an avid outdoorsman, and his favorite animals were to be carved into the panels - the Elk, the Bear, the Dahl's Sheep, the Wild Turkey, the Snow Goose and the Canvasback Duck. Each animal had special significance. Each had to be depicted in close-up portrait and landscape scenes.

The design period was perhaps the hardest part of the project. It took a full day to research each animal. I visited the local library for images and information, but for the most part the libraries in town offered little of what I was looking for. I found most of my images and information about each animal on the internet. I cannot state strongly enough how much information is available on the internet for artists like myself. Having a high speed internet connection in my home made searching a breeze. The images I found could then be scaled on the computer and printed to paper. From there I could take the images to my light table for tracing and modifying. The patterns were drawn full-sized, since there was no advantage to drawing half-scale patterns.

The patterns were traced to the hardwood panels using pencil and carbon paper. As soon as this was done, the carving began. Each panel scene took a full week to carve. There were no power tools, not even a router, employed in this series of carvings.

This project challenged my design and carving abilities in a way no other project has, so far. First, I had to build a consistent "style" and "layout" into each of the six scenes depicted on the panels. This took some doing, but eventually, as you will see when viewing the patterns, each had common features that made for consistent design. Second, I had to render the wildlife scenes in less than half the depth I typically have at my disposal. Usually I carve to 1-1/8" depth. In this case I was only able to carve to a depth of 1/2", making the depth compression more critical if the objects were to appear lifelike and in proper perspective.

I was asked NOT to apply any finish to the panels. This was to be done at the factory, where the intention was to stain the panels and then apply a top coat finish. This arrangement suited me, because it saved me the trouble of finishing each panel myself.

When all the panels were finished, I secured them in the same crate in which they arrived at my studio, except that I reinforced the crate substantially to insure that the cargo it contained would arrive safely at the Olhausen factory. Nine days after shipping the crate, I received a call from the factory representative in charge of this project that the panels had indeed arrived safely. I cannot describe the relief I felt at this good news. Shipping is always a risky venture, with little insurance to cover the liabilities involved.

Below are images of the patterns used in this project, and images of the panels grouped together. I have also included close-up images of each panel so you will be able to see some of the design elements and detailed carving.