I made these as a gift to the vessel and owner Mike, designing and carving them outside of work hours, mostly an hour at a time in the mornings. A lovely, meditative process which taught me a huge amount. They’re made of Utile, a nice bland but reasonably durable wood for carving.
Before I could pick up the chisels though, I had to design them. This involved a crash course in signwriting as my chosen type wasn’t quite right. I also discovered that to look part of the vessel, each board needed its letters raked to match the angle of sheer and stempost. The flower and seed pod thing came from a heraldry resource, Planta Genesta being the Broom plant, and associated with the Plantaganets.
Carving them did take a while; although I could do a letter in about twenty minutes there are twenty six of them, plus all the twiddly bits.
Seb vanden Bogaerde, Boatbuilder and Designer maker. Portfolio. 