[Ralph Glitzenhirn]

Hello to all of you,
I am from Hessen/Germany.
Studied biology now working for a company specializing in archeological excavations.
I am doing bonecarving for a few years now, not for commercial reason, for personal pleasure only on a fairly regular basis.
I am completely selftaught and unfortunately noone I know does a similar hobby so I greatly appreciate the internet and the access it gives me.
A few pieces I have sold but most have been given away as gifts.
I started with maori style carvings which were the only small carvings I knew at that time
and soon began to draw my own kind incorporating design elements like the koru spiral
( I love spirals and fascinated by natures proportions in all things, one of the most common design elements in nature besides golden section and fibonacci numbers. If it does not "look right" it probably very much isnt.. Look at György Doczi's " the Power of Limits" ISBN0877731934 Shambhala Press 1994)
and other influences like celtic and tribal into stylized masks and figures. I nicknamed these the "evil koru series" ;-)
What I like most in carving is that you have an idea ,then draw it and it develops into a real 3D Piece exactly (hopefully) like you imagined.
I process my own bone from local cattle and carve with the aid of powertools for shaping and then finish with files and lots of hand sanding and polishing.
As pictures speak more than words you will find a few photos with some of my work here:

Some pieces I have at home right now or are in my personal wear rotation:

http://www.scullpture.com/pedants1.jpg
http://www.scullpture.com/pedants2.jpg

Unfortunately it occurred to my stupid self recently that it would habe been nice if i had photographed my finished pieces before giving them away, so quite a few I have only as drawings. Here are some of them:
http://www.scullpture.com/drawings.jpg

Through your forum I came in contact with netsuke and other small style carvings which very much intrigued me.
I think I will make and work more with handtools as I feel a need for more detail :-) and I will try some wood which does not limit the space of the piece to the thickness of the bone.
I was able to profit much from all the combined knowledge here on the forum and now wanted to register to be able to post myself
and contribute to the community, well, trying to do so as here are lots of members whose skill level is far far beyond mine so far.

Regards
Ralph

[wunderlich]

Hallo nach Hessen

schön, dass noch jemand aus good old Germany dabei ist.

Grüsse aus Berlin
Karl

[magnus homestead]

Hello and welcome Ralph,

I'm glad to see you here - your work is very nice and quite refined. I'll be looking forward to seeing what you create in wood - I expect the added dimension will bring some amazing pieces out of you. Thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Magnus

[Doug Sanders]

Your pendants have an interesting style to them- lots of tribal influences, but they also appear to be mask-like. Thanks for sharing them, looking forward to seeing more work and development.

Doug

[remo]

Nice work,

welcome

Remo