Carved an altar

[Router-Jim]

I recently had the honor of being asked to do the carvings for an altar for the American College of the Immaculate Conception, a Roman Catholic seminary in Leuven, Belgium. The seminary was founded in 1857 . Note the Neo Gothic architecture.


In 1857 they originally wanted to create a duplicate altar from an older nearby church.


150 years ago they brought in a marble slab and for an unknown reason it never got carved. A cloth over the slab served as an altar since then.


The original tabernacle was made back then.



The balcony. Note how the style matches the neo-gothic style of the old altar.



The task was to create an new altar in American red oak that could side over the existing marble altar and maintain the neo-gothic style that is prevalent throughout the seminary. This task was handled by Hildebrandt Custom Cabinetry and I had the pleasure of working with Todd and Jamie Hildebrandt. We were provided architectural drawings of the balcony.

Please bear with me as I make a few more posts of how this project developed.

[Router-Jim]

I started with making prototypes of the various triangles that needed to be carved. I hand carved the small triangles first and once I got the approval from Belgium I then scanned, cleaned up in editor and then carved. Here is the prototype of the background carves. At this stage I was only concerned with size and layout.



Next was the center triangles. The lumber was 1 1/2" thick and the glue ups were provided by the Hildebrandts. Yes it takes a little experience to be able to carve a blank with a tail like that but we didn't want to waste wood.




The left corners required a left half triangle.



The right corners required a right half triangle.



Closeup of the carvings.

[WRW]

Great Work, look forward to seeing more pics of finsihed work.
Have a great day!

[LittleRedWoodshop]

That is very cool .... nice work.

[Router-Jim]

Todd and Jamie did an excellent job of putting it all together. Here is the altar temparily assembled in Wi. before shipping to Belgium.



There is corner and crown molding that will get added in final assembly.



Here is the altar installed over the marble original. The Belgiums did the gold guilding.



Another view.



Jamie Hildebrandt, Monsignor Ross Shecterle, Todd Hildebrandt

[Kenm810]

Really nice of them to wait 150 Years for Just the right Guy,
with right Carving Machine to come along to finish their Project.

Looks Great!!!

[Router-Jim]

And here is the final picture with the original tabernacle installed. The Belgiums are going to gild all the carved recesses in gold and I will provide a picture when I receive one.


For those of you who read all this I thank you.

There were 42 carved triangles. Maybe the Lord was looking over my shoulder but I did all 42 carves without a single machine error.

The Hildebrandts and I both agreed that the carvings wouldn't have looked like much without the cabinetry and the cabinetry wouldn't have looked good without the carvings. The perfect mariage as each complimented the other.

Thanks for allowing me to share this experience with you.

Jim

[spalted]

Beautiful work Jim, very impressive, looks like a fun project. A really nice project to have in a portfolio as well.

[PCW]

Jim,

That is a beautiful project and you are a true craftsman.

[William Blankenship]

And here is the final picture with the original tabernacle installed. The Belgiums are going to gild all the carved recesses in gold and I will provide a picture when I receive one.

For those of you who read all this I thank you.

There were 42 carved triangles. Maybe the Lord was looking over my shoulder but I did all 42 carves without a single machine error.

The Hildebrandts and I both agreed that the carvings wouldn't have looked like much without the cabinetry and the cabinetry wouldn't have looked good without the carvings. The perfect mariage as each complimented the other.

Thanks for allowing me to share this experience with you.

Jim

Truly inspirational. Gorgeous workmanship. Thanks for sharing.

Bill...