Get ready for some mind-boggling woodcarving projects! 25 extraordinary projects for tricky objects with connected parts that are loose, yet not removable - Advice on getting started includes choosing wood, selecting tools, and preparing blanks - Detailed instructions break down the process into achievable steps - Craft beautiful knotted rings , lovers' hearts, chains, Borromean Rings, and creative geometric shapes from 3D stars to dodecahedrons If you thought carving a linked chain or a ball-in-cage was a challenge, you'll be astonished at these seemingly impossible objects made from a single piece of wood! There is a school of mathematical art that explores the frontiers of what is possible in a given space. Woodcarving Magic author Bjarne Jespersen is a master of this art. Bjarne is an internationally-known woodcarver and sculptor from Denmark and has spent his life studying geometric form. Inside this book, Bjarne shares 29 mind-altering designs and projects for woodcarving. These "tricky objects" contain connected parts that are loose, yet cannot be taken apart. Get started with advice on choosing wood, selecting tools, and preparing blanks. Then, the more than 25 projects include those for both the beginner and the experienced carver, featuring step-by-step diagrams and detailed instructions that break down the process into achievable steps. Each project includes detailed diagrams illustrating the carving process along with notes from the author about the composition and design. Also included is information about this tradition of woodcarving and a detailed appendix. Learn how to uncover the structure of space by looking inside a piece of wood and carving away anything that doesn't match your vision. Those with an engineering mind will enjoy the author's explanations of his creative geometric methods. Those with a mathematical mind will marvel at how beautifully art and math come together. If you enjoy woodcarving, you'll find challenges to strengthen your skills and appreciation for the novel forms presented. Even the model builder or 3D printing enthusiast will find these shapes exciting to create and experiment with! From flat rings to linked cages to magic spheres and beyond— Woodcarving Magic is a book that will keep woodcarvers challenged for a long time! http: //www.shortcuts.ns.ca/column/column743/ There is a Danish gentleman that can see more into a small block of wood than anyone that I know of. Even Ernö Rubik is in awe of his work. His name is Bjarne Jespersen and his carvings are amazing. The sub-title of this amazing book is "HOW TO TRANSFORM A SINGLE BLOCK OF WOOD INTO IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES." And judging from the contents the author has seemingly done the impossible. The first 55 pages are very important as Jespersen details his methods and tools. He then goes on to detail the 29 "impossible" shapes. There is the Hopf Link, the Lovers' Hearts and the Borromean Rings just for starters. Then, things start to get a little more complex but the author takes the carving to the nth degree. He carves a (are you ready for this?) Rhombicosidodecahedron and shows us how. And, it all starts with a wooden cube. Wow! One of this reviewer's earliest memories is of two wood carvings that sat on a cabinet in grandma's bedroom. Shaped like little towers, they had wooden balls held captive inside cavities along their length. Everyone marvelled at them, trying to see a crack, a mark, anything that would prove that the balls were introduced to their cages, for surely, surely, they could not have been carved there. How much more would they have marvelled, had they been able to see the work of Bjarne Jespersen. Where those old carvings might have seemed unlikely, the convoluted shapes of Jespersen's carvings seem absolutely incredible. The piece shown on the cover of his book is representative of the projects for which Jespersen gives instruction, but it is by no means the most complicated. Despite the title of the book, there is nothing magical about the work, though it seems so, for all these wondrous pieces are carved from a single block of wood. Early in the book, there are clues as to how these remarkable pieces were developed, The author confesses to an adolescent interest in solid geometry and a life long interest in what he terms 'recreational mathematics'. These are unquestionably important attributes for anyone wishing to design something like the Inverted Great Tetraknot. Fortunately, the same background is not required of the reader. At the beginning of Chapter 4, the author writes: 'Plenty of the projects in this book can be carved by following the drawings and instructions.' One might imagine that this will be enough for many readers, but Jespersen appears keen to recruit others to his level of the discipline, providing guidance in building mock-ups and prototypes for use in the development of new projects. The author carefully explains his tools and methods, discusses the preparation of a bl