The Celts carved crosses like these from stone. Amazingly, even before the time of Christ they were carving intricate woven
crosses. I do believe that the world was being prepared for the coming of Christ, our True God. The center of this design
is one woven cord with no beginning and no end. Christianity flourished among the Celts. Until 1054 AD, all Christians were
united. The Great Schism separated the Roman Catholic West and the Orthodox East, yet I've read that in remote Irish
monasteries they still commemorated the name of the Patriarch of Constantinopolis 100 years after the schism. Atheism and
countless hundreds of new schisms formed and fractured the West. Much of the Orthodox East fell under the yolk of the Ottoman
empire. One thousand years of peace for Christians came to an end. Amazingly, you'll still find Celtic crosses in Orthodox
churches to this day.
I carved this Celtic cross out of cherry wood by hand. I have made and sold dozens of these. They are a unique challenge
to carve because you must be very careful with grain. One bad move, and the cross is ruined and usually cannot be repaired.
How to do it? Well, start with a good pattern. Trace the Celtic cross and all the lines of the weave. Photocopy that tracing
and make the lines dark. There are two methods to put the pattern on paper. 1) use spray adhesive to glue it to the wood,
or brush on wood glue thinned with a little water, or even better 2) use an iron on the highest setting to transfer the pattern
to the wood. Use a laser copier or a photo copier and make sure it is fresh. You can actually transfer, or iron on, the design,
but it will be reversed. A way to fix this is to make the photocopy reversed, so the transfer comes out right. This can be
done easily with a transparency.
If I am making one of something, I use the first method and carve through the paper. After carving, I use sandpaper to
remove what little is left of the pattern. If I am making many of one thing, I will take time to make the pattern perfect.
I'll photocopy many patterns to have them around. When ironing on a pattern, use a fresh photocopy and press hard. Tape the
pattern in place to keep it from shifting. Below is the pattern I used:
