Pattern your pasta with this chip-carving exercise
One thing that I’ve noticed about craftspeople is that we appreciate craft in all its myriad forms. Whether we’re admiring hand-crafted furniture, intricate glasswork, or handwoven textiles, we can see the common threads of skill, care, and time that connect our experience of making things with our hands. This is one of the reasons I enjoy making a project like this that connects carefully carved woodworking to another time-honored craft: pasta-making.
When I heard that Fred and Linda Williams were writing “Get Started with Chip Carving” for this issue, I knew that this pasta board would be a fun project for new and seasoned chip carvers alike. The board features seven different carving patterns that will employ a variety of basic chip-carving shapes starting with the classic isosceles triangle and including squares, scallops, and long, straight lines.
The project is essentially a carving practice board that converts into a beautiful, useful tool for the kitchen. And if you’re not interested in making pasta yourself, it makes a beautiful gift for the crafty cooks in your life.
Order of Work
- Transfer pattern
- Chip carve
- Bandsaw board to final size
A practice board with a purpose
Start by transferring the pasta board pattern to a 7/8 × 5-1/2 × 10-1/2" carving blank. I used butternut for this pasta board, but you may find basswood even easier to carve. Carve the isosceles triangle pattern at the top of the board, then try the straight-line pattern. From there, the patterns become more complicated. For the middle-left pattern with the curved star shapes, cut from one corner of the star along the curved pattern line, continuing through the shaded area, across to the opposite point of the star. Rotate the work and carve from the end point back to the start, removing a scalloped chip. Then carve between the other two points of the star. For the woven fabric pattern, carve the square shapes individually first, then make shallower straight cuts along their connecting lines to complete the pattern. Once all the carving is finished, bandsaw the handle and sand the board. Cut a 1/4" diameter dowel 8" long and soak the board and dowel in a neutral oil before using or gifting.
Squares and triangles. For this pattern, cut the squares first. Begin with the cuts running with the grain and then make the cross-grain cuts. For the triangles, start with the side that is adjacent to a carved square and then continue with the other two sides. This will help avoid chipping out the fragile shared edges.
A Simple Recipe
For making pasta shapes that maintain their structure and hold a pattern well, mix two parts semolina flour to one part warm water by weight. Knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball, and then wrap it in cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes before rolling out and stamping.
Sprinkle the pasta board with flour to prevent sticking. For tube-shaped pasta, roll out your dough about 1⁄16" thick and cut to 1 × 1" squares. Lay a square on the pasta board and roll onto a dowel while pressing into the pattern.
For shell-style pasta, roll out the dough into a 1⁄2" diameter rope and then slice the rope into 1⁄2" segments. Push each segment into and across the board with your thumb. This will create a curled shape similar to a shell. Let the pasta pieces dry, spread out across a floured surface, for at least half an hour. Then boil and enjoy!
