Wow, time flies, and I haven’t posted for a while! Here’s a recap of the last 1/2 year or so.
Attended a few small carving events including Burrville Power Equipment’s Open House and Carving Event, the Town of Erin Wood Festival, and the Hooskow Chainsaw Carver’s Event.
I’ve started to take on more complex projects, such as the bear above, seen here being cut in two for a pair of bookends for my son. It was difficult to cut a perfectly good bear carving in half!
I also created a jig to hold up a “router sled”, and this enables me to perfectly flatten the ends of a log so that a carving can sit perpendicularly and not rock back and forth. It’s basically a planer you can use with for flattening highly irregular objects. Pictured above, I am planing the bottom of a cardinal-in-a-tree carving that is 4 feet tall. Carving is upside down, and the flat router bit slides across a horizontal surface at the top. The jig works for many different sizes, and the same concept allowed me to flatten all four paws of my bookend bear so the bear could plant all four feet evenly on a surface.
Speaking of complexity, I’m also doing more “gluing and screwing” in order to expand the “wooden canvas” to suit my needs. Pictured above in the foreground is one of my recent “toilet paper” bears, where I added blocks for the outstretched arms. While it would be ideal to have a supply of logs that were girthy enough to allow for a one-piece TP bear, I am mostly dealing with logs that are 12″-14″ in diameter and below. In the background you can see my router sled again, in a simpler configuration where it simply rides atop the jawhorse.
Excited to have participated in my first craft show in November! It was at the Arnot Health Holiday Fair, and while it was a success in terms of sales, my main hope was to exhibit my work and submit it to the court of public opinion. I came away encouraged, and also with a better idea of what people honestly like.
What carvings have I been proudest of over the last few months? Glad you asked! I’d have to say it’s my puffins (I’ve done three so far), and my police dog (still one of a kind). While I have been striving more and more towards realism, I understand that my products are still in the caricature realm, and I’m OK with that. If there’s a common thread in my style, it’s that I strive for cuteness whether I start out with that intention or not.
Finally, I’ve created a winter workshop so the tent can hide out for the season. I really like this so far but come spring I’ll need to reclaim this space for yard equipment. Note my router sled/jig in the background. It doubles nicely as a fan-holder; my poor-man’s solution to the dust problem.
Must now turn my attention to some outstanding requests including a snowman, a mailbox bear, a toilet paper bear, a cat, and a mushroom!
