Santas Already

Here are two Santa's I carved during a woodcarving retreat. These were done from Basswood eggs. The larger one took about 2 hours to finish, giving me an hour to carve the next one. After I got home I textured the smaller of the Santas beard, mustache and hat brim using a small v-tool. The eyes were each painted, after which I coated them with BLO and painted them with acrylic washes until I got the tone I wanted. One of these will go to my auction at work and the other will stay home.


Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Another Carving

I'll be giving this one away today or tomorrow to a friend, so here is a final look. I used a pattern in a book for the design. I'm also going to carve one for me as I like the design and the way it turned out.


Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Mama's quilts

While these aren't wood stuff, Mama made these Halloween quilts and I wanted to show them off, so here they are.

Finally, here is a Fall lap quilt to crawl under when it gets cold. The temps are already into the low 40s at night and this quilt is comfortable. We've both already tested it out with a snooze.

Bottle Stoppers - renewed

I found a couple of bottle stoppers that I carved about 5 years ago and decided that I didn't like the way they looked. Too square and blocky, with no character. I re-carved them leaving the ears, nose and hair lines, at least most of it. The front ended up with a whole new look. While I prefer to use a linseed oil coating for most of my work now, I left enough of the original paint on these that I needed to repaint these also. The looks are about a 100% improvement, so I'm happier with them. Oh, yes, I would still do things differently if I started over, but I don't always have time for that and fixing them presented a nice challenge. Neither of these had been seen by anyone, as I kinda hid them away until now.

Finally, another post

Yes I know, it has been a while. My excuse is I was gone most of August. But I did get a little done. I planted grass in front of the shop, and it is just starting to come up, at least a couple of blades. I finally put wallboard around the electrical panel to fill in the gaps from when I had the panel replaced, just shy of a year to do it. My big brother helped. See the picture.


I finished carving a sun that I had been working on for about 2 years. Painted, but not yet sealed or hung. I need to add a hook to hang it. It is bright, but it is the sun. For those that don't recognize it, the sun is a Shawn Cipa design.


I went to the Carving Rendezvous put on by the Salem, Oregon Capital Carvers. I spent the day there learning from people that like to teach, with a lot of people that like to carve. I included samples by Dave Disslbrett from a class I took there. I had a great time and it was nice to talk and listen to people that enjoyed carving.

For now, enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

In the Yard

Well, not many finished projects, but here is some of what I have been doing. I built the wall across my back yard to separate the 2 levels. I haven't glued down the top row of bricks yet. I'm also moving dirt still, lots of it. I don't plan on planting grass until fall so I'm not pushing the work too much. I still haven't finished the final little pieces on the brick patio. I really need to get that done.


The rototiller handle broke while a neighbor was using it. No big deal, but they did get it welded back together for me. It's over 30 years old and still working.



Here you see our garden, all in pots under the deck to stay out of the heat. They look great and this picture is full size so it will take longer to open.


Enjoy, and be careful of the blisters.

Current Projects

Ice Cream Scoop

I haven't been entirely away from wood working lately and here is an Ice Cream scoop that I turned from a piece of Myrtle wood and a kit that had the two brass parts. The scoop part that inserts into the Myrtle wood handle was not round, close maybe, so I made a little extra epoxy to make sure that I had enough to fill the hole I drilled. Also, there was a knot at the back end of the handle that I turned away, at least I thought I did until I parted the handle of the lathe. The end had a crack in it, so I sanded the end by hand, filling the crack with sawdust. Then I added some this super-glue, let it dry, then repeat until the crack was filled.

Sugar Scoop

This unfinished piece was from a branch of an ornamental fruit tree I cut down to build the shop. As I was turning I thought the color was great, but as I got to the center of the wood, I found that the core was almost rotten: very brittle, soft, and easily damaged. I turned the scoop center and did have a knot bust out, taking the whole side with it. I used the opening to an advantage so I could see how this the bowl part was. But when I got to the handle, the core either ripped out or was already gone, so the second picture shows why I didn't finish the scoop. I figured no handle, no scoop.

Spoon

I took another branch of the ornamental tree and split it down the center so I wouldn't have to worry about the rotten core. Here you see the first half of the branch that I turned to get ready to make a spoon. At this point the wood looks pretty good, so I'm hopping I can finish this project.