The Wink

This carving is from the site woodbeecarver.com. Don Mertz says, "Would be carvers would be carvers, if they would carve wood." It is a great site to learn carving using a knife. I have carved several of these faces out of 1/2 inch basswood. The more you carve these relief faces you learn there is a lot of wood to get the depth of the face. They are 2 1/2 inch by 2 inch. The eye pupil is burnt in. They both have a natural finish, the left one is just a darker wood. I had painted one but I like the natural finish better.

Walking Stick

Using a walking stick has several advantages. It helps with your balance over rough areas, it takes some of the stress off your legs, and it can be used as a weapon to fight off the bears. This walking stick was carved from a Diamond Willow. It is said that the willow tree grows diamond shaped cankers in response to a fungus. The cankers seem to result from the tree growing away from the site of attack. I don't know how true this is because I'm carving one stick with cankers covering all three sides. I guess it doesn't matter how it gets there, it does make a nice walking stick or cane. It is a softer wood to carve. The stick is 57 inches long and the hand grip is just over my elbow level. I'm ready for my walk in bear country.

 

Awareness Ribbon

October is breast cancer awareness month, so I have been working on an awareness ribbon with angel wings. I started with a 3 1/4 inch long by 3/4 inch thick piece of basswood. On the first one the wings were flat. I wanted more of a dish in the wings. I gave the pattern to a friend and he came back with a different wing pattern and a cutout that was 3/8 inch thick. I carved it two different ways with the head covering on the back. The 3/8 inch thick angels have a magnet in the back of the head. I like the down swept wing a little better. The up swept wing looks more futuristic to me. Because of the lighting the ribbons are off color. The ribbons are actually pink.   

 

Patriotic Fish

I went to Spokane's Artistry in Wood with good intentions of taking a few pictures of some of the great carvings. My cameras battery was dead. I was so busy I didn't get something entered in the show. Our club had a booth to entice some new members. Several of our members had carved this fish design and was displayed. I started out painting my fish with an airbrush and it didn't blend in the colors like I wanted. I finish it with brushes with a patriotic theme. The paint become heavier than I wanted. I'm not to thrilled with it and I will carve another one. When I manned the booth, a lady asked where a person could find cottonwood bark. I told her along the river. She said that wouldn't work because her husband couldn't swim. My chuckle of the day.