Pirate

I spent the last week at the Carving Academy in Ellensburg. I carved a pirate with Chris Hammack as the instructor. It was a fun filled week and I learned his style of carving. I have carved a base and a treasure chest but I'm waiting for the gel
 stain to antique them. He stands at 7 inches tall.  

Pine Knots

Last week we went camping. We fished in the morning and went 4-wheeling in the afternoon. There was a lot of pine knots lying around, so I carved a couple of faces in them. The knots are hard and there was some rotted wood so I just let the wood decide what it would be. I added hair but it doesn't show in the picture. I left them on the picnic table. Hopefully some kid will find them. I carve ornaments while camping so I won't be swamped doing the Christmas holidays.

Little Pig

This is the other project I started to carve at the rendezvous. The pigs highest point is just under 3 inches. It's one of the fun projects I wouldn't normally carve and has a few challenges.

Climbing Bear

Last weekend I went to a woodcarving rendezvous at a KOA campground. I enjoy seeing friends that you don't see very often. Friday and Saturday there were 3 and 6 hour classes. Tom Ellis taught an old toy of climbing bears. They are 4 1/2 inches tall. You pull on the cords to make the bear climb up the cord.  I started carving a pig the next day, but didn't get to finish it because I taught a class on the mini duck that afternoon. I am almost done carving it at home. There was also a contest to carve a coffee spoon from cut out blanks. There was another spoon, but I missed getting a picture of it with the others. We were judged and then divided in two teams and had to carry water to fill a jar, Excellent weather and good fun.

Night Light in Bark

When I saw the night light in Woodcarving Illustrated I knew I had to carve a small house with a light. The house is 3 1/2 inches tall. The night light has a LED bulb and gives a lot of light.

Minni Decoy

I finally got around to painting these small decoys. The first one I painted the head with acrylics and the body with linseed oil and burnt umber oil paint. I saw a decoy done this way and I liked the way it looked, I didn't go into a lot of detail on the second decoy. It represents a hunting decoy rather than a decorative decoy. I had a decoy maker and hunter tell me that what matters is if the ducks are attracted to the decoy. I used an extender to the paint to give me more time to blend the paint on the head. To give a little gloss to the eyes I used my wife's top coat for nails.   

Borromean Rings

Borromean  rings consists of three rings, linked so they can't be pulled apart. But no individual ring links with any other ring. Removing any one ring results in unlinked rings. Starting out you saw out the shape. I used a 1 3/4 inch square block. the ring shapes are 1/4 inch. The next step is to carve out the little squares. Then use a small drill and drill the inside corners in all directions. Start rounding the outside rings. Then use a small knife, gouge to separate the rings and finish rounding.