Santa Ornaments

I started painting the hair and beards of my Santa's like I seen another carver do so. I use watered down acrylic's mainly from Americana.  I start with yellow and paint all the hair. while it's still wet I paint burnt sienna, leaving some yellow. Then I paint light Butttermilk leaving some of the other colors show. I let the paint dry. Then I use straight white in a dry brush method, leaving little paint on the brush and just hit the high spots. I like how it looks and it will depend on how you applied the paint.

Walking Cane

One of my favorite pictures of my dad is of him sitting against a tree carving a walking stick. Carving is such a satisfying time. Diamond Willow is beautiful as a walking stick but I wanted to have a cane done before I needed to use one. For the hand grip I used a door knob I found at an Antique store.

 

Key Marco Cat

There is an interesting history of this carving, it had been carved with primitive tools such as sea shells, shark teeth, and bones. It is 6 inches tall. I carved it out of cottonwood bark. A pattern was in Woodcarving Illustrated. I found a rear view with a internet search. It was a challenge to carve with carving tools, some of the detail doesn't show in my pictures. 

Santa Key

This is from one of the classes at the Glacier Rendezvous in August. It is 5 1/2 inch tall and is about 5/8 inch thick. I used the wood I have on hand at home. It doesn't take long to carve. The back is flat so I like to carve, burn, paint something on the back. I do something different every year. 

 

FIREMAN

I carved this Fireman from a Moore rough-out. The total height is about 12 inches tall. I didn't take a picture of the back because it is  boring. A gift of a fireman for a retired fireman. Hope he enjoys.

Santa with Walking Stick

This Santa is 4 inches tall. I used a piece of tile for a base. I painted the beard first with yellow, mainly in the grooves, then burnt sienna, and then with an off white (light butternut) on the ridges. This is the first time I tried painting this way. I need a little more work on this technique. I would like to see more yellow showing. I like the outcome enough to do this again.

 

Pumkin Carving

A couple years ago I started carving faces on pumpkin's for Halloween. I'm enjoying having the trick or tweeters making comments on the faces. The  one with the mustache was carved a couple weeks ago so it has gained some mold and lost some facial features.