Coor's Bottle Carved

This bottle was turned by a friend for a class in Glacier he is doing. He wanted something carved on it for a go by. The basswood was excellent and was easy to carve. The bottle is the same size as a Coor's bottle.

Morning Dance

I received this pattern from a friend, Girard Burgess.  The first seahorse I carved, I broke a part on the front. It showed the glue mark so I carved another since it was to have a natural finish. I also didn't like the back fin because it was flat. I thought I needed some movement in the fin because the seahorse was swimming and the rest of the horse had all curved surfaces. The seahorses are 6 inches long and carved from basswood. The background plate is Acacia wood.

Eagle Feather

Several members of our club has been carving this feather. I carved one in basswood and another one in cottonwood bark. They are about 11 1/2 inches long and 3/8 inch thick. I thought there wasn't enough movement it the feather so I used a gouge along part of the feather. I broke the quill on the bark feather when carrying it in my bag. The barbs of the feather on the bark are larger because of the layers in bark I thought I would have trouble with breakage. They both have a satin finish but I'm thinking I will paint the eagle head on the basswood feather. 

  

A Frog and his Computer

After lunch this frog started surfing the net. I like looking at cartoons and it is fun to carve the caricatures. This cartoon struck my interest because of all the people playing games on the computer. The frog was carved out of 1/2 inch thick basswood.  

Golden Dragon

Girard gave me a cutout of this dragon, and said, because I like to carve small things. This relief is 4 1/2 inch wide and 3 1/4 inch tall. It was a lot of fun carving as I haven't carved a dragon before. 

WISHHAM YOUNG WOMAN

This carving is from a Edward Curtis portrait of a young indian woman in 1910. She is a Chinookan from Washington state. The tribes were along the Colombia River and along the coast. She is from the Wishham tribe. The choker around her neck is shell disks and earrings are abalone. These were used as barter and they were good at trade. It takes me some time to carve portraits as I don't measure the different layers. I go by if it looks right to me, so I carve it a little at a time. The dark brown area is a pitch mark that goes all the way through the wood.

 

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.

Heart Flower

A friend gave me this flower he started carving and asked me to finish it. He designed it with four hearts and added some leaves. Girard likes to draw, and he designs some very good carvings. It is carved out of butternut and is 3 1/2 inch square by 3/8 inch thick. Butternut is easy to carve but it took a lot of sanding to bring out the richness of the wood. It has some interesting grain patterns.

Happy Turtle

I made some minor changes on the turtle on my March 25 post. This will be my class project for the Spokane rendezvous this year. The turtle is 4 inches by 6 inches by 1/2 inch. This is glued on a 4 inch diameter by 3/8 inch circle. The circle was painted with a contrasting color. It was fun to adjust the color and the placement of the circle. The turtle with the blue circle is a pin, 2 inches by 3 inches. I haven't made up my mind if I like the red or blue background, but I'll carve another with the blue and maybe change the turtles color a little. Since this is a comic relief I can think of several titles. "I spend a long day carving."

Comic Relief

This was a comic drawing with the title "It's been one of those days". It's carved from 1/2 inch thick basswood and painted with acrylics. I learned a few things carving this turtle and I'm going to carve another one with a few changes. It was fun to carve and bring out the different levels. He does look a little punch drunk after a hard days work or maybe it was play.

Eagle Plaque

 My eagle plaque carving is only 5 inches long and 3/8 inch thick. I have it hanging in the motor home. That is abalone glued in the center. It is cut from the abalone shell of a sail. The shells come in many different colors depending on what the snails eat. The lucky person is who gets to eat the snail and then make a piece of jewelery out of the shell.

Chief Kamiakin

Back in January a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts asked if our club would carve four different subjects for their jamboree in July. Girard and I worked from a bronze plaque of Chief Kamiakin. He was distinguished as a warrior and buffalo hunter. He accrued substantial wealth, allowing him to marry five wife's from rival tribes. This created kinship with many tribes. He brought back cattle to the Yakima valley, a first. Kamiakin planted one of the earliest gardens and irrigated his land. In1850 he offered a Catholic priest a place on his property for a mission, if the priest would teach his tribe. Two Catholic Fathers arrived, and built St.Joseph's Mission on Ahtanum Creek. In 1853 the Washington Territory was established and the treaty process begin. Kamiakin died in 1877.

Leafing Out

This hen reminds me of back on the farm the hen wouldn't lay her eggs in the nest, you needed to hunt all over for that egg.

 This hen is 8 inches by 10 inches by 3/4 inch and is carved out of jelutung. This wood carves very nice with hand tools and has a nice finish. This is a fun project with the different leaves and scrolls. It can be hung on the wall or stand alone. The finish is a brown madder oil paint wash and when dried was sprayed with Deft.

Area reliefs

I had a request to show all the relief carvings that we did as a club project. This is the only picture I have and shows how we displayed them. One vertical grouping of five and eleven in another grouping. It went over quite well as we had a lot of great comments.

Springhouse

This relief carving was mostly done last year but was put aside for other projects. It took me longer than I thought it would. I cleaned a few areas and painted it last week with acrylics. It's done in basswood, 9 1/2 by 12 inches and 1 1/4 inches thick. 

Chief Kamiakin

At our North Idaho Woodcarvers club get together we had a visit from a scoutmaster. The Boy Scouts are having a national jamboree in July and asked if we could carve some relief carvings of something that represents their troop. There are four troops in eastern Washington and four troops in northern Idaho in the Inland Northwest Council. Our club is doing the Idaho side and the carved plaques will be mounted on a nine foot pole. I will be working with a friend, Girard on the profile of Chief Kamiakin, which was chosen by one of the troops. This picture is a likeness of the Chief given to us to use as a guide.

Parkway

I recieved my relief carving from a project our club did last year. Members picked a photo of a scene around the Coeur d'Alene area to carve. They are approximately 8 by 11 by 3/4 inches, and were all sprayed with a lacquer. Some were vertical and some horizontal, then mounted in a framework like a quilt. We recieved a lot of comments and people did recognize the different area's when they were displayed.