Santa Ornament

My daughter asked for a carving for a good cause she is working on, but she didn't want a cowboy. It just isn't girly enough. I bet there are some ladies who do like cowboys. They have a fashion show, lunch, and a silent action to raise money for the Women's Center.  They are putting gifts together in baskets. The wine and chocolate should go good with a santa ornament the coming holiday season. The santa is 6 inches tall and relieved in the back.

Trinket Boxes

I wanted to start out small with my chip carving using simple designs. These two boxes are from a craft store. Some of the boxes have open grain and soft wood making it hard to carve sharp edges. I don't know what kind of wood this is but I like the brown stripes. The first trinket box is 2 1/2 inches by 2 inches. I carved a 7 point rosette on the top. The second trinket box I also carved a 7 point rosette on the top. It is 3 1/2 inch by 2 1/4 inch and 2 1/4 inch tall. On all the sides I carved a double border of positive diamond with wedge cuts. It is drawn in with 4 mm squares. A fellow carver gave me this hint on holding your chip knife at the correct angle. He cut a 50 degree angle on a small piece of 3/8 inch wood so you can lay it against the blade of your knife.

  

Log House

This log house is carved in cottonwood bark. It is 6 inches tall. I wanted the roof to look like sod so I glued a piece of bark on top so the two pieces of bark are facing in different directions. I added some furniture inside the house. This carving took me back a few years when I was a kid. When I was carving this log house a lady asked how I knew were to place the logs. I told her I had played with Lincoln logs as a kid. I don't think you can even find them anymore, but it was a good learning experience growing up.

 

Elf

This carving of an Elf is from a Mark Gargac pattern. A 2 inch block was cut at a diagonal. The block was 12 inches long, so I cut it in half. I cut in the hair of the beard so it went in the cutout areas in the beard. I also painted the hair with light buttermilk. White sometimes gives a chalky look. When it dries I use a dry brush technique. I use a bristle brush and white paint. Dab most of the paint off on a paper towel. Then hit the high spots on the hair and the hat.

Santa Ornaments

When I go camping there is time to relax and carve. I take small projects and try different things. In these ornaments I was working on the beard of the Santa. I have more work on carving hair to do, but I'm gaining. Harold Enlow wrote a few steps in carving hair. 
1. Make long sweeping s-cuts. Make the change in direction severe.
2. Begin s-cuts adjacent to a previous cut, then after a short distance, merge into a previous cut. 
3. Begin some cuts between previous cuts. Avoid making a pattern.
4. Go over some areas to deepen the flow. Try to remove all flat spots in the hair.

Carving Rendezvous

We had rather warm days during our stay at the West Glacier Rendezvous. It was a fun time carving and a surprise visit from a mom and her four daughters playing their fiddles after our barbeque. Saturday morning we had a group project carving a bear. There were several examples with different clothes. The blank was cut at 4 inches so you could get three out of a 12 inch block. We also carved on Thursday and Friday. Most are small projects for a three hour class.

The head is carved separate from the body of my turtle. When I glued the head on with Super Glue, the head stuck on at little more angle than I wanted.   

I never did chip caving before so I did a practice class and than an egg. He had us use a 1/4 inch square for the chip design. It took a lot of time to draw out the design so I carved it quicker than I would have liked. I like the design so I will try it again.

I taught a class on a Norwegian horse. I had carved in the saddle and reigns so it would be more of a challenge to the more experienced carvers. The highlight was with two ladies that haven't carved before. They were at the campground and saw us carving and wanted to try. The older lady wanted to know when it was next year so she could learn some more. The other lady was an eight year old girl. At that age she doesn't have enough strength to carve clean cuts. I was behind her and held onto the knife with her and carved the horse. She had a finished horse and I was able to go around and help the other carvers. Her brother took a different class that afternoon and was seen buying knives with his dad later.

  

Wood Spirit

This wood spirit  is carved in cottonwood bark and is 13 inches tall.