Comfort Bird

When I saw the Comfort bird in Woodcarving Illustrated I had to carve one. I liked the idea because of the touching aspect. I carved mine out of butternut and cottonwood bark. I used a knife to carve it then a palm sander to smooth out the knife marks. On the bark I cut the tail at a bit of an angle so it would show the layers of the bark. Both these woods are easy to carve and it doesn't take long to finish the bird. The finish is a couple coats of clear satin and then some wax. They do have a good feel to them. The pattern in the magazine is a little off, so draw a line though the middle and copy the one side for the other side.

Carving a Pine Cone

A friend asked me how to carve a pine cone, so I will lay out the steps I take. This one is made as a ornament and it can be carved any size with a change in the layout dimensions. Other dimensions will give different results and that is OK. Cones come in all shapes and lengths.

I use a 1 1/2 inch block about 7 inches long. This will give two cones 3 inches long and it will be easier to hold on to when carving. Bullet shape the cone on each end. I free hand the vertical lines a little more than 1/2 inch apart to the point. This will even out the lines around the cone. I freehand the lines because it is quicker and I have trouble following the lines when I carve anyway. The start of the horizontal line is 3/4 inch from the top of a 3 inch cone.I make dots at the vertical line at 5/16 for the first three lines and 1/4 inch for the rest of the lines. Draw in those lines. Mark a X in each rectangle. The very tip will be v-tooled out, so don't worry about that. Spray with Deft to protect the lines you worked so hard to draw. Chip cut each diamond shape. Cut straight down the inverted V and then cut at an angle up to free the chip. Go around each row before starting the next row.. Depending how good you carve this might be good but for me it is a roughing stage. I like to carve fast.

Here I went back and cleaned up my cuts and deepened the cut to open up the cone. On the very end I used a v-tool and cut from the v to the end of the cone. Now to do the other one.

Now cut these two cones apart and shape the ends. These will be ornaments so there is enough wood to add ornament hooks to the top. You may notice that one cone I carved was more open than the other.

I painted the pine cones with acrylic's. I painted wet on wet with three different browns and green. Turn the carving as you paint because it is easy to miss a spot in one of the corners. The knob on the top I used gold. It went well with the browns. When dry I coated it with Deft.

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.

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.