Gift carved for Dad's 76th Birthday

My Dad turned 76 this past September and as is now getting to be tradition, I carve a gift for him.

One of my fondest memories of Dad is his love of the outdoors.  Dad is a fisherman, hunter, golfer and anything else he can do outside the confines of anything man made.

Dad taught myself and my 5 brothers how to hunt pheasants from the farm-fields of Mid Michigan.  Dad first met Mom as a young man asking permission from a man, who ended up to be his father-in-law,  permission to hunt pheasants with his buddies on the old man's property.

Dad's bird-dog of choice is Brittany Spaniels.  Now Dad has hunted over many brittany's in his day, my favorite was "Sal".  "Sal" was short for "Salvatore's something something" on his registered papers.  Could never remember Sal's full name.  Sale was unusual in that Dad primarily hunted and trained female brittanys.

Sal was a barrel chested stud of a male that was regal looking as hell, a darn good hunter, but also sweet as could be when he was not "on the hunt".

This carving is of an old man rewarding a young pup, with a pheasant in his mouth, with a pat on the head for a job well done.

I have many fond memories of hunting and hunting dogs and I wanted thank Dad for that with this carving.

The figures are carved out of Butternut and the base is of oak.  I applied Tung Oil and sealed with satin Deft polyeurethane finish.

Gettin' in the 'Spirit'

Cottonwood Bark Wood Spirit

"It goes by several names: Wood Spirit, Wild Man, Savage Man, Woodwose. Whatever you call it, the next time you are strolling through the woods, keep an eye out for one of these elusive creatures.
Most often glimpsed as a green man with leaves for his beard and hair, the Wood Spirit is said to be Lord of the Forest and Natural Things. Seeing one is said to be quite a lucky thing, and European villagers used to go out on regular hunts, hoping to find a Wood Spirit to foretell the future of their village.
They are extremely strong. Wood Spirits can tear an opponent limb from limb and can tame any wild animal, including ferocious dragons and skittish unicorns. At the same time, they are gentle with the maidens, children, and men of good heart.
It is said that the forest will stand for as long as the Wood Spirit remains to keep order. And if you're lucky enough to see one, health happiness, and good fortune will be yours. However, that does not happen often. Wood Spirits would rather see than be seen. Most sightings are by children or by the pure of heart.

When you take your Wood Spirit home, give it a place of honor. Include the Wood Spirit in the audience when you tell jokes (Wood Spirits have a delightful sense of humor). If you do these things, your Wood Spirit will bring his gentle wisdom, humor, and luck into your home. Enjoy! 

Author Unknown"

And so is the legend of the Wood Spirit.

I have carved this guy out of Cottonwood  Bark found laying under a massive and majestic Cottonwood tree that had fallen some years ago along a local riverbank.

Cottonwood bark is actually very soft and fun to carve.  Almost like butter in my opinion.  Once the outer bark shell is removed you are left with a orangish/red tight grained bark that is very forgiving to a carver.

I am enamored with the legend and looks of the Wood Spirit and have been dabbling in carving them for about six months now.  I love the wise, almost somber look of the Wood Spirit and the long flowing beard.

The leading picture is of my first 'real' Wood Spirit.  The pictures that follow are of my 2nd attempt.  The pictures are a little dark and I apologize, but I love how he tured out.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Trying a new style of carving

I am trying out a new style of wood carving called "Flat Plane" carving.

It is an old Scandinavian style of carving that had pretty much died but was revived by an American carver Harley Refsal and championed by Gene Messer.

Gene is a well known member of the www.woodcarvingillustrated.com forum and has amazing tutorials on this style of carving on YouTube (he is "Whittler0507" - look him up!).

Flat plane carving deals more with flat cuts that may not have as much detail, but more than make up for it in character.

The carving at left is from Gene's YouTube tutorial.

The rest are my designs.  Santa  (Mrs Claus is not painted yet), a dude I named  "Tipsy" for obvious reasons, and finally a Traffic Cop who has a face that causes no need for a whistle.

Hope you enjoy them and thanks for stopping in!

The Fly Fisherman

This carving was originally slated to be gifted to my brother  for his  home office as he loves to fish.

As some of you may experience, I  could be carving Mount Rushmore out of Limburger cheese and she’d be oblivious as to ‘what’s on the bench’.

I was nearing completion when the wife walked  by and noticed the carving.  

She loved it!  She didn’t want me to paint it so the detail of the piece would not be lost (thanks for the vote of confidence…).

She was figuring out where ‘we’ would put it on the mantel when I informed her it was for my brother.

The look on her face had me back tracking and gifting it to her.

I always told her I’d gift my pieces until I reach a  higher level of experience  before I start carving for her.

Apparently I’m there…

I’ve since put glasses on the dude, put eyelets and ran line on the fishing pole, permanently affixed the fish string to the fist instead of the ‘wrap around’ you see her and I still need to tie and affix a fly to the fishing line and one or two for the hat.

Special thanks to Lynn Doughty of Out West Woodcarving for his tutorials.  I used the video's guidance for the hat and how to make it "fit", as well as carving the head separately.  

What I liked about that was it gave me the opportunity to turn the head just a touch before glueing and it made all the difference in the world.

Off to the shop to carve this dude’s clone for my brother….

Thanks for looking and any and all comments, critiques welcomed.

Have a great day all!

Golf Tournament Donated Carvings Complete

This was a point when I wondered if I bit off more than I could chew.

My grand plan was to donate (4) golf-ball-in-a-cage busts for the Memorial Youth Golf Outing..

Once I got to carving, I realized that my carving audience was about to expand.  I was concerned that I may not produce a viable product.

I pushed that out of my mind and finished the carvings as you see below.  I also donated a couple of carved golf ball faces.

The busts and cages are basswoood, treated with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits, painted with acrylic paints finished with semi gloss polyurethane.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any carving critiques!