I have made a few changes to the blog just because I can. Actually I wanted to update a few items and change the size of the format. I will be posting some updates later for now we are snowed in and enjoying some family time.

Carpe diem carving 

cowboy carving pt 2

Well all the detail is now done on the carving. I will look at it tonight or tomorrow and see where I need to clean up some areas and if there are any areas that I need to try to highlight better.

Now this area brings up the age old debate with carvers, do you sand any or just carve. Well for the extreme veterans carvers I would say it is safe to say that most do not utilize any sanding. There are some that do though, two that come to mind are Ian Norbury and Mark Gargac. Both of these carvers are open to utilizing any tool that will enhance the carving, Mark has said that sanding can enhance the face and help soften the features. Ian is a sculptor and he utilizes sanding in his work and even has made custom sanding sticks to reach areas that are hard to get to. Both will advise that if you use sand paper make sure to clean off the wood before you continue with carving due to the fact that the sand paper leaves behind residue that will damage the edge of your tool.

So where do I stand on this, simple, I am not to the level of carving that I was successful in not creating fuzzies on my cowboy so for this carving I will either use a diamond file set to try and clean it up or I  will use some mesh sandpaper to try and clean up my mistakes. Either way I will do what it takes to complete this carving to the best of my abilities, putting ego to the side and getting it ready to be painted. It is the end result that matters in a carving. The test for me is how much time to I spend with a piece when it is completed, that will be the final factor in how happy I am with the carving. So until we meet again,

Carpe diem carving  

cowboy carving

Well the other day I started a rough out that I bought about two years ago. Originally it was for a class but not enough people signed up so it got canceled, the economy and all. At one point my carving buddy up in the burg and I thought we would carve these together as he had the same rough out, I think you have one of each and you know who you are.

So as I said I decided the other day to get it out and get back on it. I should say this up front that I am not a big fan of carving from rough outs, probably a pride thing. You know that it was started by someone else or by a machine and then I came in to do the rest. Though I have to say, looking at the pictures I realized today that I had a major impact on the out come of said rough out. Any way I like most have been battling sinus issues so I decided that I would carve on this and if it didn't work out no biggy, after all I bought two and they were both just taking up space.

The carving is not complete at this point but is coming along. I searched the internet and found a picture of a pair of chaps that I liked and worked them into the carving. I also have cuffed his pants based loosely on the way John Wayne cuffed his in the movie "The Searchers" it did as well in "Rio Bravo". I mean come on who doesn't like the "Duke". So take a look and see what you think so far. I included the un-carved rough out in the images for comparison. I am leaning towards making the hat a "Gus" hat like Gus in lonesome dove. For those of you that wear cowboy hats referring to a Gus hat would have said it all. So "until we meet again"

Carpe diem carving   

swoosh it's gone

Wow did that fly by, no not the snowman although he is moving at a fast clip.

The year, it seems to have moved at an extremely fast pace this year. It seems like the boys just started school and now they are looking at 5 months left before summer vacation. Isn't that the way when you have kids though, you are always preparing for the next event. This year everyone talked about how close Christmas was to Thanksgiving and as much as I tried to deny it and ignore that talk it did come and go rather fast. Maybe now that we have no major events, after a January birthday that is, we will have a few months were we can just relax and enjoy our family. 

So for now 

Happy New Year

 whether you celebrate it or not, it's here 

May God be with and bless you in the coming year