Saturday, May 24, 2014

a cartoon to carving


 Well as you can see I decided to play around with one of my cartoons and see if I could carve one. I made some mistakes in cutting out the pattern and didn't actually leave enough wood in areas for carving details so big lesson learned here. Always remember to leave extra wood because you can carve some off easier than adding some on after the rough-out is cut.

The area surrounding the eyes was cut to shallow so didn't carve that in just did an old style and simply hollowed it out. In certain angles it gives a nice effect but over all I don't like doing the eyes this way any longer. Also the shoes I cut to shallow and when it fell off my table he broke his little feet, so will either address this issue later or will simply move onto the next carving and keep this as a study piece for future reference. I plan on carving out some arms for him and am not sure if I will carve the hands separate or carve them as part of the arm itself. Some carvers will carve these separate for ease of positioning, and yes I know some carvers only carve solid pieces and don't like this way of doing it but I don't care as long as in the end I have a solid carving image wise. Overall happy with my first attempt at this, this was carved on a 2x2 piece of basswood not sure if I will do the same size on the next one or will go to 3".


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Etsy store update

Well thought I would give everyone an update on the Etsy store. So far so good I guess, this like anything else is taking some trial and error to get it off the ground. I have met some good people on this site and have gotten a good amount of attention to my store and my carvings, that's the good news. On the flip side I haven't had a sell yet but know it is just a matter of time. No one realistic about starting a business expects to sell out on the opening day. This will take time but I have not only gotten great feedback from veteran carvers but have also gotten great words of encouragement in reference to my carvings themselves. So good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, sales will come. 
just in case you missed the link above click here

Before I forget I have a piece of cottonwood bark that I need to do something with so I have prepped it and will begin carving within the next day or so. I am thinking of carving two faces on the wood but keeping the piece as one solid piece instead of cutting it into two.  

as always happy trails 
and 
Carpe diem carving