2 more ornaments

Well the last day or two I have actually been fairly productive, carving wise. I got two more carvings done, these are from the 1 1/2 corner carvings. It is a simple process I explained it back on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, you can click on the date and it will take you to the posting explaining the process.


  So I have carved the two Santa ornaments and will look into painting in the no so distant future as I now have four and counting that need to be painted. I haven't painted something this small in a while so wasn't sure how well they would come out but overall I am really happy with the two of them. One of the carvings I have marked how I am considering placing the eyes, final decision is always based on how he looks when everything else is painted and what expression (of the eyes) matches the rest of the carving.

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 carving

Christmas ornament

Well here is another old school knife carving and again a Christmas ornament. I have tried to push the level of detail I carve into faces and still have room for improvement but as the saying goes sometimes less really is more.

 

I like the balance of detail in this carving but will need to keep this in mind when painting him. I don't want to over paint the details and I also don't want to simplify the painting process where it diminishes the carving itself. There are times when carvers will wait for the painting process to add additional details. I will make the final call during the painting process on whether to leave any wood un-painted.

 

Overall I am happy with this carving but will wait till all steps are complete to make my final assessment on how it came out in the end.

 as always happy trails

 and

Carpe diem 4 carving

 

back to the basics

Like I have said I will enjoy the new carving with power but will always return to my roots of carving.

I recently got out a piece I had cut the pattern out and was just waiting for attention, well it finally got his wish and this is what has become of that little piece of wood. I will in the next few days put together a little bit explaining how I approach doing some of my ornaments in set up, but that is for another day. I like this one although I still have some clean up to do on him but at least you can get the idea.

CCA Caricature Carving Competition my results

Well I am happy to say that my carvings made it all the way out to Indiana and have now returned home. I didn't know what to expect as I never do since it is a closed competition and you don't see the other entries. I was hopeful for my cowboy carving to do well but he was in the rough-out category and this is a tough category to place in and in the end he didn't. But he is owned by my uncle out in Nebraska, he likes him so there is my ribbon for that carving.

I did however get two ribbons this year; I got a fifth place for my elf whisperer ornament and a fourth place for my night cap dilemma ornament. So getting two ribbons in a national carving competition is wonderful and I am very pleased.

My Pinterest page

As you may have noticed I have added a new link to the left. I now have a page on Pinterest set up for my cartoons, carvings and just stuff. I am not a big fan of having twenty pages to handle but in todays world "you must have a web presence", yeah ok, what ever.

I have to say I am never surprised at how behind the times I am at any given time, I have family that have obviously been on this site for a good while from their followers and followings. So as if there wasn't enough to do each day I will now try to get a grip on this new site, so far it seems pretty cool. So for those who haven't seen my cartoon side there is a board for that and of course there is a board or two of my carvings and a board on inkwells.

I love the old inkwells and the elaborate designs for them. Of course this was back when people would write on paper with pen and ink. Back in the day peoples hand writing was almost an art form in itself, back when people had penmanship. I have no idea what they have now, tabletmanship, keyboardmanship..........................augh!

 Give me a pencil and a piece of paper or a knife and a block of wood. I am part of the old school club based on craftsmanship and proud of it.

 

 

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 what

makes you happy

popwer carving placement pt 2

 

As mentioned earlier I have modified the lip of the boards that form the "V", now it gives me a smooth surface to hold the wood. This will also make it more comfortable if I am resting my wrist on the wood for whatever reason. I may do this to steady my hand if I am making a small detail cuts or it could be based on the placement of the wood on the V-table. I think the modifications to this will help improve keeping the wood still and will make a better table for this type of carving. I will test it out with a full piece as well but I can't think of any reason that it would be an issue.

 

On a side note I still have my carving knives for those who wonder if I have gone to the dark side of carving. But seriously I am having fun with this new form of carving and will continue to explore ways to do this but I will always carve with knives as long as my hands can handle it and no signs of them not being able to.

 

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 carving

power carving placement

I have showed you how my set-up was yesterday so today I will show how this set-up allowed me to reposition the wood for detailing. I was able to position the wood various ways which made it easier to match with the rotation of the bit, I have found with power carving that this can be an issue and if you don't watch the rotation the wood can have a tendency to splinter based on rotation and pressure applied.

I think the pictures explain themselves but if there are any questions let me know. I have pondered cutting the edge of the angled wood so that it would be flat on the top, I also would mind the height being a bit shorter to give ease of the tool while carving. As soon as I post this I am heading to the garage to get a better feel for this idea and any other possible modifications.

 

 

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 carving

power carving relief

I have a new set up for power carving, it is more of a power carving station. Here is the video showing how I have it set up, click here. I have been standing in the front yard holding the pine knot in one hand and holding the Dremel in the other. I think this worked out pretty well and will definitely try this again and see if this seems to be a better way of doing things but so far I am happy with the setup.

Here is the finished piece, man is it me or does he look a bit grumpy, maybe it's the bump on the nose. At first I thought about making the little extension on the left an ear but then decided that it would actually make an interesting nose. Have a great day, enjoy the video, or not and................................

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 carving

splitting pine knots part II

Well the other day I got a chance to get in some more power carving and this was another small piece. I got out some of my old bits and began experimenting with different bits to see what other tools I can claim to my arsenal. I have a few of the round head bits in various sizes and got good use out of those, used the smallest one to carve out the pupil of the eye, this style of doing the eye utilizes the shadows to highlight the area.

 

 

I have to say I am slowly getting a feel for this and decided to stay away from viewing other carvers for now so I can simply focus on my carvings without feeling the need to match up with other artist. How many carvers do this I wonder, do we compare a lot of our work to those we admire in the carving community? I know at times I do and at times it is a distraction that I don’t need or want. It is great to study styles and technique but don’t do it in a way that it becomes a discouragement. Many of the carvers started around the same time I did but they never stopped and for a good period in my life I did just that, I put down the knives, X-ACTO knives to be exact and didn’t carve for years. So always cut yourself a break when it comes to comparing your work to others, always strive to grow as a carver and never take it so serious that you lose the joy of carving.

I like this one, this may be my best one thus far. I hollowed out some of the carving in case it were to be hung on a Christmas tree. It will also sit atop of smallish bottles due to the cut out. I have numerous knots waiting so I hope to continue to learn and grow as a power carver. I will also find time sometime real soon to dust off the knives and go old school. Life is good and the garage is full of wood.

another power carving, mini

This is carved from one of the tips of the pieces I cut up, these are small sections so I am struggling with detail but for the most part I like this one. After I was done carving it I took it to the band saw cut off the carved section and will carve the other side next week. I will look through what I have carved by the end of next week and see if there is anything I want to put in my Etsy shop. The only other thing I might do to this is add some color but if I do it will only be on the cap or in the beard, as of now I haven't actually made a decision one way or the other. Seeing it on the screen made me think maybe color, and if color where and how much.

 

as always happy trails

and

 Carpe diem 4 carving

 

splitting pine knots

Well let me start by saying that I am sorry for posting the picture of the latest carving before he had a chance to comb his hair, very upsetting so here he is with a clean combed head of hair. Can't you see how he is smiling now that he has combed his hair, yeah either can I, he's kind of grumpy that way.

                                

 

Now as I have stated I am new to carving pine knots so I may have caused a cardinal sin here but to give me more wood to practice on I took two fairly plain pieces and cut them up into smaller pieces. I now have six smaller carvings to do opposed to two bigger carvings. this works for me as I am still working on my technique and trying to get consistent with the tool itself. One of the issues with me is I find myself carving shallow which ends up leaving my carvings with flat faces, something I will work on in the next few days. I will sit down and work up a sketch or two of facial expressions and focus on carving those into the six pieces. I am hoping that if I start with an image in my mind I will be more directed in my carving. So I will pull a piece off to the side and see if I can see who is in there and try to sketch his image out before carving. I will post the results next week sometime along with the sketch if this idea pans out properly.

 

 

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 power carving   

power carving again

This is my latest effort in power carving I like this one in some areas and in some not so much. I am limited in the amount of tools as my disposal at present, but a good carver can make the smallest amount of tools get the job done. For those who don't know I carve these with my Dremel model 400, the limitation is of how many bits I have to work with that will actually make a dent in the pine knots.

 

My other concern is that my technique is incorrect in many ways but as I have only been at this for a weeks I can't expect to have it mastered on the second day. For instance here is one of my dilemmas, I currently hold the pine knot in my left hand and control the tool with the right hand. I can use my thumb to steady the tool but then my grip on the wood is weakened. What I need to do is set up a surface to sit the wood on so that I can use my left hand to steady the tool without worrying about how I hold the wood. There is alot to learn here but the good news is carving is carving so the way to break down a face and to set up the areas is the same, I just need to learn and hone the way I use the tool. Just like carving with knives when you have limited tools you master them and then when the new tools get added it just makes the carving easier and more efficient.

 

 

 

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 power carving