found wood carving 2016 pt 2

Well this guy is done and I have to say as he slowly came together I began to really see a wonderfully fun carving. Of course there were some disappointing moments along the way like the small branch that would have been an appendage broke while carving in some additional detail. Once the final detail was carved into the stick character and he was painted I was taken aback by his legs connecting to the base, to me he looked incomplete. Now the issue, he was a skinny piece of wood and I would need to figure out how to carve some feet that would match up with the rest of the carving.

To have a better chance of things matching up I cut a piece of the same wood that he was carved from to what I thought would be a good length and then cut that piece in half. This would be the starting point for his boots. Since he looks a bit hobo-ish I thought I would continue that theme and give him some vintage looking boots and one of the two boots would have a hole with his toes sticking out of them.

Being that this can be a bit of a hard wood for knives I got out the old reliable Dremel. Once I knew it was the basic size and shape that I liked I would come back with the carving knives and wood burner to complete the detailing process. Originally I had the carving centered on the base but now I would have to shift him to keep from having the boot protruding beyond the base. I use copper wire to attach the carving to the base and for this one I used two pieces of copper to keep them from turning on the base. Once the boots were painted and the sealant applied I knew this was the right decision and well worth the extra effort. What makes this guy special is every piece of wood counting the base was gathered from the family farm in West Va.

as always, 

Good night and may God bless