a few more ornaments

Well in the last week or so I stuck to my plan and carved a few ornaments. The first one here was a carving I did from a piece of scrap wood. It wasn't totally square and was longer than I needed to carve a Santa so I included a chimney. I haven't made the call yet but was pondering the idea of hollowing out the chimney from below to help lighten the weight of the ornament though it's not heavy by any stretch of the imagination. Then if I cut small portions in the top of the chimney to let light shine through that could be a nice effect but I need to see if I have enough wood to do this and not mess with the integrity of the overall carving.

 This second one is a funny story, though it wasn't at the time. I wasn't feeling good one night and my back was a bit out of sorts so I decided to carve to get my mind off of it. I carved this angry elf and wasn't happy with the facial expression so at the last minute and with no planning I carved a body below him. But as he was carved from another piece of scrap wood so there wasn't really enough wood to carve the arms properly. So right before he became kindling I decided to go back to the original idea and just have him as an ornament and removed the lower portion. I like the way the bottom of the ornament looks but this time it was a fluke and not a planned design, not the first or the last time this will happen I am sure.

 Lastly is one of my ornament carved on a corner cut piece of wood. This for the past few years has been the main way I would carve an ornament, as I have just recently played around with carving my ornaments in the round. This guy reminds me of an old English sheep dog where all you see is fur and a nose. He is a happy fellow to say the least. You may have noticed that he is very thin so do to the limited wood and the light weight of the carving I chose not to hollow out the back on this one. I may add a magnet to the back to give someone the choice of hanging him with a hook or putting him on the fridge. He and all three should be fun ornaments once they are painted.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads everywhere 

and as always, 

"Good night and may God bless"