Just for now

Well many may have noticed that the link to my Etsy shop has been removed from my page. My shop has been put on vacation for a time but unlike my Pinterest page it will reopen down the road possibly sometime near or after August. 

I don't know if this will have any major impact on future sales being down but as they say; "if the Good Lord willing and the crick don't rise" it will have small to no impact come the holiday season. 

Etsy is a needy bunch at times and I have determined that I will not be under it's heavy hand any longer. This past year, my first on Etsy I have met some wonderful creative people. I have made some new friends and been given wonderful support as I tried to build my brand so to speak. But it has not been all fun and games and there were some extreme bumps in the road. We were not promised anything in this life only "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". Hey what can I say, our Nation will once again celebrate it's birth and I do love a good party and the country I live in.

So no matter what good or bad came from the first year of my shop, it is time to put it on vacation mode for a spell. Now to relax and enjoy the blessings God has given me, my wife and two wonderful boys, who are growing way to fast. 

I will get back to carving and will continue to post items as they are carved on this page. I also will try my hand at something I have wanted to do for a long time, build a balsa airplane kit. I did make a purchase from the local hobby shop, a balsa plane that needs some TLC and will play around with fixing it. I may even put some skins on either a portion or the whole plane. We will see throughout the upcoming weeks. And for those that don't know I purchased a vintage wood lathe and will work towards getting it running in the not so distant future. And as the cartoon says, "sometimes our greatest fear is the unknown", well not so fast my friend. What ever happens I will look back with no regrets and no wondering what might have been.

I have ended my blogs with this phrase; as always happy trails and Carpe Diem 4 carving

Starting today this will change and I will quote one of my favorite people Red Skelton, who would end his show with;

"Good night and may God bless"

no more pinterest

Well as many may and may not have noticed I no longer have a link to my Pinterest page, which is because I no longer have a Pinterest page.

Thanks to all who pinned my carvings and followed my boards.

Unfortunately lately I started getting a different group of followers and a few of them had pictures

that would take you to a tumbler page that had extremely explicit pictures and mini movies. I have always tried to keep an eye on who is following me and where the links lead. Maybe I have over thought this but if you can get to explicit pages from links off of my pages then I feel a certain responsibility for you being there. I couldn't find any other way to resolve this issue so my Pinterest page is now closed. I don't know how or if this will impact my sales down the line but if it does so be it. I am a mom and pop shop, I see most of my sales during the Christmas season. I will carve whether I make a sale or not so worst case scenario my desk becomes a bit more cluttered with carvings.

On the carving front the heat and my sinuses have moved me back inside and I will begin carving with knives and gouges again. There are a few things I want to work on to strengthen my overall skills as a carver and of course it is also deep in summer vacation so am hanging out with my boys.

The picture is simply because I hate a page with text only and since it is summer and everyone needs to stay hydrated I posted my robot RH2O. This water cooler comes to you so you stay at your desk and keep working. I am considering posting some note cards in my shop with some of my various cartoons but haven't made the final call on that just yet.

as always happy trails 

and 

Carpe diem 4 carving

ugly stick carving

Well the other day I was picking up some branches that came down and I decided I would carve one. I believe these are called ugly sticks, many carvers carve these though I have to say I don't remember the wood they prefer. Kathy Overcash told me she likes to carve Rose of Sharon from her yard. She said it is a bit softer wood when wet, doesn't use power tools on it unless it has been able to dry out.

I don't know what tree this piece came from but it was a nice solid piece and worth giving it a try. I noticed that the grain was an issue with my Dremel and I had to pay close attention to the direction I was carving. If I do another one I may try carving with my knives and see how that goes since I wasn't totally happy with playing with the grain from one side of the face to the other. I may see the knives don't change this issue and that it is just the woods make-up. I pulled out my wood burner and highlighted some areas. Next I will consider putting a finished coat on the piece and then adding some color. I haven't decided if that little knot on the edge of his lower lip is drool or his tongue. The decision may be left up to the paint. Overall I think he came out o.k. and when more branches come down I will consider carving another.

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 carving 

 

Two more pine knot carvings, these are two more of my smaller ones. I like the small ones because they don't take long and they give me a chance to experiment and try new things. With these two, that is exactly what I did. My goal was to make the lines blurred between a human face and the way the tree grows and forms. A prim example is with the eye sockets, these easily could be knot holes that form naturally in a tree.

I like the way they came out and the response from the family has been good and the concept seems to convey. When I was carving I thought would they really look more human than from nature or would they look more like they are part of the tree and part of nature. No matter the reason behind the design, I like the overall look and feel and will try to work this style in with the next large pine knot carving.

as always happy trails 

and 

Carpe diem 4 carving

Here are two more of my little pine knot carvings. The first one is a simple face carving trying to keep it light as to match the wood. Before I began carving this I thought many would carve this as a more dramatic face but the cartoonist in me went the other direction. I considered carving something on the back as well but I like the way the outer portion frames in the face and knew I would loose some of that if I worked something in on the other side.

The second carving I cleaned the wood off from the top layer and then This one I kind of left it up more to the wood on what I would carve. When I first cleaned it off the was a portion protruding out and this with a bit of shaping became the nose. The rest fell into place once this section was established. with the way the wood had a certain curve to it I slowly began to see that this was the man in the moon and he looked so comfortable I thought he must be sleeping, and so he is.

as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem 4 carving