hat's off to the cowboy

Many times as a wood carver we have a set design in mind when in the process of carving down to every last detail. Most times for me it's a simple I am going to carve a; and away I go. Sometimes we have as we are carving the carving changes, maybe we don't like the direction the carving is headed in or maybe half way through we realize we were looking or thinking it all wrong and modify where we were headed.

Sometimes it takes an act of God, or simply a clumsy carver, who mumps the drawing table and down goes the cowboy. A few times mind, just a few, this very same clumsy carver bumps the same said table numerous times or moves it while the carving is standing up and down he goes.

Well one of the times that this cowboy went down the brim of his hat broke and so the decision needed to be made. My first inkling was to carve the brim to match on both sides and so I did. You may have noticed that there are no images of this effort, yes it look so ridiculous that I wouldn't take a picture of him that way.

So now there is nothing left to do but simply remove the hat. At this point the only other question was did I have enough wood up there to do something with it, well luckily I did and now he is possibly one of my favorite carvings to date. There was a song that the main lyric was,

"Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you got till it's gone"

I would say no truer words were spoken I had no idea what I had till the hat was gone. 

and then there were three again

 as always, 

"Good Night and May God bless"

and then there were three

Well things here are jumping lately got three carvings done recently the first was the old gent on the left then followed that up with the cowboy on the right. The third in the final picture is the unpainted cowboy on the left, he has a whole story all his own so today, let's just focus on the first two.

The gent in the top hat is a re-visited design that I thought I would tweak a little and see if I could improve upon the original. The cowboy is my second of this kind and I just wanted as the previous just to give it another go. These were both carved on a corner block piece of butternut, the same wood I utilize with the carving of my ornaments. The main difference is many of my ornaments are 4" long and these pieces are 6" long to give me more to work with for detailing. I am pleased with the design aspect of the cowboy as I feel he has enough detail to tell the story but I have left out enough to not make him an larger piece than I was hoping for. No sooner was the cowboy carved and painted he was sold to a good friend who seems determined to own all my designs in regard to my carvings.

as I say the third cowboy has a story all his own and i will share his story in the next posting.

as always,

 "Good night and May God bless"

butternut pilot recarved

Well after donating the pilot I had taken a break from carving to work on the finishing touches on my book. Then this past Friday I had the chance to go visit a friend of mine, Bob Soderholm at his home and bring along a friend and veteran with me who is now interested in carving. Bob and Ed spent some time discussing different aspects of carving as well as various cuts and some terminology for carving. Then they got started on Ed's 1st project with Bob. While this was going on I listened in to what was being taught and of course got out some wood and began carving.

I didn't have a game plan but ended up carving a new pilot as the previous one has been transferred to c temporary duty station awaiting his permanent assignment at the end of the raffle. At first I was considering carving this one in the same design as the previous but once I got home I decided to change things up on my newest recruit. This one is a bit old school and still enjoys a cigar when the opportunity presents itself. The first image is what I got done during my time hanging out with Bob and Ed, the ones on the left shortly after having applied the paint and the third was after the sealant had been applied.

Happy with the way he ended up, I carved some bags under his eyes and decided not to dry paint his beard. I also used a different technique in painting the goggles and am happy with the results, may be my new way to paint them.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless" 

another butternut pilot pt 2

So I got the pilot all painted up and sealant applied and have to say am really happy with how he came out. he is set up to be able to be hung but also has enough wood at the end of beard that he stands alone nicely. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with him, of course two of the main options were too either put him up for sale in my shop or hang onto him till August and enter him into the CCA competition for 2017. Both seemed to have merit but then I was reminded of the 4th annual Tom Brown memorial raffle that will take place in July at Eastern Woodland Carvers Club show in Converse Indiana. What made me think of this was a wonderful in the round carving that was done by Dwayne Gosnell that will be part of the raffle. Tom Brown was known to carve a pilot or two back in the day. Here is some information that Rich Smithson owner of Helvie Knives shared with me in reference to the auction;

The woodcarving club EWCC was formed by Tom Brown and a buddy. Tom joined the Caricature Carvers of America in the 90s and grew the club. They purchased their own clubhouse and became a nonprofit organization. They support various organizations and woodcarving functions at the clubhouse. Tom passed away 5 years ago and we honor all he did for woodcarvers all over the USA in July during their woodcarving show. Tom loved to carve pilots. If you go to the CCA page the banner of carvings across the top has a Tom Brown pilot carving I think it is towards the end of the banner.

So as you can see this is a wonderful organization and a great event to donate too and so I did. If you want a chance to win this carving contact either Rich Smithson at Helvie or contact the EWCC, both links are on my "Wood Carving Links" page, third tab to the right.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless" 

another butternut pilot

I haven't posted anything in a while as life has kept me busy. Of course a portion of this may be due to my being a bit unorganized. None the less I have actually gotten a few things done in the not so distant past, two of which are the butternut carvings posted.

The first and favorite is the vintage pilot. I debated on giving him a cigar but this time I have left that out though looking at these images I still think it would have been fun. I won't do a fancy paint job on him just basic colors but I will most definitely paint him. I know many who never paint butternut due to the grain being so beautiful all its own. Trust me when I tell you that properly painting butternut can give you a better vintage look than you can get with bass wood and all the antiquing that you would need to do. I will post images of him painted and you will see how great it can look with some basic color.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"