So he is now painted and a finish has been applied. He turned out to be a fun piece hope you enjoy.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

corny carving doodle

Every so often we just get a thought in our head and we have to run with it, last night was one of those moments. He is a simple carving doodle done on a piece of 1" bass wood and is a whole 3" tall. Just a fun little carving a bit off of the path from what I normally carve this time of year. hope you enjoy a peek.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

Happy Friday everyone, in case you haven't been given a reason to smile today maybe this will help.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

change is good, sometimes

A few things have changed lately; many have told me that my carving style has changed. The finish I put on my carvings has changed. So due to the first two, the way I paint will change as well to make sure I match up with the previously mentioned changes. This will really be more of a modification than a complete change, kind of a 2.0 version truth be told.

So then the question is how I do this, how do I test the way I will modify my painting process. If I was working with water color I would take out a scrap piece of water color paper and test it before I did it on an illustration. So that is what I will do here as well. So I took a corner block and carved in some facial features and once enough was there I painted the piece, applied a sealant and then applied the finish. Now I have an idea of how this modification will look on my newly carved ornaments. As a good friend and fellow wood carver Tony Harris always stresses to me, "test it on a scrap piece first, that way the disappointment won't be with a carving you invested time in".   

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

carving time

Almost every night now I have done a carving and everyone has been an ornament thus far. This reminded me of last year when I talked with a carver at the Hickory show. While we were talking I told him I guess I need to work on carving full body characters and he asked me why. I said since I have a pattern book out with full body characters I should carve a few. His reply was that I illustrated them and unless I had a passion for carving full body characters he didn't see the point. After all even for those of us that sell our work, it still comes down to the time spent carving, so carve what makes you happy and the rest will take care of itself. Do I want to carve some full body characters yeah one day just not today.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"

it's getting to be that time

Ah yes, it is getting to be that time of the year just take a look in the stores. This being the case I have carved three more Santa ornaments. This year I will carve both bass wood ornaments as well as butternut ones. I am also working on a few new looks for my Santas and hope they will be well received. These three were carved after I took some time to strop my tools and get them ready to carve. Sometimes whether they need it or not (which they usually do) it helps me re-focus on my carving efforts, after all if the tools are sharp then "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless" 

inquiring minds want to know

So a few have wondered, what has he been up to lately, well this is some of it.

as always;

"Good night 

and 

May God bless"

Gene Messer rebuilding fund

Calling all carvers, one of our own and a wonderful ambassador for wood carving, Gene Messer has been majorly impacted by hurricane Harvey. Please click on the link and read about what he has gone through and how you may help.

as always, 

"Good night and May God bless"