"Gotcha"

Hey everyone, thought I'd post a carving I did a coupe of months ago, he's sold and headed out the door soon so I figured I'd better get some pictures for my files. He was inspired by a hunting coat my brother has, one of those heavy old wool ones, it even has a tear in the back that I put in the carving. The hunter has been following deer tracks and just spotted the deer. He was fun to do, hope you enjoy him too. (There are more pic's in the Photo Gallery).

Hello, it's me again!

In my last post I told how I had put some carvings for sale on Etsy, well that didn't pan out like I had hoped, so I'm trying a new approach. Next week Saturday, Dec. 5th, I have a booth at an Art Fair in our church in Allendale and am very excited. I am sharing the booth with my daughter, who will have flower arrangements and I will have Christmas carvings as well as some others, (like the fishing guy with the inner tube). I'm hoping for a good turnout and to sell some carvings, but it should be a good time regardless.

For those in the area the church is on the corner of M-45 and 60th, the doors open at 9 am I believe.

Remember Me?

I know it's been awhile since I posted, but not much has been happening around here that my wife hasn't been posting about. She is very good at covering all the exciting things in my life and letting the world know, (I mean that in a good way).

One thing she hasn't let out is that I now have a shop set up on Etsy.com. This is a eBay sort of place for handmade products and covers anything you can thing of. Well I thought I'd try and sell some of my carvings so I set up a shop called "By His Hands" and put up for sale the "Goin' Fishin'" carving I did on my post. Here is the link to my shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7377996. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and let's hope it sells. Thanks for reading.

Now he's Goin' Fishin'!

Well here he is, the finished product, on his way to the fishing hole. He was a fun one to do, every carving has its challenges and with him it was the kids inflatable around his waist, but I think it turned out OK. The shirt was another new one to me, instead of a solid color I gave him a Hawaiian shirt complete with palm trees. There are more pictures in the carving gallery, check 'em out.

So I hope you enjoyed these carving blogs and they answered some questions you many have had, I enjoyed doing them and plan on doing some again in the future.

Still Fishin'

I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about the carving, I've been busy fixing some internet problems here at home. The nets all running again, but I didn't have time to do any painting, so here is a picture of what I've got so far, hope to have him done soon.

Trying to get a Head.

Here is the third installment of carving the happy fisherman. In the last blog I finished the main body and started on the head, in this post I'll be finishing it. Just to refresh your memory this is where we left off...


Carving the body is always fun, but the head is the part that really give the piece character. If the body is done well but the face is out of shape or lifeless it can ruin the whole piece, so it's important to take your time and focus on the details. I find that small things, like the smile lines at the side of the mouth or the squint of the eyes are what make the face, and bring it to life.

So "head" to the photo gallery and check out the rest of the pictures, (some of them are a little out of focus, sorry about that, but you'll get the idea), and thank you all for you kind comments.

Goin' Fishing' Part II

Here is the next installment of "As the Carving Turns". Last time we watched we were doing the preliminary work, getting the idea down on paper and sawing out the form. This is how it looked when we left..
This time we will finish carving the body. I show it step by step to make it easier, but quite often I move around on the piece, I'll work on the hands for awhile then stop and do the torso, and so on. Doing so keeps it from getting too boring working on the same spot for too long, also it keeps the whole piece in proper proportion, so the arms aren't too long or the feet too big.

To see more pictures go to the "Favorite Sites" column on the left and click on "Carving Photo Gallery". That will take you to Picasa Web Albums, just click on the album called Goin' Fishin' Part II. Let me know if you have problems going from here to there, I do want it to be easy, thank you.

Carving 101

I have been asked by a few of you to show how I do my carvings. While inviting you all over would show things better I don't think you'd all fit in my shop, so I'll try to do my best here on my blog.

All my carvings start with getting an idea down on paper. and while I don't carve too bad I 'm not the best pencil artist! A few of my carvings come from books and magazines but most are my own concepts. Caricature carving exaggerates certain body parts but everything still has to be in correct proportion to one another. To do this I start with a drawing in a book I have for the basic form, and using pivot points like the shoulder, elbow, etc, I move the limbs where I need them for the carving I want to do.

Here is the sketch for the carving I will be doing, I'm calling it "Goin' Fishin'.

You will notice that the poor guy has no head, that's not my poor drawing skills, it's easier to carve the head separate from the body, plus you can mount the head on an angle giving the piece the feeling of movement.

To see the rest of the pictures for starting the carving go to the link on the side bar tilted "My Carving Photo Gallery", you may have to click on "My photos" on the far left underneath Picasa, that will open all my albums then click on the Goin' Fishin' picture.

Stay tuned for more posts where I'll show more of this carving.

No I didn't die, I'm just thinking.

It has been such a long time since I posted that some of you may have thought I died, or left the country or something like that. Well I'm still here it's just that my mind has been running a blank on what to share with you all. While my wife can find tons of stuff to post about, my life is either very boring or I have a bad case of writers block. I am planing on staring another carving soon and hope to take pictures of the process to share here, so stay tuned for that. Until then, if I come up with something I'll let ya' know.

The End of Christmas

Ok, it's not the end end but the end of Christmas 2008 for me.
Last Friday night we finally got together with my two sisters to do our annual Christmas thing, we always have a great time with them.
Last year my sister Diane had me do a carving for her to give to Karla, the other sister, so this year I wanted to surprise Diane with a carving for her. She is finishing a mystery novel and I thought it would be cool to do a carving of the lead guy in the book, Ransom Woodley. The story is set in the mid 1800 England and centers around Ransom who just got out of the Crimean War. He had injuries to his leg so he uses a crutch, but hates it. Anyway, here he is.