Wood Spirit

This guy is carved from 3" thick cottonwood bark. Finished with Howard's Feed 'N' Wax. He measures 12  1/2" long and 4 1/2" wide.

Horse Bust Final Update

Finally finished my horse bust.I tried a different finish on this carving. I brushed on a liberal amount of polyurethane, and then wiped off all that I could with paper towels. There is enough on there to seal the carving, but not give it a plastic look. He is mounted on a walnut base.

Horse Bust Update #3

Made some progress on the horse bust. After making sure he was carved as smooth as I could get him . I then started  the sanding process. I started profiling with 80 grit. You have to be careful or you can lose a lot of detail in a hurry. Then I changed to 120 grit. I am now using 220 grit. I will finish with 320 grit before applying a finish.

Horse Bust Update #2

Spent some time working on the ears today.

Horse Bust Update

It's starting to look like a horse.

New Year, New Carving

I decided to get out of my comfort zone on the first carving of 2016. I don't carve a lot of animals so this should be a challenge. This horse head project is from a dvd by Ian Norbury. I am using 3" basswood for the carving.

Angel for the Nativity

If you follow my blog, you might remember I starting carving the Nativity a couple of years ago. I still have not carved any animals. But, I did carve the angel this year. I mentioned in a earlier post that I paint most Christmas carvings. Most, not this one. The angel is carved from butternut and finished with several light coats of lacquer. I prefer lacquer instead of polyurethane. Lacquer actually builds up one layer, whereas poly creates multiple layers with each coat. Poly also yellows over time.

Christmas Ornaments for 2015

I carved these Christmas ornaments from basswood. I don't paint most carvings. I make an exception for most Christmas carvings. I carved fourteen of the Santa light bulbs and ten Santa and snowman lapel pins.

Carver's Quilt

Our carving group presented this quilt for our friends at Martha Lafite Nature Sanctuary at our Club's Christmas dinner.We set up at the nature center every month to display our carvings and demonstrate our techniques. We have gained a few new members, and have brought in new visitors to the center. A win win for both of us.

Everyone started with a predrilled 4" x 4" x 1/2" basswood square. They then carved, burned or painted whatever they chose. One rule, it had to pertain to nature. All the squares were then laced together with leather to create a great wall hanging.

Everyone done a great job, and our friends loved it!

Christmas 2015

I have all my Christmas ornaments carved, and most of the large carvings. It's time to head to the paint table.

Northland Woodcarvers Made the News

Northland Woodcarvers members, Kerby Vincent and Randy George, made the local paper. Liberty Tribune reported on the upcoming Fairy Tale Forest at Martha Lafite Nature Center. Six members helped carve pumpkins for the annual trail of jack-o-lanterns.