Lady Update

What a difference a day makes. Still a long way to go, but she's looking better.

Progress on the Lady

Progress? Wife says she looks like an old school marm. At this point I have to agree she looks pretty homely.

Lady

Started a new carving yesterday, it is a pattern from Ian Norbury. Started with a 5" x 6" basswood block.  Here are the results of day one.

Hickok

Here is my latest caricature carving. It's an original design of Wild Bill, carved from basswood and mounted on a cherry base. It measures  nine inches tall including the base.

Update - Hickok took second place at the 2013 Kansas City Show and was selected as a purchase award by Woodcraft in Lenexa KS. It will be on display in the store. I now have two carvings on display at Woodcraft. What an honor!

Lincoln Finished

Abe is completed and I'm pretty happy with the results. Carved from two inch basswood, the finish is a 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits. I then applied three light coats of Deft Satin and a coat of Howard's Feed-N-Wax. Mounted on a cherry base, he measures 11 1/2" tall including the base. He's going to the Kansas City Show next month.

Lincoln Update 2

More progress.........
Still a long way to go, but he is starting to look like Abe.

Lincoln Update

Finally found some time to work on my latest carving. Here are the latest pics.

Lincoln

With the holidays over, it is time to get back to carving. I purchased an instructional dvd by Larry Nowell, Sculptured Portraits in Wood, this past summer. I have been wanting to get started on this since I got it, and after seeing the new movie Lincoln, I am more excited to start this project. Here are the results of day one.

Happy New Year

Want to take the time to thank all who check in here occasionally and the regular followers. Wishing everyone good luck, good health and happiness as we ring in the new year.

Randy

Paint Table

Here is a view of my painting area pre-holiday. I don't like to paint so this is where carvings tend to pile up. I was able to get all of them painted before Christmas, even had a couple days to spare.

Looks like I still had Halloween carvings on the table, I finished those in time too. It's good to be caught up. Time to start some new projects.

Christmas Ornament Exchange

This was my first year participating in the ornament exchange with Woodcarving Illustrated. . There were twenty-four woodcarvers involved from all over the country. I carved and sent twenty-four Santa ornaments, including one to the WCI magazine......................

Here are the ornaments I received...................

This was a great exchange I plan on joining in again next year.

The First Noel...........

.......................the Angels did sing.......
Every year I carve a special gift for my wife, this year she requested an angel. This is my first attempt at carving a female or child like face, I lost track of how many times I re-carved it. Carved from basswood it is 9 1/2" tall mounted on an 1 3/4" cherry base. Started out by cutting the side profile with a band-saw  then hand carved with various gouges and chisels. The finish is a 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits. I then applied three light coats of Deft Satin and a coat of Howard's Feed-N-Wax.

Carvings From Christmas Past

I have been working on ornaments for this year, but don't want to post pics until after Christmas. Some of the recipients might be checking in here, and I don't want to spoil the surprise. So here are some carvings from last year. Comments welcome.......