Woodcarving Basics: Session 1

After searching the various woodcarving videos available online, I found very little to help the absolute beginner. From my experiences teaching Woodcarving Merit Badge to Boy Scouts, I remember the importance of the four basic cuts every woodcarver should master: the push cut, the paring cut, the stop cut and the V-cut. I thought it might help some beginners to show these and present a simple project to practice the four cuts. I like a letter opener as a beginner project. So here's a video with both. enjoy!

It's About Time: Big Santa Finished!

Back in the early days of this blog (Oct.-Nov. 2010) I was working on a project I called Big Santa. He has been carved for some time now and sitting on a shelf, patiently awaiting a paint job. Well, I finally decided to focus on getting that done. He is now finished and I wanted to share some photos of him. I still plan on adding a base of some sort, but he's done! On to the next big project!

unpainted

Carve Your Face Off: A Makeover

Happy New Year everyone!

I covered quite a bit of new ground last year and looking forward to even more in 2012. I decided to look back over some of my not so successful pieces and see if I could do anything to "fix" them. Normally, I would leave what I've completed alone and chalk up the less than successful ones to experience and a reminder of where I have been. But, in this post, I will explore what maybe can be done to fix a carving I'm not happy with and maybe offer up a video show how I did the makeover.

So here is the original pattern and a photo of a finished carving by Will Hayden.

Here is a photo of one of two of these that I carved. It's really not that far off from the original design, but the face isn't right. At least i did not like the way it came out. And no one else did either, judging from the fact that it did not sell over two Christmas seasons on Etsy.

So I decided I didn't have much to loose if I tried to give him a bit of a makeover. I felt the body and feet and skis were fine, so I just wanted to fix the face. Since I left him with quite a large nose, there was enough material to work with. I also decide, since it was to be a Christmas ornament, I could simplify the face by carving the face smooth, simplify the nose and paint on the eyes and mouth.

And here is the result. A very much improved and cuter version of the skier. I now have the confidence to give one or two other carvings a makeover. of course, I'll still leave some of my older carvings alone. It's good to look at them and see how much I have improved in a year.

As I mentioned, I had made two of these and the other one isn't to cute either, so i plan to show the makeover in a video post. later...

(most) Christmas carving done for this year

Well, sorry I haven't posted much in the past few months. I have been doing a LOT of Christmas carving. mostly ornaments. I did mostly Santas and quite a few different angels, and some other things. I'm happy to say I sold quite a few too (see photos below). There seems to be no real trend to what people like. I try to make all different things, simple, odd, traditional, natural, colorful. It all seems to sell- eventually. Eye of the beholder, I guess. I will post more about this when the dust settles because there's still one big weekend coming up for last-minute sales. I took all my Christmas stuff out of my etsy shop and moved them to the local craft consignment shop. I have a much better chance there at this point. Interesting thing about etsy is, when people think they won't have time for it to be shipped before Christmas, everything just stops. That's about now, although I did sell a wooden spoon yesterday. Next year will be worse with the USPS threatening to add a day or more to First Class shipping time.

What I think is very positive about these sales is that people are willing to buy wood carving, with all the less-expensive options they have. That makes me feel good about what I do and about the appreciation that many people have for what we do. I was happy I decided to start in August with my carving for Christmas, which was a lesson I learn from the previous year, but next year, I'll know to start even sooner. Last week I decided to try something new for my ornaments and for my next post, I'll write about those. Maybe I'll even have a video, but certainly some pictures. Until then, all the best and have a great Christmas everybody!

Site of the Week -John Bryan

I want to apologize for no posting very much lately. I have been very busy carving, but I've been focused on Christmas work for my etsy shop. I thought I would at least post a Site of the Week entry. I came across the site of John Bryan's work. I especially enjoy his base relief work. Have a look...

Feedburner Added

In case there are those of you who would like to "follow" by email, that is, get notices to your email when new posts are added, I have added a service that does just that. Please feel free to add you name to the list. I don't post on a regular basis, so when I do, you'll find out. Anyone want to test it out and let me know how it works? (I'll post something soon after this, so we can do a test.)

How Do I Measure Success?

It's been just over a year since I started The Sunday Woodcarver. I had some goals in mind and I hope I have reached some of them. But I feel far from accomplished as a carver. That was never my goal. I don't remember saying my goal was to be the best carver in the world or the best blogger on the web. But I am happy with how far I have come in a year.

When I started this blog, my goal was to become a better carver and to share my journey with carvers of like mind. I had hoped I could also sustain the blog over time, which I why I chose carving as a theme, because I knew I would have a sustained interest. I have gained a few followers, although that was never a specific goal. I have had over 20,000 pageviews (not counting mine) and I guess that was a goal although I never knew what to expect and I don't even know if 20,000 views in a year is a lot. I guess for a little carving blog it's a good number. With all those followers and views there have been very few comments left and I wish there were more. Honestly, every comment means a lot and lets me know there are actual people out there who are interested in what I have to share.

Along the way, I set up a YouTube account and started adding videos of my adventures. They too have gained a fair amount of followers. It has been a real learning experience to see who is interested in what kind of project. I don't know if I have said this before, but I don't consider my blog or videos to be instructional per se, but rather a chance for viewers to see how one person tackle a project in a specific way and show what I have learned since I got serious about carving. I guess that is teaching, but that is not what I intended. If so, I would edit out my mistakes, but I think it's helpful to see someone try a project or technique for the first time and figure out how to get out of trouble when that inevitably happens.

Of course, the original aim was to get myself focused on getting better by carving at least once a week (Sunday). Now there's seldom a day that goes by that I don't do some carving. And for sure, that goal has been met. I can say without hesitation that if you carve every day, or at least a few days every week, you will better at it. Thanks for being part of my journey!