She is almost done. Perhaps a 
few touch ups and some sanding, then paint. Tonight I worked on the leaves and roses of her dress along with slimming her arms and hand a bit more.
I've lost count of the days, but it's probably been only a week not counting the log handling or the days off for seat carving. We'll see how far we get tomorrow.
was only one toilet seat carving. Cheryl 
painted it up and it didn't take long to carve up. With my new found time, I
worked on the arm and hand of the tree carving for a but. I'm close to the rotted heartwood so I can't go too deep.
Tomorrow is Friday and I may work on it again, but I don't know how much I will be able to do in the daytime. Other than that, An origami crane.
Wet folded so it holds it's shape better, I would have liked to fold three toes on each foot, but I didn't have the confidence quite yet. For the rest of the night, I am going to work on sharpening the chisels. 
A job I don't like very much because it takes too long. However, the chisels need to be touched up and several have some small chips that need to be reground. 
Was able to get to the tree carving tonight and actually
made some headway. Mostly I worked on the face and hair
I started outlining the arm and hand she is holding across her body, but the darkness fell before I could get any worthwhile pictures. The changes are subtle, but hopefully they show the progression. Enjoy!
Oh!
And since I have not posted any anime lately, Claymore! The ending! It's one of the greatest animes out there. My opinion of coarse! Can't seem to embed it on the blog tonight. Ah well, here's the link!
post on the seat carving today. Carved up five and pretty 
much that is that. I'll work on the face of the tree tomorow with some daytime shots this time hopefully. Enjoy!
the last couple of days I have been working on the tree carving. However, 
as before, I have very little to show for it. I worked on the wrong side of the tree to begin with and after 30 minutes realized that a large 
rotted knot would mess things up, so I had to flip it over. Well, Here is how far I got so far. outlined her face, carved a small rose
brooch on her shoulder. Now it is to dark to show off anymore. Tomorrow then! As for the wet folding Origami, A horse,
A larger piece of paper allows me to add a couple of small details such as hooves, and a wavy tail. Enjoy!
carving up 4 seats tonight. Pretty slow for a weekend, but that's how it goes sometimes.
I also worked on getting the log up and on the sawhorses tonight so it should be ready to chip into tomorrow. And since I touched upon it slightly yesterday,
I 
decided to show off a little more wet folding with "how to" pictures.
Since a picture is worth 1000 words and even when I'm long written, I still can't compete with that. Bottom line is take your paper and a damp washcloth or towel and cover your paper and press down. Easy! Right? Make sure you use a slightly thicker paper and that it soaks up the water evenly but not saturated. For my second attempt at wet folding, An origami Pegasus!
I wonder what I'll make tomorrow?
today I decided I would paint the tree carving and call it 100%totally finished. I'm glad I did! Even Cheryl says it looks better now. At least it doesn't look like a nudist in
the front yard. (Remember what she used to look like )I also built a second sawhorse. I should be able to start that next tree carving by the end of this weekend. And lastly, I finally succeeded at wet folding origami.
What is wet folding you ask? Its where you take paper and lightly dampen it so it become more ply able, 
then fold it and as it dries, it holds its shape better. Sounds easy right? Well, I must have made it out to be more complicated than it is. Dampening 
the
paper was a challenge until I took a damp wash cloth and lightly taped the paper until it was uniformly damp. It might not look like much difference, but the shape is solid with no glue. Every similar 
to the foil paper I usually use. But this is much larger and I should be able to tackle larger projects now. We'll see how the next one folds up. Have a great weekend!
ends this rather bland week for sales. Let's just say that sales have been better. For tonight,
I only had one seat. Well that is at least better than Sunday and Monday's sales combined! As for yesterday, 
I spent the entire day rolling a log into the back yard to 
start another tree carving. I had the help of Cheryl this time, Who insisted that she would never help me again unless I cut the log into smaller chunks. Well if I did, I probably wouldn't need her help anyway! I also refurbished an old sawhorse and plan on building another one so I can bring the log up off the ground. Hopefully, this will help relieve a little back pain when I have to hunch over it. And since I have not [posted any origami lately, 
I thought I would show what an origami enthusiast rarely shows. Namely: his mistakes. Lets just call them experiments that did not 
end up what the paper folder had originally in mind. They "kinda" look like something. Well, you decide. Have a great week everyone!
up 4 seats tonight. We have not had any sales for the last couple of days, but I'm hoping that 
changes... Cheryl finished putting a second coat on the patio furniture tonight, so we should be able to sit outside and enjoy the night air tomorrow. Now all that is left 
is for Cheryl to sew up some cushions to go with them and the project will be complete. As for me. I will probably 
get a new log to start carving tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be as tough as the last one. I still have some left over lumber for some sawhorses. I'll also have to sharpen up my chisels before I can get started on a new carving outright. And Now BAccino! Have a look see at Uber Anime. You may have to watch it twice to figure out what is going on because it jumps back and forth through time. Enjoy!
today was our anniversary, ( July 20th, 13 years!) And to kick it off, a dissatisfied customer sent back his seat. And to 
make it all really wonderful....It was totally destroyed in shipping because they just threw it back in the box and sent it. Nice! Then! He sent a snarly comment that we did not inform him of our return policy ...are you ready? Get this. ON THE VERY EMAIL PRINT OUT MY WIFE SENT HIM WITH THE POLICY ON IT! Well, we were not going to let that ruin our day, so we just want that sale behind us. The rest of the day we spent
as usual, but decided to finish off and paint the outdoor furniture. So far it's looking pretty good. It was unfortunate that we could not sit in them and enjoy the cool night air while they were drying. Second coat comes tomorrow! Will take daylight pictures then. Have a good one!
carving four seats tonight. 
Looks like I'll have a few for the coming week already. However, tomorrow is our anniversary, so it is unlikely I will be carving much then. I'm not sure what we will do, but taking a break from work and hanging out in our new lawn furniture together sounds pretty relaxing. Cheryl even suggested we might tackle painting one of the chairs. 
We'll see. Tonight we had a special guest join us while we enjoyed 
the patio. A Prometheus moth. A female. The males are darker than the females. She hung around for a while before the cats took a notice so I escorted her away from the light to a safe place. They are just to pretty to let the cat eat them. Hope everyone has a great week! As a parting thought, Kaza no Stigma the opening theme. Enjoy!
I decided ( with a little help from Cheryl) that I would complete 
the assembly of the patio furniture today. It did not take as long as I had first 
estimated. And I'm rather 
happy with the results The last item, the love seat, was quite large for My small workshop. It was
quite a challenge to work with it until we got it outside. Next step will be to sand and paint them all. Cheryl; will fully be in charge of painting.
commissioned me to build a chair for the deck tonight. 
It was inspired from one of her magazines for a contemporary look. It was fairly easy to build with simple 2x4's 
and some 1x6's. It was originally meant to have cushions on it but believe it or not, 
it is quite comfortable without them. I still have to sand it down and fill any dowel holes, but Cheryl just could not wait to get it out on the porch. I'm hoping the second one will go a little faster and with fewer hiccups. All in all, it was a fun little project! Cheryl And the cat were very happy!
Our latest Anime! Full Metal Panic Fomoffu! Enjoy the ending theme!
up 4 seats tonight and 
worked on another origami Gremlin. I was able to replicate the pattern so I now have a fairly concrete concept of it. Other than that, 
Cheryl sewed up a prototype
footstool tonight that she is less than thrilled with. So it is my job to totally make fun of her and tell her what a complete waste of money 
it was to try to imitate and expensive
piece of furniture she saw in one of her magazines. ( , this is not true! Of coarse) I did point out that the cats are in love with it and even now 
Red is fast asleep sagging in the middle of the thing. 
Both shop cats were in my room tonight helping with the paint.
carving 4 seats tonight. I hope the sales continue 
to be steady like this. I'll keep the post short and add an origami Gremlin in the mix.
Folded from a standard 
8x11 sheet of paper.
though I have 11 seats to carve, both supplies and boxes have 
determined that I only carve up 6 tonight. I'm not too worried, they should go out at a reasonable time. As promised, Daytime pics of the wood nymph in the front yard. I'm probably going to paint her because the rotted heartwood is rather
unpleasant to 
look at closely. ( see the yellowish corkboard wood around her neck, chest and top of right arm) I haven't decided the colors yet, but I'll post a picture when it is done. I should have taken a different angle shot than just one straight on. 
You don't see the shadows very well. Before I go: The part of shop cat was played by red tonight! Oh! And for those anime fans! Black Cat! Enjoy!
decided that the tree carving is finished. I
know I could waste more time on it and carve it out more, but at the end of the day there were a number of reasons to call it done. I already have 9 seats to carve up for tomorrow, It has been on our deck for almost a week, 
and Cheryl wants the deck back so I had to clean it up. Plus I got to the sanding part and I hate that. Any more carving in my opinion would be "perfectionist" and I'm not one of those! 
So here it is! I still have not made my mind up if I want to paint it, stain it, 
or just oil it with linseed. I'll have to take a picture of it in the daylight with her face and arms finely sanded smooth. Hope everyone has a great week!
I concentrated on the hands! 
They still need a little work, but I also have to understand the limits of the wood. Hands still give me a little trouble as I am still looking for that "Realistic hand" instead of the " Hey! At least it has five fingers!" type of hand.
It got dark, so I may have to re post pics tomorrow in the daylight.
( Notice she is gripping her dress)
Before I go...
A Wonderful Leopard moth!
I worked on the weekend seats. Sales have been rather slow, 
but hopefully they will pick up soon enough. While I was clicking pictures, I took a couple of daylight pics of the carving thus far. 
I didn't have a chance to work on it at all today, but I should have all day tomorrow to chip away at another part of it. 
While observing, I noticed a rather large bug. I'm not sure it if is a wasp or a something from the beetle family.
Regardless, it was big and I left it alone, I didn't want to find out the hard way that it stung or bit!
worked a little more on the tree tonight, but once 
again could only capture the images in the dark. I worked mostly on the hair and the arm a bit. It's slow going! I wonder if the master carvers of England and Germany carve faster? With the darkness approaching, I decided to try my luck capturing fireflies in the forest.
They were not out as much as yesterday, but I got the idea from my neighbor who leaves the shudder open for 15 seconds or so.
I don't know how well his turned out, but here are my early attempts. They looks like raindrops in some of the pics. And lastly....Some ori
gami goblins!
was tree carving. I took a few more pictures 
and tried to focus on the face and head this time. At 
least I was able to take more pics during daylight hours! Hopefully 
you can see the progression as I chip away at it little by little. From the front it looked pretty good but then from the side,
the face looked flat and "man-ish" But finally ti started to take shape
and is now looking more female. I have no strategy, no plan, no method. I just jump in and chip away at it until it 
looks right or at least close. Her face is dangerously close to the rotten heart wood, so I have to be careful not to go much deeper. 
So a lot of pics tonight! One final parting shot. How you know when you are working with old chisels. I wasn't even that rough with this one, but this chisle is giving me a headache! I'll have to regrind it down AGAIN! ( no I didn't ruin the temper, it just chips out quite often)
promised, the pictures on how to make a hummingbird feeder out of left over glass bottles. First,
Let me say that I felt that the hummers needed another feeder because I have to steal them away from the neighbors. ( Don't worry, he gets all the finches and songbirds already) My primary method is to super sweeten the sugar water making all the birds in the area ( I'm guessing at least 3 , one male and two females until the eggs hatch) totally addicted to my feeders. the second is to keep the sugar water fresh. 
if it starts to taste funny 
( kinda like hard cider) then I change it up. And last of all, keep at least a couple of feeders out otherwise they constantly chase each other away. The concept is easy, cut a hole in the lid of a small glass jar. Insert a small plastic tube and hot glue it in place so no
leaks occur. Gorilla glue a hook on the top so it hangs vertically. Bingo! A cheap hummingbird feeder. 
I added a little orange plastic cup to add some color. I put it out a little late this evening, so I didn't have the opportunity to see if the birds had found it. For my next one, I might 
add a little more color and flowers. And for the rest of the evening, I worked on the log again. I had to mess around with the pictures because they were taken in the dark. hopefully you get the idea ad can see the form. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a picture of it in the daylight. This IS a blog about carving after all! Until then have a great week!
Not really, Just an observation that after posting back to back 
topics about foxes, someone ordered a seat with a fox on it. In fact, all of the seats that I carved up tonight are fairly non typical from the usual batch. ( look at earlier post. you will see lots of kokopelli's, peacocks, Hummingbirds, and bears.) So, to make a note of the fox seat, I decided to fold an origami fox. 
Looks more like a big ear kit fox, but I didn't want to take too much time making it perfect. I was also working on a hummingbird feeder, which is turning out pretty well at the moment. I'll have to 
detail the progress tomorrow with pictures of the finished product. And last but not least. Rashi the shop cat. I have not posted any shop cats in a while. what can I say? She loves me!
IS a carving blog after all! So I 
spent a small portion of the day hunched over this log shaping it into something more presentable. Not much to show really. With the bugs and uncomfortable position, It makes working a little more challenging. ( I don't know how 
those carvers in India do it with just a mat to 
crouch down on.) Well, at least the form is taking shape. I have been studying the wood, namely that the center is mostly damaged by fungus, making it more like cork than oak. ( notice the mask to help show where the face is going to be.)So I have to avoid going in too deep. Also there is a lovely knot that looks like
an arm that I am trying to incorporate in the form. I'll have to See how much I have to work on it to make it look right. The rest of the night was spent sharpening the chisels that get dull from dropping them on the concrete ( GRRR!) Oh! And the last 4 episodes of Claymore are out! You can find them on UberAnime.com It's a great series! and I would recommend seeing them all! Enjoy! Ep 23 C22 Uber-Anime.com!
is a carving blog, after all. I finished carving and painting 9 seats last night but was to tired to post anything. I Also started another tree carving, only this time I brought the tree to me. A windfall oak tree in the 
back! I took a large chunk of it and with a lot of industrious leverage, and mechanical advantage, I managed to pull it out of the woods and onto my back porch. ( SOLO might I add!) This might sound simple, but the log is quite large and I did not use any tractors, 
quad runners or any other motorized help. Besides they probably would have gotten stuck back there anyway. So I worked on it a little tonight. I'll post more tomorrow as it progresses.
This time around midnight and about 2 miles from our last sighting, we saw another fox! This time Cheryl got a really good look at it. I only saw the tail since I was driving. And, once again, we did not have our camera. Bummer! Besides, it was probably too 
dark for any pictures to turn out. Now you might not grasp the magnitude of this, but foxes are not like deer or turkeys around here. ( we have LOTS of those!) We even see more skunks, coons and possums on a regular basis. But foxes! And then two nights in a row! Well, it's like winning the lotto of wildlife viewing. And, before I sign off.... Some more origami! Pegasus Gaylor!
Cheryl and I were wonderfully surprised by a small RED FOX running around the neighborhood! We were thrilled! I had thought that 
I had seen one before on one of our midnight walk. Now I'm positive that it was one. He was so cute, but we could not have taken a picture because of the darkness. So 
I borrowed a picture off the web that was close. ( Small and a summer coat) And some Origami. One is made out of a Arby's Wrapper.
found out that the shipping place 
will not be open on Friday. So all carvings had to be done tonight up to this point. Then our supplier had not replenished their stock. YEAH!
So it';s a typical SNAFU that we only had one seat to carve up. The other two will just have to wait. 
With the seats having priority, I did not carve much on my big experiment. But I did get a little ways into it while the poly was drying. And! Another Origami Beetle. Slightly different, But still looks a lot like other beetles from previous posts. It goes to show that there is more than one way to fold a design. And one last thing. The NEW full metal alchemist Opening. To be honest. So far, it's like they are trying to cram the last 54 episodes into the first 16 of the new series. But Cheryl says it should pick up soon as it did in the manga. To all those Anime fans ...enjoy!
finished 6 seats for tonight. With the last couple of day being rather uneventful, I thought I would try a new direction for my carving. 
Cheryl suggested that I start carving simple items and painting them white for an "artistic" touch. Well, I didn't get too far for a couple of reasons, 
One, I'm a little short on wood. Two, the little stash I had of wood, I had to cut and glue up so I could carve them up at a later 
time. If all things go well, I might be able to carve into them some time this week. We'll have to see.
Oh! And since I didn't post anything yesterday. Here is a little look at one of my old Roe Deer carvings. Out of Cherry. Enjoy, I rather like the position of him.
