Computer crash. Second wind

The computer crashed again last night. Even Cheryl thinks it is time to get a new one. I guess this one is 6 years old...or even more! Anyway, i spent most of the day downloading the gazillions of upgrades that an ancient computer like ours has to go through to get current. I'm rather stuck with the carving at the moment. Just not feeling it...so to say. Cheryl; says I should lay off it for a while till my inspiration comes back...and hopefully the weather gets better. Until then. I heard this song and it just struck a cord with me ( no pun intended) Enjoy Billy Joel:

Girl with Wind in Her Hair...Day 4

I was trying to think of a diffearnt title.

but this is the best I could do.  The fact is, "tree carving" is just too general at this point.   Anyway, I only spent about three hours out in the cold working on her hair.  I didn't really get much done.  And I started too late to be able to use any power tools to speed things along.  At least it wasn;t snowing on me tonight.  In other news:  My blog seems to have been reformated. Probably when Cheryl and I  worked on the new banner.   The only things that bothers me is the pictures now are not snug up next to each other.    I hope this doesn't bother too many people reading a littel trickle of words between photos. 

The Girl with Wind in her Hair. Tree Carving day 3.

I originally was going to only work on her for a couple of hours, but ended up working for about 4. It seems with only 4 hours of carving, you just don't get as much done as when I was spending 8. ( makes sense!) Anyway, It snowed and snowed. They said only 1 inch but now there is at least 4 on the ground! I had nothing better to do, so I set up a small tent and chipped away through the dark and snow. I worked on her nose mostly. I always seem to make the face flat. But my last one turned out pretty good because I made the nose stick out more than ever before. Hopefully as I sink the face in, this one will work out just as well. Also something I want to experiment with this one that I have never done before. I want to put her hair blowing across her face! I'm kind of excited about this! Having never done this before, I want to be sure to leave a lot of excess wood on her face so I have something to work with. And finally: My tools for the day. A few additions to the mix, but mostly I stuck to the rough out ones. I know the pics are crappy, but it's still early in the carving. And I have not made the huge strides like I did with the last one at each posting. Enjoy!

Chip chip chiping away!

I worked a little on the carving tonight, at least until I couldn't feel my toes. About an hour and a half I would say. As you can imagine, I did not get very far. but that is ok because every little chip helps and it will eventually get warmer. I wanted to show some people just what chisels I have been using during each step of the process. Basically these are my rough out chisels. It's surprising how far you can get with just these! But eventually you will need to add a few more as we go along. For now, this is all I have been using. Just a side note....has anyone been using google search for anything? We have had to reboot the computer three times over the last two months because we keep getting a "virus" off of google. ( virus, Trojan, worm, what ever they are called.) It basically redirects you to a different web page other than the one you are searching for. Eventually it sends you to a "web virus removal" page and won't let you go anywhere else. For this reason..I'm now a Yahoo man! I'm liking it so far. Yahoo has a lot of similar tools you can use. Anyway, Just wanted to throw that out there to see if anyone else has been having problems. ( Oh we have the McAfee total protection...Which didn't DO SQUAT! except tell us "yep! You got one.....hahaha!" It's suppose to STOP you from downloading any viruses or at least warn you before you do. ) Sorry for the Rant.. have a great rest of the week.

Snow Snow go away! Unless you're a kid.

It snowed again today. And not the light fluffy stuff. It was thick and heavy! The trees are almost laying on the ground with their branches. For this reason. I did not carve today. Electing instead to stay inside where it was nice and warm and find shops for Cheryl's store. I did pretty good since i have neglected the search for the last couple of days. I'm not sure how many I emailed, but I did get a couple responses which has me very excited. Hopefully the snow will stop soon and I will be able to get out there and shape a little more off the log. ( you see.. those large chunks of wood don't mix well with snow when you are trying to throw it. Imagine trying to chew up a large block of oak with the snow thrower!) In the mean time. Here is the ending to Kannon. In the event you ever want to see it. It's a nice little anime for the whole family!

Ready for another one?

I decided to keep my sanity, I should start chipping away at that next log that is sitting in the driveway. I didn't get very far tonight, then again, there won't be that time limit on this one like there was on the last one. tonight I imply chipped off about half of the outer bark and a little bit into the wood. In all I removed about 100 lbs of wood off of her. ( two full baskets of wood chunks!) I may just limit myself to a couple hours a day instead of 8-10 like the last one. It will depend on the weather and my motivation. I'm so impressed with my last one that I will have to think hard and long on how I can top that! To keep this post a little interesting. Cheryl and I have started watching Kannon. I cool little anime by the same makers of Air TV. Enjoy the opening:

The Verdict: Wood Pulley Failed!

Ok, failure might be a little harsh. it was a prototype after all. made out of recycled wood scraps. When put to the test. it held up under the huge weight. it just didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I really think that a major factor was the rope itself. A stronger rope with less stretch would have been better. In the end. I got my next log tipped up and ready for the next sculpture. I have not made up my mind what I'm going to carve just yet. In other news. Cheryl and I were treated to a viewing of a Bald Eagle flying over Arbies today! To those who live in certain areas of the country where eagles are common. this might not be a big deal. But we have never seen one this far south in Michigan. The Crew of the Arbies was also very excited. He came down pretty close so we all got a really great look at him. Just one of those special moments you are happy to be there for. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Moment you have All Been Waiting For!

The finished pics of the Wood elf. Cheryl and I just posted the entry in the woodcraft contest. Wish us luck! There are a lot of really great carvings on the gallery already. I have sized up the competition and feel like I have a handful of serious competitors. However, you just never know with judges. The carvings range from full 3-d carvings to love spoons and everything in between. Well here are the five final pics that we chose to enter. We took several dozen! but ended up with these. We didn't get a good pic of the hands, or chest, but you can still see them in the full body shots. It would have been cool to show off more, but the entry only calls for five pics max. I guess you have to put a limit somewhere. Enjoy! With that out of the way, I may get started on my next masterpiece. I'm not sure if she should be a compliment to the last one or something completely different. Who knows! At the very least she will most likely be female.

Wood Pulley finished!

After spending half the day on the computer trying to find more shops. Cheryl told me to take a break and go back to my shop. How thoughtful! So with just a couple of hours I was able to finish the wood pulley and make them work. They work pretty good for not having any weight on the. The true test will come when I lift up that half ton log that is sitting in the driveway. My only concern then will be if it can hold up the weight. With the rest of the free time, I cleaned up my shop and repaired the stool that the last sculpture broke. I'm sure it will need some more attention than just a re glue up. I may have to cut a new top for it. Have a great weekend!

A Brief Time out from Carving

Only a brief one! This IS a carving blog after all....This past week I have been trying to drum up some shops for Cheryl's Allenbrite Store. It is slow going with the risk of no reward at the end of the tunnel. However, it is the only way we are going to make it a success by getting her wristlets, pencil pouches and key fobs in stores. So with that taking up most of my time, I have found it very difficult to get into my shop to do much of anything. Hopefully things will change for the better soon because I still have another tree trunk in the driveway begging to be sculpted into another life-sized sculpture. In the mean time. A new Full Metal Alchemist is on Funnimaion Enjoy! If you are not up to speed yet. they have the whole series up to this point.

Origami Rose. Yellow

A quick post. I've been addicted to folding the origami rose originally created by Robbert Lang. It's the best looking folded rose in my opinion. but what to do with all these roses? Besides impressing the waitress at your local restaurant, you can show them off with your coat. I promise we are getting to the finished pictures of the wood elf carving. We just need a little material to make the pictures pop. I'm as eager to post them on the Woodcraft site as you probably are to see them ( more, I hope.)

Bamboo Blade new Episodes!

Funimation has added several new episodes to Bamboo Blade. A cute funny little sports anime about Kendo. IF you are a fan of anime, I would recommend this one. Its funny action packed. Fun for the whole family! But really I love the opening and closing song. Enjoy the opening!

Making a pulley out of wood.

Tonight's little experiment into absurdity started a few weeks ago when I was trying to move that stupid log and ended up straining my back while wrestling with it. I looked up for some mechanical advantage like we used in the old Army days to help lift very heavy items. Well, this is not tank I'm attempting to heave up, but it is still pretty heavy. I looked online and found nothing of any help...so here is my attempt to make an 8/1 ratio pulley. I got the inspiration from on old picture of an old nautical ship pulley selling on Ebay. Now I know what you are thinking. Why not just buy it and be done with it. Well where is the fun in that? So to start I cut out the pieces out of some scrap wood. Not having a lathe, I had to improvise... I was pretty much shooting in the dark with the first one ( not shown...it's embarrassing the way it turned out) But the second one turned out a little better. It might not look pretty, but it does seem functional enough. the true test will come when I can lift that log with it. I still will need the lower one yet, but I ran out of time and patients so it will have to wait 'till tomorrow. Since I'm not posting any carvings for the moment. Here is the second opening for Blood+. It is an awesome anime. but it does start out a little slow. You really need to give it to episode 4 for it to start getting addicting. Enjoy!