Quick carving post..

I know I have just not been posting everyday like my normal self. There is a good reason for that, but for today, I want to post a little bit of the carving I have been chipping at for the last month. I basically just worked on the last fish tonight and didn't do much with him. But I thought I would at least try to break up the blog boycott. Not many pics to show, then again, there was not much done tonight. Enjoy...

One More Fish Down!

I finished one more fish tonight. I'm not sure what is taking me so long, other than the fact that I may just be savoring the carving experience. Cheryl was nice enough to snap a few pics so I could use both hands to hold on to the tools. That leaves only one fish left. then I will have to work on background and maybe cleaning up a few of the areas that need attention. Hope everyone is having a great Friday so far and look forward to a great weekend!

Back to the Koi carving.

I worked on the koi a little more yesterday. I was able to get two of the fish carved. The last three might be a little more of a challenge, but with the help of the "Shop Cat", I should be able to meet any challenge! Red helps me stay in the lines and keep all my tools finely tuned! He alps lets me know if I have made any mistakes or alerts me if any areas still need attention. Other than that, I have found that putting the scales on is another fun and challenging part since i have only one chisel that matches the sweep of the scales. And that chisel is difficult to get into certain places. We'll see how far I get tomorrow. Have a great Week!

Obsessed with fish heads!

What a odd title! Eh? But it is true! I have been obsessing over these fish and the shape of not only their heads, but their bodies as well! It's not as easy as I first thought since this is not really a relief carving like I used to do all the time. The fish have to be more rounded. Their mouths and barbels are also a bit of a challenge. Well after a couple of days of laboring over them, I decided to call the first one good enough for the moment and set out on the next one. With two down, I can not set out on the remaining five! I'm sure that I will come back to each of them over time and tidy them up..but for now this is as far as I got this weekend. IT is rather fun though, tinkering until it gets to where it Begin to look like it should. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mushrooms at Harbor Island!

That is right! the morals are out and Cheryl and I found a couple on out evening walk today. Granted that they are rather small and this is rather early for them. So, if you look closely, you will see some frost bite on the tips. As for me, it was a little cold to carve outside today, so I dragged the log inside to work on it in the nicely lit shop. I was feeling rather 'stuck' with its current configuration, so I decided that I would now work on each fish one at a time until they were done. Instead of trying to complete it as a whole. The first fish is almost done. I'll see if there are any details to add after the rest of them are finished, but this is about how far I want to take the carving for each fish. I'll admit, I'm not as good as the Thai carvers. Those guys are awesome! Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Wonderful Weekend Weather

Remember when I said I was going to work on carving up a koi? well scratch that! I ran into a little problem when I was unable to work on it because of it's shape. Now I know I could have done a couple of things to aid me in this task, but in the end, I decided to scrap it and start over. I just wasn't "feeling the koi in the wood. So instead, I worked on repairing an axe that I had broken some time ago. After seeing a video of a guy making a handle with a knife, I thought i could do that at least. I think it turned out pretty good. and I can always repair the handle again if it happens to break again. Then I set upon my next project. I cut a slightly larger piece of Cherry from the fallen tree and got all the bark off it before the daylight faded on me. It's been so nice outside I have moved my work station outside on the back porch. Hopefully, i will keep the blog updated a little more regularly in the future. Hope everyone has a great week!

Carp a diem.

Only had one seat tonight so I started and finished another panel. This time it was going to be a fish, specifically, a Koi. But I didn't want ti looking as bright as I normally make them so I toned down the colors and ended up with them looking more like plain everyday carp. Even so, Cheryl says that simple "carp" designs are "in". I guess it will depend on if you like Japanese designs or not. Regardless, I think it turned out pretty good. I took several pictures along the way. I wanted to show off a little of the kind of cupboard door I'm usually dealing with. In this case, the people screwed in some paper towel holder on the inside. I had to chisel out and fill in the hole they made. In the end, you cant tell. You might recognise the pelican design from one of the boxes I carved up a couple of weeks ago. I always like it. Pelicans are a cool bird, as long as you are not fishing or a fish farmer.