The Total Elimination of my carvings!

Yesterday Cheryl and I had a yard sale to get rid of some of our stuff that was cluttering my workshop and the house. I put all of my carvings out there thinking, "who knows?" I was wanting to get rid of many of them anyway because I have held onto them for far too long. They have not been selling on Etsy so there was no great risk involved. Little did I know what would happen. I sold it ALL! That is correct, everything is GONE! The ONLY carvings I have left as proof of my last 9 years of carving is the outside tree carvings and my blue ribbon elk. Before we set up a guy showed up and purchased some taxidermy and 4 of my carvings. Then another guy bought all of my panels and several boxes. The first guy came back and bought three other panels and two more "deer of the world" The last few trickled out to people who stopped in. In the end, Every one of my Deer of the World collection found a home. Including the obscure ones like the barking deer. All my boxes, panels, and card cases are also history. I even sold the UNFINISHED KOI LOG! Talk about a feeding frenzy! Now to be fair, They were priced to move. However, they were not all priced at the absolute rock bottom price. I have priced them even lower at shows before and people were not interested in them. Cheryl made the observation that almost ALL of the yard sale shoppers were men ( kind of unusual as it is mostly the older women that visit yard sales around here) I'm just happy that I didn't have to put anything back into the dusty old garage. I'm also happy that I have a little more spending cash for the moment. Cheryl hopes that I will not fill the workshop or house back up now that there is new found room. We'll see about that...I have not been in a carving mood much lately, with the heat getting warmer etc. So if you look on the right....the Etsy shop is empty because for the first time in a LONG time ( or EVER) I simply have NOTHING LEFT TO SELL! YEAH!

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!

Deer Of the World On Etsy!

I finally listed them on Etsy. Don't let the price fool you! They took at least an entire week to complete! It's just that the garage is getting full and things have to move out. I have enjoyed them for a long time and have since moved on to bigger and better things. It was a nice exercise in carving. So now is your chance to own one of the collection. There area few gaps ( I previously sold the other ones.) like the caribou and axis deer. I may even add my Irish elk some time. But for now...Click on the right to see them up close and personal! Enjoy! Not show is the Roe deer, Barking deer, Axis deer, and Irish elk. Perhaps I'll post them later. Be sure to check out the Stag Moose!

Treasure finding at Hoffmaster!

It started out as another great day at the state park. We ate our Subway and set off exploring another trail. Little did we know that on this particular trail, we would stumble upon a secret cashe of goodies! While walking down the path, I noticed what looked like a rock way up in the dunes. Rocks of this size do not normally belong up here in the sand, so I took a little closer look. At first, Cheryl and I thought it was a first aid stash for the park people in the event someone got hurt on the trail. But then our investigation revealed that it was part of a global scavenger hunt! Apparently, people with GPS's are all looking for things to do with their new toys. So the website started putting these little secret stashes with locations on their website for people to find and log their findings. The3 plastic container was loaded with goodies that you could take one if you left something else in return. Cheryl wanted to take the toy truck, but later settled with the Jacks in exchange for one of her Key Fobs. We then logged our findings in the little notebook and replaced all the goodies for the next lucky person to find. It was pretty fun! Then we walked down to the beach and left the park. After that, there was not much else to mention as that was the highlight of the hike. As for the rest of the evening..I continued carving. I have not been able to get very far on my project as I keep getting interrupted by the neighbors! Not that I mind much. I love talking about carving to anyone who will listen. I may chip away at it a little more tonight. the weather has been pretty nice and it seems to be getting warmer. It will be a good night for having a nice soothing fire! Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Some "finished" pics of the Woman with Windy Hair

Yesterday I had to overcome depression when I found out that our small touristy town can't display anything on the sidewalks of the downtown area. Hurray for Government! Protecting the people from shops that might put displays that entice you to shop in their store. Well, initially my plan was to offer these carvings to several of the down town stores to show off a little of my work while making the streets a little more interesting. Assuming that the shops were willing, of coarse. Ah well, the best of plans always have hiccups. So the ladies will have to remain in my front yard for a while longer. I really have no other plans for them. Unless some total stranger offers to buy one off the lawn. That would be nice! So here are the finished pics. Done with lighting and background to enhance the colors a bit ( hopefully) Enjoy! And I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far

Finished boxes. Yes! Totally finished!

So tonight I finally finished the boxes and now they will be ready for pictures and posting in my Etsy shop. IT took a while to get here, but who ever said learning was easy? Especially when you are teaching yourself and your teacher doesn't know anything! Looking back, the hinges were a challenge. And still have a few issues that need to be solved. The first two I used Ebony stain. I thought they looked better with a dark "royal" color. Unfortunately, the contrasting wood on the hinge does not show up much when everything is black. After staining, I used a simple furniture wax as the ultimate finish. ( not polyurethane this time) I love the luster that the wax gives the wood. Kind of an antique look. After spending three years in the Army, I got pretty good at polishing boots. Polishing books is like sharpening chisels: everyone has their own way of doing things that they think is the best. For me, A good boot brush can give you a pretty good shine and does not take long to do. For the next several boxes though, I tried natural stain. Cheryl likes this the best, and I though it was the best way to show off the spalding in the maple. It also allows for the oak hinge to be shown off a bit more. So there you have it. You can't get much easier than stain with a light furniture wax finish, Cheryl says they feel like the "exotic" woods at Woodcraft. ( they dip them in wax to avoid them from cracking) Hopefully I can sell a few and work on some more this coming week. Hope you're having a great weekend!

Finished carvings and an Origami Grasshopper

It's one of those days where I actually accomplished everything I set out to do for one day! I finished the carvings, installed the hinges, ( complete with the routering that was required) And even stained up the previous boxes with Ebony stain. I must say, even though the bugs are kinda cool to look at, they are rather challenging to get looking the way they should. Meaning, it's difficult to carve those little legs and antennae with what few chisels I have. All in all though, I think they turned out pretty good! Tomorrow I'll have to resharpen my chisels, and possibly regrind a couple ( grr) I should also have some pics of the finished stained boxes. Oh! And I saw this really cool bug made from Origami last night...so I thought I would give it a go and see how close to it I could get. Now...Granted...I did not have the pattern to this bug, so I just had to make up my own. I might try it again some time as there are possibly a few tricks I did not try on this flying grasshopper. Hope everyone is having a great week so far! Friday is coming fast!