Wood Elf Carving Day 11, Piliated makes an appearance!

Remember when I said I wanted to be done by Friday? Well... You see the Woodcraft Carving contest deadline is February 28th. So I still have time to submit this carving in before the dead line for a second chance to win those Chisels! I'm so thrilled with the ones I bought at the moment, that I would like to replace all the old ones I currently have. Regardless, these are the chisels I have used up to this point! They have really been great for roughing out that log into what I currently have. ( with a little help from the chainsaw, of coarse!) I was planning on spending the remainder of the week sanding those tough to reach areas with some sandpaper flex strips that I made, But I decided to put forth a little more effort to see just how totally awesome I can make this full size carving. So I worked on the hair and oak leaf shoulder pads. I can see I have a ways to go since I want to do the oak leaf skirt and perhaps the chest area as well. I also worked a bit on the ears tonight as well. I came close to carving them off and making her human....but after a while the ears grew on me and I DON"T want anyone mistaking her for a Indian. ( native American for the PC crowd) Everyone carves those I want to be unique! Also...a little aside: Today we had our Piliated Woodpecker come visit our suet cake. I just left a comment on David Brock's Blog that we have one in our area but I have not seen him lately. Well this finally explains why we have went through three suet cakes over the last week and a half! ( usually one cake lasts several weeks!) They are a really great looking bird, and this guy can be friendly at times Once while out with the cat, he came to check us out so close that I could have touched him had I had a stick in my hand ( yes THAT close!) He really tears up the trees as well around here and greets me when I carve on the dead trees in the back woods.

One seat, tree carving, and origami crane.

Tonight 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.

Weekend Seat Wrap up!

This weekend has been pretty good! I carved up all 8 seats even though Monday is a holiday. This will free me up to head to the woods and work on perhaps another tree or maybe tidy up the wood nymph a bit more. We'll see! Cheryl and I took another break and headed once again to the shore. It was a bit cooler this evening, but the sunset was wonderful, as usual! Hope you are still having a great weekend!

Glory hallelujah! 5 sales!

We sold five seats today! Yeeah! So that is all I did for the most part. I'm hoping that the sales slump is over. Or at least the sales will Begin to climb. Or just continue at this rate. IT was getting a little scary there for a few. Then again, this always happens at this time of year. Hope you are having a great week. As for us...We'll continue to pray for more sales and make make everyone's bathroom a brighter place.

Sunday Paint day.

Finished the painting the seats and got finished rather early tonight! Tomorrow, I may be able to start work on my dust table! I got a good deal on some lumber at Menhards. Unless we sell more seats tomorrow, I may start the work and take a few pictures along the way! have a great week!

Another day, another carving

Well, I finally finished painting the cat furniture. I now have to add the scratchers and carpet tot he shelves. Cheryl has pointed out the crappy job I did of painting it, but showing me all the missed spots that she can see from below. ( Must be nice being that short!) Anyway, I'm done painting. She can touch it up at her leisure. I carved up 5 seats tonight. I was surprised to carve up the zebra! I have sold it only one other time. Maybe African or safari themes are coming back. What a differance a little color makes! I decided to add a little origami to the post tonight. It has been a while and I have been exploring the "insect" theme once again. I am quite happy with my ant. I took an existing pattern and added a couple of my own folds to it to give it a better shape. I still might work on that one some more. I still have trouble with the dragonfly, but I think I have the various beetles down. Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!