Weekend carving

So carved up the three seats I had for tonight, They were easy. I also managed to take a few pics of the "finished" carvings, with the help of the outdoor shop cat. Red helps me select the right trees, however I think he got a little carried away with this one....

We searched over raging rivers and crosses bottomless chasms to find just the right trees to carve. Finally, Red found one he could believe in. And so I worked on it a while. Hopefully I will be swamped with orders tomorrow so i won't be able to mess around with the outside carvings. Red gets bored after a while if I hang out in one place too long. It's all about keeping the shop cat happy.

Addicted to carving? Well. Yeah!

I must admit I'm having fun playing with Gramps old chisels on the back woods. The weather has been very nice and the bugs are not out yet so I feel this overwhelming urge to go outside to carve. Besides, it's always a good idea to practice on "crap wood" now and then just to fine tune your form. The shop cat , once again, joined me and helped me pic out a tree to work on. I have to be realistic about the amount of detail I want to put into a carving on these dead logs. However, after you get past the soft decayed wood, the inner stuff is quite nice. Still, the rain and weather will beat on it and age it rapidly. Regardless, It is fun. I spent the rest of the night sharpening the chisels most used. Perhaps I'll revisit the last carving and work on it a little more. I just realized I didn't get any "done" pictures yet. grrrr

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Happy Mother's Day! Well, for us anyway.

So we went to Grand Rapids to visit Cheryl's family on mothers day to catch up and grab a bite to eat. All in all It was nice seeing everyone again. We got home kinda late and I ,out of the blue, wanted to check my bat houses to see if anyone had moved in. I'm soo happy to announce that there are these two cuties in at lest one of the houses. I'm soo happy! Aren't they adorable! This is going to be a short post but here are some of the Origami beetles I have been working on. Cheryl says I need to add more colors. I'll be working on some gold ones later tonight.

Origami jewelry?

So if you have been following the blog for more than a month, you might have realized that the sales have dwindled considerably. I don't know why, but when May began, someone turned off the sales. So I only had one seat to carve up tonight, the muskie, and it took very little time at all. I'm going to try to influence the universe with my mind and see if I can mentally start up the sales once more. In the mean time, I headed out to the tree to see if I could add some eyes to the carving and possibly some hair. Even the shop cat came out and kept me company. Unfortunately, it got dark before I could get a good picture of the progress. So while the sames have taken a dive, Cheryl has been brainstorming on some other product that we might be able to sell. ( happens every time our sales slump) So I'm going to attempt some origami jewelry. Some beetles and frogs encased in resin. I'm curious to see how they sell, or if they will sell. They had to be super small though and I might have to work on a beetle that will fit inside the mold. I'll turn them over now to Cheryl so she can set them. Will post on the progress....

Woodland carvings

So I didn't carve up any seats tonight, but rather grabbed my chisels and headed to the woods tonight. It got dark before I could finish the eyes, and then had to walk out there in the dark to snap a picture. While i was out there I managed to find a couple of my other carvings as well. I may get to it later tomorrow, But I know I have at least one seats that will have to be carved up tomorrow. Oh! and by the way, the trees are dead so no trees were harmed by my body decorations. It's great having a small woodlot behind your house. There are a number of windfalls back there as well, but hopefully I won't have time to make any marks. Looks kinda scary in the dark eh? Coooool! My plan to enchant the forest is under way!

Three seats for Tuesday!

Isn't it ironic that I sell a peacock seat after making the cupboard. Three seats for a Tuesday is kinda slow, at least compared to the last couple of weeks. but at least they are still moving out. I also polyed the carved panel and tried to show off the gloss. I always think a high gloss shows off the carving the best, My opinion anyway. And! Here is the cute little kitten, remember him? back when he was a cute little furball? He's not really a shop cat ( one of the cats I can label as "mine") instead, he is more Cheryl's cat so now and then she take a cute picture of him. Oh, and I got bored of finding things that kill you. Basically...everything does.. so live in terror. You just won't read about it anymore from me.

Finished Cupboard door

I finished painting the peacock cupboard door/panel. I think it turned out well. Now all I have to do it Poly and I'll be set. Maybe I'll list it online or show it off at an art show some time. Oh and some running origami Horses! YEEHA!

Sunday Project

Only sold one seat this weekend. A kokopelli. So to cheer my self up and waste some of my new found time, I decided to take on a cupboard door! I have been wanting to carve this design I saw in the bookstore for a while. It's been a while since I took several pictures of a carving project in progress. So hopefully, this gives a little idea how the process goes. I used provincial oak as the stain, and I probably will paint it to may the Peacocks really pop! It's all about the shadows! Oh! and I finally, I took my own stab at one of those dragonfly nymphs. And some other bug that looks like a large moth or hornet.

Mushroom Friday! And the Danger Of Honey......

Hey everyone! It's the time of year when Moral mushrooms pop out here in Michigan. In fact, they may have been out for over a week now, but we decided to take a look today and found 4 in our "secret" mushroom hunting place. ( secret? Yeah right! everyone in Grand Haven who cares about morals knows this place) We made some tasty little mushroom puff pastries with some bacon, morals, sour cream, green onion, and mozzarella cheese stuffed in a tasty little pastry shell. MMMMM! Oh! and to keep up on my things that can kill you, I found that Honey can kill you! Honey? Wonder why I'm not dead yet because I love the stuff. Read about it here:

I may have to stop this because it really gets on y nerves finding otu that EVERYTHING can kill you when I KNOW it does not! Like Jack said, Everyone who has ever eaten a carrot has died! Well, that IS my point I guess to illustrate the stupid junk science out there that is reported to scare you.

Thursday catch up carving. I didn't know that could kill you!

Woohoo! Got all my seats carved up and I'm cleared up for the weekend! Hopefully, the stores will restock their shelves once again. It has been raining here for the past three days, but today has been especially drizzly. The small pond outside is overflowing the the small creek that is usually dry during the summer is totally raging. April is turning out to be quite the downpour. In other news: I heard that eating grilled food can kill you. Yes! "research" suggests that eating grilled meat "MAY" or MAY NOT" kill you ( increase your risk of cancer, pancreatic I think) Now who in their right mind would even see this research be fit to publish? Just in time for Backyard BBQ season! Coming from a Science/ Biology background myself, I can only guess that this study must be riddled with flaws. If something is not DEFINITE than it should not be published. But I decided to have a little fun with it. So I want to add to my blog: THINGS THAT WILL KILL YOU section. First up! Water. Breathing too much water will kill you. It's a scientific fact! Avoid breathing water at all costs. To be safe, plug in a dehumidifier. Here is your safety briefing for the week. Oh! I didn't get a chance to make the dragonfly nymph yet. Perhaps later.