Thursday seats and S'mores

So I spent the day carving 4 seats tonight. YEAH! Keep those sales coming! I didn't go outside at all today for that reason, And the fact that there are still a ton of mosquitoes out there and I have no DEET! It's getting pretty bad without it. My whole body has been itching since yesterday. Other than that, the carving went OK and Now I'm curled up with a lovely plate of S'mores. The best part of Summer is these Little gooey treats. It's too bad they make my fingers all sticky. Hope you are having a fine memorial day weekend. Hot dogs and S'mores all the way!

Female tree carving.

Ok, So today I was working on carving another wood nymph out of an old dead Cherry tree. Not the fruit kind, rather the furniture kind ( think choke cherry) I love carving cherry because the smell is awesome while you carve. Also, the wood is a wonderful rich orange/reddish brown color. Oh, and it is much harder than pine so you can add detail without crushing the wood. Anyway, the bugs are now out in full swing and that made carving outside a challenge. I finished up in the dark so the last picture is crappy, even with a flash. You can't see it much, but I tried to youth en her up a bit. She was looking a little too old for me. I'll see how far I get tomorrow, but right now, I have at least one seat to carve. In other news, Hiro, ( the "kitten") caught his first vole tonight. Don't worry, it got away. It did the old "I'm really scary" trick, forcing Hiro to drop it, then it bait and switch with a bunch of leaves. Hiro had nothing more than a mouthful of leaves to show for his time. But he did manage to catch it for a little while. Those little things are crafty! Maybe next time Hiro!

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.

To the Trees! The Bugs are coming! Again.

So I headed back to the forest tonight with the last couple of hours of daylight, and worked on another dead log. I also snapped a picture of the green man during the light. The final picture to the wood spirit was in the dark, but a little "fixfoto" and we have something that can be seen. The mosquitoes are now out in a pretty good force. Thankfully, it was cool enough for me to wear long sleeves comfortably. I think my bats have taken up permanent shop now and I hope they stay all summer. They might migrate when the bugs disappear, but they will always be welcome.

One seat for Sunday! Oh My!

Yep, the slow sales continue! Only one seat for the entire weekend. How sad ;( So to cheer myself up, I folded up an origami beetle! Oh! And there was a turkey in the backyard today, and for once I was able to snap a picture before he disappeared into the woods. See if you can find him. Hint: he's saying "hi" to the little chainsaw bear by the path.

Green Man and an acantheus leaf

The weather was nice and cool today, so I did a little more carving outside. I decided to postpone the wood nymph and work on a green man. IT got dark before I could take any pictures, but I needed something to Post on my blog. Besides, I wanted to try an acanthus leaf. I got only this far before I called it for the night. To be fair, my chisels were probably dulled up a bit from the green man and I had not resharpened them. Also, Pine is still a challenge for me to carve. It's soft and crumbly. I might have been a little optimistic with the detail as well. Well, I may finish it tomorrow. At least I'm gaining a little practice.

Thrusday carvings, Dog in the store.

I finished carving up three seats tonight. Whew! The sales have become slow and sparse. I feel like I'm crossing the dessert with only one canteen of water. I worked a little on the outdoor carving today, but it got dark before I could take any pictures. And I I worked on was the arm and it ended up looking worse than when I started. ( still in the rough out phase) But a cute little aside. We were having lunch at out favorite Target store when we witnessed a cute little dog wandering around the parking lot. A lady was chasing it and, as many pet owners know, when you chase a dog....it runs away. Well, We guessed that the lady was not the owner, because the dog just kept prancing around the parking lot oblivious to all. But then a funny thing happened. The Dog came inside through the sliding doors! Ran up to the Starbucks lady and started wagging it's tail. Don't worry, The original lady eventually came in and recovered her dog ( it was her's all along) so it was a happy ending after all. But it was fun seeing a small terrier running through the store. Like he was totally at home.

An exercise using wood Chisels

Well, I would have liked to head back out to the wood nymph, but it has been raining all day today. I can only imagine what the spongy wood must be like when it is soaked. ( maybe it would carve better!) I didn't want to get wet and my chisels needed a little touching up. So I sharpened up several of the work horses and decided to test them out on a small piece of scrap pine. Nothing fancy, it's just that pine is rather soft, similar to the semi-rotted wood outside. I kept it simple: just a basic feather. I could have cleaned up some of the edges or set the background down a Little better, but it was just to test the sharpness of the chisels. As I was walking around the woods with the cat tonight, I realized the usefulness of Chisels as opposed to Power carving ( chainsaws, dremels, etc...) I could not get an extension cord back that far from the house. And chainsaws are just noisy and perhaps a little overkill on some of the finer detail. Well, It took me a while to carve that simple feather, but with power tools I could have carved it up a little faster. Granted, I'm more familiar with the dremel than the chisels, But I'm trying to change that a little bit at a time. Maybe next time, I'll carve an acantheus leaf.

Daylight Pictures of a tree

I carved up two seats tonight, But before the wonderful daylight fled, I worked on the tree carving and took a few more pictures During the daylight. I tried to work on the hair and arm a little more. The wood is a wonderful spongy soft that loves to flake off. Very frustrating! The hair is really a challenge. I'm curious how this is going to turn out looking at the "before " picture as it is now. The arm and hand are also a challenge even though the wood is pretty good. It just happens to be at the upper limit of my reach, so my arms get tired quick. Well, I took a final picture before the light dimmed as it did yesterday. Also, I inspected the bat house and tonight I had almost a dozen! Well, too many to count anyway, they were all crammed in there. I'm hoping they scatter a bit because there are about 10 other bat houses in our yard! Regardless, I hope they stay during the bug season.

Where have all the sales gone?

Let's face it! Last week's sales were crappy! And this week is beginning the same way! I did sell one, but Come on! Ok! With that venting out of the way, I decided to work on a tree that was a little larger and closer to the house tonight. I Actually want to do a "good job" on this one and carve a full person or at least most of the upper torso. The wood is being rather "uncooperative" in that is it soft, rotting, or extremely hard all at the same time! I worked on it till after dark so I had to use the flash and thus it doesn't capture much. Then again, I didn't go too much into detail yet. Who knows with the wood as soft as it is on half of her face, I may just have to be really simple. And...More great news! My bat house has at least four bats now! I'm so happy. Keep 'em coming!