tributesinwood

Trimming of the Ears

Some ear trimming was the next step for our little hound.  Basically, I just picked up where I left off earlier with the fitting of the ears to the arm and body contours using pencil lead as a marking tool to highlight the high spots that needed to be removed to get as tight a fit as possible.  Today, I shaved down the outside of the ears and added a bit of a fold at the front of the ear and a bit of a wave where the ear flows around the front leg, or arm, in this case ( because who ever heard of playing a banjo with a leg ).  Trimming the ear down went a long way to making the ear look soft and flexible like hound’s ears happen to be.

The other fun item was working the handkerchief a bit more.  Again, the inner fitting had been done earlier and now it was just a matter of creating some interesting folds and waves on the outside of the cloth.  Again, I tried to trim it down enough to make it look like how you’d imagine a bundle of light cloth to lay.  I’m already thinking of a nice checkered pattern for this handkerchief similar to the way that I painted the hobo bindle used on my carving of Hobo and Ned.

And lastly, I put a coat of satin urethane on the rocking chair and cushion to finish it up.  The urethane brought a nice glow to the wood and also made the “barnyard red” coloured cushion come to life a bit more.  I still want to add some cushion ties on the back, but, other than that, the rocker is complete.