tributesinwood

Some Slow Progress

It seems like we moved from the “rake leaves” mode to the “prep for Christmas” mode pretty quickly around here and, as a result, I haven’t spent all that great amount of time carving.  But, the snow is coming tonight apparently with a good sized storm, so maybe that will slow things down enough to sit in one spot for a while.

There…I knew you could look on the bright side of a snow storm!

With the body roughed in to some extent, it was time to start to shape the arms.  His right arm, which will be holding a cloth and cleaning a window, will be bent so I glued a couple of pieces of basswood together to keep the grain running along the length of the arm.  Now, you might question why I’m so concerned with the strength and direction of the grain when I’m putting a glued joint in the middle of things…but, actually, a tight fitting glued joint will be stronger than the surrounding wood.

With a bit of trimming and then a hand glued on ( again with the grain direction running in the “right” direction ), the arm started to take shape.

The left arm will be pretty straight with the hand holding a bucket of suds.  Because the grain is pretty much in a single direction, I was able to make the arm and hand in one piece.

Once these were glued into some drilled holes in the shoulder sections, I was able to do some light detailing of the rolled shirt cuffs, hands and fingers.

And now, I’m putting a bit of effort into the wrinkles on the shirt and pants.  Now, I’m not of the generation that enjoys “selfies”, but I have to admit that it was the only way that I could figure out how the wrinkles should turn out.  So, yes, I stood with my back to a mirror in my little window-washer’s posture and clicked away!