I’m pretty proud of the way Lola turned out so I just had to take a few extra photos. I’ll put them all up on the Flickr site as soon as I get a chance. Tomorrow she’ll be packaged up and on her way to her new home…which I know she’ll enjoy.
Well, I awoke to a big breakfast this morning and a nice Father’s Day card from Paul…and shy of taking a few pictures of the completed Lola, that’s been the extent of my work today. It’s been tough. My next big effort will be sitting down to a barbecue dinner…hopefully, I’ll have the energy…maybe I’ll get in a quick nap before that!
I was very lucky to have a great Dad who I miss a lot. He would have really enjoyed my latest carvings and all of the nice people I’ve met through that activity.
Lola is looking great. I just need to do a bit more gluing and sign the bottom of the carving and Lola will be ready for her new owner to enjoy. Enjoy the photos and leave a comment if you have a minute.
I painted the backdrop with acrylics over the last few evenings and I’m pretty pleased with the way that the pieces are coming together. I always put a coat of urethane over the acrylics and you’ll see how the colours pop out of the backdrop pieces when I do that bit of painting.
Note in particular, on the advice of a dear friend ( you really shouldn’t publish people’s names on the Internet, Jan, so I won’t ), that the chipmunk got a bit of a make-over to make him kinder and more gentle…but still full of mischief.
I also put clear epoxy over the eyes and you can see a bit of that glint-in-the-eye in this photo.
Well, Lola’s landed a whopper…and the little fish doesn’t seem too bothered by it. I think that both understand that this is strictly a catch-and-release game that will be repeated again tomorrow.
Lola has a new chipmunk friend. I’ve pretty much finished the roughing in and will clean up some detail this week. The oak base is also cut out and ready for staining. More to come soon. I like the chipmunk, he seems to like the fact that there’s no fishing around these parts.
I’ve changed up my idea for the base a bit. Originally, I thought of Lola standing on a patch of earth/gravel with the fencepost and rails in behind her. A sign on the fence-post will signal that there is no fishing allowed in the area.
The more thought that I gave it, the more a leaned again toward the figure standing on a wooden surface. For Lola, in particular, I think that she’ll need some light colours in the background to show off her features, as her coat is quite dark.
Rather than have a second dock with piers ( Lola will be displayed beside Fergus on his dock ), I decided on a boardwalk scene. I think that it’s turning out pretty nice. The boardwalk will still have the “no fishing” sign above on the rails, and, as you can see, a broken lower rail that allows adventurous dogs like Lola in to play.
The fish ( who is yet to be named ) seems pretty happy about the way this carving is turning out.
I couldn’t resist adding the catch of the day. Might not be able to see it in this photo, but both Lola and the fish are smiling…it’s all a big game to both of them.
Here are a couple of pictures of Lola as she takes shape. As you can see, things are finally starting to green up in the background. The way the weather has been so far this year, I’m suspecting about three weeks of grass cutting before the snow starts to fly again. I should mention that Toby is pretty much completed…I just need to urethane the oak base before I take a few photos for the blog.
We had a nice visit with Peggy’s Mom and Sister, Bonnie, this weekend and they liked Lola as well. Bonnie likes to think that we enjoy her visits a lot, so we always tell her that when we see her to feed her ego ( you can probably sense that she reads these blogs ). She also has a Lab so we had to keep a close eye on her through the weekend and check her purse as she left for home.
But back to Lola…She has the sides of her mouth curled out a bit as her catch-of-the-day is going to be resting there soon. I’m looking forward to carving a fish, even though it’ll be a small one, as I haven’t carved a fish before. I know that there’s a category for fish carvings at the shows that I attend, but I don’t think they’ll accept a micro-fish.
Enjoy the photos.
I think that Lola is going to be one of Paul’s favourite carvings…especially when she gets that fish in her mouth!
I’m just starting to block in some shape to Lola. She has one back leg swung under her in a very relaxed pose ( following some intense fishing ). The fish…which I’m looking forward to carving…will be done in two pieces and glued into either side of her mouth. I could have decided to carve the fish in one piece along with Lola’s head but this just wouldn’t have provided the strength that the two-pieced-fish would have with the wood grain oriented along the length of the fish.
Hope you like her so far…Paul does!
A friend recently sent me a couple of photos of ‘Lola’, her little Lab. I really liked one, in particular, of Lola having just returned from a fishing expedition. Apparently, Lola gets out fishing whenever she can. 
Lola’s a nice looking Lab with an interesting hobby, and hopefully, will soon be displayed sitting at her favourite, private fishing hole. Here’s yesterday’s progress… 
tributesinwood 