tributesinwood

A Few More Items

I started a floor lamp for Mervin by first making a bit of an interlocking base and then gluing the pieces together.  Once glued, I drilled out the centre and attached a 1/4″ dowel.  Once that was in place, I drilled a hole in some basswood block and glued it onto the dowel and then carved out an ornate centre and top piece for the lamp.  Right now, I’ve glued a miniature christmas tree light into a drilled hole at the top ( no, the light will not actually work!).  I need to come back to this and make a lampshade from brass sheet.

Of course, these folks weren’t reading by the light all of the time, so they also needed a good radio…which they’re having Mervin’s Movers relocate to their new home.  Once the tuning knobs are on, it’ll look really nice.

Lastly, I carved out a guitar and put it in a case.  Ok, then, it’s just a case but we’ll imagine that there’s a really well carved guitar inside.  His load is definitely expanding…

Happy New Year

Mervin had a chest of drawers and the start of a mattress added to his load today.  Both are solid basswood although I may hollow out the mattress a bit to keep weight down, and the chest of drawers has one drawer that I made to look open and will glue in place later on.  Not sure what’s going to be hanging out of the drawer just yet…but Peggy would like to see a kitten ( I’m not a big cat fan but I do like Peggy a lot, so we may end up with a kitten in the drawer ).

The load is looking pretty good, I think.  I still want to add a rolled up rug and a lamp.

And…Happy New Year from all of us in Kingston!  Wishing you all of the best in 2016.  Thank you for dropping by my blog this past year and I’m hoping that you’ll continue to follow my projects and drop me a note now and again.

A Busy Christmas Holiday

Emily and I have been busy with our hobbies this Christmas.  You’ll recall that Emily is a crocheter extraordinaire and I’ll tell you that after seeing the latest Star Wars episode this week, she didn’t waste much time in designing a BB-8 of her own.

There are more and better photos on her blog, mspremiseconclusion.  You can find a link at the side of this page.  Tell her I sent you.

In less exciting news, Mervin got a crate to carry.  I made the crate by cutting 1/4″ thick slabs of basswood and gluing them together to form a closed box.  I did this so that the crate would be hollow and less heavy for the sculpture ( not for Marvin ).  After the glue dried, I carved the slats into the crate for this effect.

Merry Christmas

Our little Mover received a cap yesterday and is trying it out with one of Peggy’s presents.  I like the way that he’s looking while carrying a box.  I think that he’s going to look great when his moving boxes are piled high.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  I hope that you enjoy the Holidays.

Movin’ Mervin Slims Down

Well, it’s going to be Mervin.  And he, in fact, is slimming down a bit with some detailing.

Using knives and chisels, now, I’m taking some measurements from the clay that I produced and transferring them to the wood carving.  I’m not getting too hung up on precision but am trying to use the clay sculpture as a general guide for the pose.

His face got a bit of detailing too and I like the way that he’s starting to look.

Back to helping Peggy with the Christmas baking…she really can’t do without my taste-testing!

A New Tool!

Actually, it’s a tool that I have had for almost a year but really haven’t given it a project yet.  It’s a Proxxon reciprocating chisel and a tool that I had the pleasure of winning at the last Ottawa Carving Show and Competition.

This unit comes with three interchangeable blades that move back and forth at a very high rate of speed with little vibration and just a gentle “whir” from the motor.  Actually, the thing that you hear is the hammering of the reciprocating mechanism which is very slight in my opinion.  Best of all, it cuts like a hot knife through butter.  If you’ve ever been prone to soreness in your wrist from the heavier cutting associated with roughing-in a carving, you’ll want to at least consider this item.

I started roughing in the bandsaw-ed profile with a large Typhoon bit on a Foredom tool.  You can see the roughed up basic shape, here.

Then, I turned to this little gem of a tool for the final roughing.  What you see, here, is the Proxxon effect with a gouge blade as well as a little additional detailing with a regular carving knife on the head.  I’m on my way, now!