tributesinwood

Wood Carvings by Mark Sheridan

Archive for the category “Uncategorized”

17 Nov 2015
2 Comments

A Sandy Base

I’ve been poking along on my carving in between raking leaves, cleaning windows, raking leaves, getting the house ready for winter, raking leaves…did I mention raking leaves?

The base is my usual 1/2″ oak and I’ve added some sand for the beach scene.  The sand is once again a polymer mixed with aggregate that is used in the patio block laying business.  The nice thing about the mix is that once I screen out the larger pieces and am left with the “sand”, adding a little water activates the polymer and sets it rock hard.  I actually mix it with a bit of white glue and water to give it greater sticking power.

Here’s a photo of what it looked like while it was still drying.  Once dry, I’ll give it a couple of coats of sand coloured acrylic paint.  By the way, I’ve added a little sand pail and shovel along with some small shells.  The shells almost look real because…they are.

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Posted in Beach Basset, Uncategorized and tagged , , , ,
31 Oct 2015
2 Comments

Another Fine Hallowe’en Costume

Peggy’s been at it again and Paul’s all pumped for Hallowe’en as the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.  Actually, he’s been wearing the costume most of the week and has been at more Hallowe’en parties this week than I’ve been at in my entire life.  He’s pretty pleased with his costume, for sure.

Posted in Uncategorized
30 Apr 2015
2 Comments

End of the Rope

Well, I think I’ve come up with the rope that I’ve been looking to create.  Lynn Doughty also gave me a terrific suggestion with the use of gun bluing that he’s used very successfully in his carving sculptures ( Outwestwoodcarving ) and I do want to give that a try at some point.

I took a bit of a different path and decided to take a stab at using plastic insulation coated wire.  This wire is probably 20 gauge or lighter wire but has a plastic insulation coating surrounding it.  You’ve seen this kind of wire sheathed in a bundle of six or more individual wires and used for telephone hook-ups, 12 volt door bell installations, etc.

I took three of the multicoloured wires, ran some sandpiper over the insulation to roughen it up and wound them together using the portable drill process that I described earlier and that I’ve seen Lynn use.  I then looped and bent the wires into the shape that I was looking for and epoxied  them together in several points in the loop.

The roughened up wires looked just terrific as they looked like the actual fibres that you’d see in a rope.  After a bit of priming and painting of the rope, I did find that the roughened plastic coating took the paint well and I’m pretty happy with the finished product.

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Posted in Uncategorized, Wrangler Hound and tagged , , , ,
18 Jan 2015
3 Comments

My Project List

I wonder if everyone has a project list full of ideas?  I love having a project list…always have.  As a kid, I used to look forward to the Fall just because I knew that I’d be down the basement working on a project…usually a model airplane.

One of the newer additions to my list, one that I introduced a little while ago, was my notion of a hockey-player sitting in the penalty box following a bit of a scuffle.  I’ve pretty much completed the head and helmet, but ran into a little trouble with the body…I just can’t seem to get the right orientation of the shoulders and arms…or, at least, something that is going to make me happy with the final carving.  So, I’m going to try something that I’ve not tried before and that’s using modelling clay to create a three dimensional body figure that I can use as a model for the carving.

Carving wood is a bit unforgiving…once you’ve carved away too much, well, you’ve carved away too much.  Many carvers first develop a clay model where, of course, you can add or take away clay to your heart’s delight, and, once your satisfied, turn your creation into a wood carving.  I’m going to give it a try with my first ever block of clay!

Don’t laugh if this doesn’t turn out.

Another project that I’ve started involves a…wait for it…Basset Hound!  Not sure what I’ll call this carving yet but am feeling like this particular little hound may end up with a touch of attitude.  Especially, with that six-shooter hanging in his holster.

Here’s a quick sketch of what I have in mind.  Stay tuned.

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Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , ,
06 Jan 2015
3 Comments

Some Rug Braiding

I’ve done some rug braiding tonight and the rug is now ready for paint!

The planked floor and the shaped base beneath it also got some stain and urethane earlier this week, so the base is coming to completion.  I’ve typically painted the wood grain lines on the plank floor with acrylic paints, however, in this case, the planks are running parallel to the grain in the oak base and, given that the grain is very fine, an oak finish looked just right to make a true-to-scale rendition of a floor.

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After doing some sanding, the edge of the base got a darker stain than the planked floor just to make the perimeter stand out.  I also included some small nails at a few of the plank joints in the floor just to add some more interest.

My next step will be to use some acrylic paints to provide a multi-colour rug pattern within the “braided” lines that I’ve already burned in with a wood burner.  I’m planning to use diluted “washes” of a number of colours so that the rug ends up not looking too bright…I’d prefer something that looks well used.

Posted in Country Hound, Uncategorized and tagged , , , ,
04 Jan 2015
1 Comment

Tool Roll for Chisels

That marvellous Peggy made me a denim tool roll for my chisels!  A tool roll is a really handy way to store chisels so that they’re organized on the bench and can be rolled up and transported or placed, protected, out of the way.  After getting a real sharp edge on chisels, the last thing that you want to hear is one of them rolling off the bench and hitting the floor!

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We found a pattern on the web for a simple tool roll and modified it a bit to accept the size and number of chisels that I use most frequently.  Just search the web for “tool roll” and you’ll find several that you can use and modify.

It’s basically three rectangular sections sewn together in such a way that it results in alternating pockets for the chisels.  A little bit of figuring went into the size of the pockets…depth and width…so that the chisels were held snuggly but still protruded enough to be able to see the chisel size markings on the metal portions.

I should also mention that Peggy made the denim rectangular sections “doubled” ( I’d call it “two ply” ) so that the pouch would be strong and look nice from both sides.

Each of the rectangular portions that have the pockets sewn into them are used as flaps that each fold over onto the exposed ends of the chisels.  They meet in the centre with a bit of overlap to completely cover and protect the chisels.

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The tool roll is then “rolled up” ( what a surprise ) and the remaining flap at the end wraps around the whole thing.  Peggy is going to sew a tether to that end flap so that I can tie it together so it’s nice and secure.

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What a gal.  I’m being extra nice to her today.

Posted in Uncategorized
10 Dec 2014
3 Comments

A Backyard Christmas Scene

For those of you who visit my website and are enjoying much warmer climates…here’s what it looks like in our part of Canada tonight.  I guess Santa won’t have any trouble getting his sleigh around this year.

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Posted in Uncategorized
27 Nov 2014
3 Comments

Christmas Elf

Well, our #1 Christmas Elf has given the green light for the beginning of Christmas decorations.  Paul has been busy this week decorating the house.  I think what kicked it off was running into Santa unexpectedly on a trip to visit a local garden centre that had a few visiting reindeer…we expected to see reindeer, but not Santa!

It didn’t take much convincing after that to start getting the decorations out.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends from the U.S….take it slow because another turkey dinner is only a month away.

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Posted in Uncategorized
29 Oct 2014
6 Comments

Happy Hallowe’en

Well, I guess that we’ll start a tradition of posting Paul’s Hallowe’en costume on this blog.  If you look back, you’ll see his amazing Captain America costume from last year that his talented Mom made for him.  Paul wanted to be Aladdin this year and Peggy once again rose to the challenge and came up with a knock-it-out-of-the-park costume.  Peggy sewed and created all of this including the shoes!

Paul’s pretty happy and has already been at a couple of parties with another one tomorrow before the big day.

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

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Posted in Uncategorized
24 Dec 2013

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Mark, Peggy, Paul and Emily…

…and all of our little friends at Tributesinwood…Chico and Poncho, Zeke, Chief Dan Turtle Rock, Corporal Duncan Sowerby, Ned and Hobo.

Hoping you have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and find lots of wood and carving tools under the tree from Santa!

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