"One Perfect Part at a Time"

Wood Carving

Machining in Wood

Want to see how this was made? Follow this link to my machine shop, click on “Sawdust” at the right end of the menu line and select “Vectric Cut3D” from the drop down menu. I made it myself today (Sunday).

Santa Three

Santa Carving #3Yes, I am still carving and hand painting. Here is (Sleepy) Santa #3. I am getting a bit better (I think) with each new face. I also decided to play around with Photo Shop and do a cool background edit for this picture. The face is nearly the same size as the other carvings I have posted here.

The background wasn’t really staged for this shot. It is the mantle in the living room. I just walked up and fired off a few close shots with the Sony digital. This Santa is leaning against a very colorful glass Santa like the old fashioned glass tree ornaments… only much larger. So as not to let the background detract from the carving I decided to play a bit.

Gloria didn’t want these carvings to look “spiffy new” so there is a little intentional “aging” and debris to make it look like its been hanging around for quite awhile. It really doesn’t show up to much in this photo.

I hope you enjoy a Merry Christmas! ~ Dan’l

‘Tis The Season

Santa2 PaintedThis is my second carving of the Christmas Santa’s. This fellow has a fancier beard. The picture to the right is the finished and painted carving. It looks like it is a part of the page. (It’s the one in the middle!) You can can see I made it a bit bigger than the pattern. The second picture is the same background and was made just after I finished the wood carving work. I wasn’t real happy with the beard lines in the Santa with Christmas Tree carving so for this one I connected up the high speed rotary carving tool I bought last year. It was perfect for carving the lines. A little more practice with my CMT hands and I can start to do finer lines. This looks pretty good though. These are not kits, I started with only the drawing you see in the picture. I band-saw a 3/4 inch slab of Basswood off a big block I bought, smooth it up and lay out (trace) the carving. I think it is a great way to get started in wood carving.Santa2 Carving

Santa Carving Painted

1st Santa Carving

Here is my Santa carving after the paint job. Perhaps not the greatest work of art but I don’t think too bad for a first attempt. That just means there is a lot of room to get better.

I want you to note there are no gaping wounds in my left hand. I know what you are thinking… at least not any that Dan is showing. Well, I did come through OK so I have no fear of starting the next project.

I did discover there is as much work in the painting as there is in the carving. I now have a better idea what I can do with paint and how to make it work with the carving. I did have some comments that it looked pretty good without the paint. The paint does not cover up errors in carving so the base has to be good before paint.

Wood Carving

Santa Carving by DanWhoa! I really got into the wood carving this weekend. In fact I kind of over did it. I think I spent two eight hour plus days doing nothing but carving a Santa. It is like a big cookie, high relief in a small 4 x 6 x ¾ inch slab of Basswood. My arms (not so much my hands) are telling me that was a bit much for just getting started. I think that means I am using the correct arm muscles and not just my hands.

Only a few drops of blood were shed when the very sharp knife point (like a pin prick) touched the back of my left middle finger. That doesn’t count so no real cuts! I have done the same or worse with a #11 X-acto blade building model airplanes.

I spent a lot of that time honing the bench knife and trying to get every tool extremely sharp. That is the secret to easy carving.

The project looks very good IMHO. A little more clean up and I will be finished with this first carving. Then I have to paint.

I like the totally free creativity in carving, so this is already habit forming. There are lots of subjects I want to carve. I have discovered another art form I enjoy. Soon every piece of wood I own is going to look like it needs a carving on it.

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