Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Carving without a plan

Sometimes it's good to grab some scrap wood and just whittle away. Here I took an irregular chunk of scrap, and wound up with five faces (two on one side, three on the other.)





Thursday, April 3, 2014

Hand-carved Coffee Scoop

Here's a quick and fun carving. I needed a coffee scoop, so I made one from some scrap basswood. No finish was called for, so the scoop is ready to go!



Monday, March 31, 2014

Whittlin' on Instagram!

Wonderful Whittlin' is now on Instagram. Check out @wonderfulwhittlin for more photos of carvings big and small, with lots of "work in progress" shots, woodcarving knives, and more!

Here's a sample of some of my recent posts:

 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Hand Cramps from Carving? Here's some stretches:

Steve Tomlin of Steve Tomlin Crafts posted some great and helpful advice on stretching your hand muscles. Avoid injury, extend your carving time, and be safe!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

A Carved Toy Horse for a Baby Girl

My friends just had a baby girl named Freya! On her birthday I got right to work on her first toy horse.

To honor Freya's mom and her vegan lifestyle, I finished this horse in a few light coats of Danish oil, let it dry thoroughly, then buffed it with a cotton cloth. I decided to forgo the usual coating of shellac, since shellac is an animal product. Still, a little elbow grease gave the horse a nicely buffed finish and a natural look.

Finally, I burned a simple Nordic rune onto the hip area, representing Freya's name.

Hand-carved Wedding Favors

In an effort to give our wedding and reception a personal touch, I decided, with my bride-to-be, to carve wooden hearts for all of our guests.  Even a smaller-sized wedding can have quite a few guests. Our count was around 70, or just under, which still calls for a lot of whittling.

I used all kinds of wood, from cedar to pine, basswood and poplar, and even mahogany. Some I finished with oils and shellac, some I left natural. All the hearts were marked with our wedding date using a wood burner.

Wedding Lovespoon!



We got married!

For our recent wedding, I made my bride a hand-carved lovespoon. Using poplar, I made a heart-shaped bowl, and several symbols of our love and commitment to each other. I used a woodburner to apply the date of the wedding to the reverse side.