Friday, October 22, 2010

Balanced Santa Staff

 I had a request to create a staff but it needed to be 60" tall and they wanted a Santa and two elves on it. So I thought about it for a while and came up with this design. I wanted something that looked like a scene instead of a bunch of items just kinda mashed together. The idea of Santa being balanced on a stack of presents kinda led to the whole theme. I decided to use stacked elements with a metal rod epoxied down the middle to allow me to get the positioning and look exactly like I wanted it. The Santa is 6" tall and the entire carved section is about 22" long. The Santa and elves are out of basswood and the rest of the carvings and staff are poplar. I used acrylics and metallic paints on the carved portion. The staff was first stained with Rit clothing dye. After sealing it with laquer I applied red oil paint as a highlighting stain to give it more depth. Comments and advice are always welcomed! Thanks for looking!


 
 

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5 comments:

  1. Phil LandOctober 23, 2010 at 5:42 PM

    Mike,
    I love your idea. It really turned out well. That is a great Santa, and I love the way you stacked him on the presents. Did you turn the remainder of the staff? What do you have on the bottom? For what will it be used? I can hardly imagine using as a walking stick.

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  2. Mike PoundersOctober 25, 2010 at 3:36 PM

    Yes sir, I turned the staff from poplar. Turning in general is always something of an adventure for me, especially something long. I tried some other methods of tapering it and still ended up using the lathe, holding it with one hand and shaping it with the other. I really need to make me a steady rest! The bottom is turned and shaped slightly also and it has a white rubber cane tip on it. My customer has an extensive collection of walking sticks and staffs so I expect it will be used for display purposes or holiday decoration.....unless he tries to bribe Santa?

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  3. Phil LandOctober 25, 2010 at 3:58 PM

    I love turning, though I haven't done much with my lathe in quite some time. That really is a beautiful piece, and your customer should be quite pleased.

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  4. Tristan BenetteApril 2, 2011 at 1:20 AM

    Santa looks like he reached the top of Mount Everest by foot! He is the cherry on that staff, but the dwarf deserves some credit for placing Santa on top. It must be a hard task. But overall, this staff is really appealing!

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  5. AnonymousDecember 28, 2011 at 1:14 AM

    now that is interesting and different, i love your artwork

    keep at it...

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