"Whiskey for my Elves...and beer for my rain-deer!"

I've been working on a lot of ornaments for the holiday season and this song by Toby Keith/Willie Nelson came to my mind when I had all these guys lined up. They looked they were in a rowdy and happy mood! No two  ornaments are the same, but I am hoping they make people smile...and reach for their wallets! Thanks for looking!

"Behind Blue Eyes" finished

I seem to have a habit of naming my carvings of ladies after songs and I’m not sure exactly why. My music tastes are random and I can’t sing or play an instrument. Maybe carving is how I sing, how I try to provoke a feeling or emotion in an audience? I don’t really start a carving with the intention of creating a particular look or appearance; I just start the basic shape of a head and different features and try to get the right shapes and placement blocked out, more of an exercise in form than in art. But, at some point, the nose or shape of the mouth or some element starts to take shape in a way that seems to grab me, that inspires the rest of the piece. I get drawn in trying to figure out how to correctly shape the beauty that I discover almost accidently. And as I work, a song or title will just come to me and the more I think about the song, the more something about it seems to fit the carving. I am not sure who this is or what she sees or what she may be thinking about. Maybe she hears the song that I hear? Thanks for looking!

Eye brows and stuff

It took a bit, but I think I finally have the eye brows like I want them. I carefully drew them out and measured and researched them and did a bunch of thinks before I started cutting wood. I used a really small v gouge and carefully cut them in, making sure the hairs pointed properly. And I didn’t like it….didn’t look right, was too dark. So I tried my bristle sander and several other things to fix it up. I finally took knife in hand and cut them off and started over. I had to reshape the brows and sockets and one eye lid and get them evened out before trying again. This time, I used a small ball stylus (used for embossing metal) and did the eye brows with that. With a little force, it leaves a shape like a tiny u gouge and gives just the amount of shadow I was wanting. I like it now!

I cut the cherry block down for the base and shaped the bottom area of the carving to see how it looks. Nothing is glued down at this point, in case I want to change something. I’ll look at it some more and sand it a little better before thinking about finishes. The cherry will really look good when I hit with some oil. Thanks for looking!