Flat Fish Anyone?

While carving wood with a chainsaw is most often done "in the round", flat carvings have certain advantages. Since these flat carvings are made from slabs, they require less wood, are lighter weight, and they can be hung on your wall or fence. They're also both easier and cheaper to ship than in the round carvings.

Local furniture builder, Jody White, ordered a few of my salmon carvings to decorate the area around his swimming pool. Or so I thought...  By the time I delivered the order, Jody was busy building a new cedar fence for his garden. My salmon just happened to fit in the top panels of the new fence and now decorate the street view side of his own artwork :-)

Functional Art

How about something functional in a wood carving? Wood is a favorite material for furniture and furnishings so why not carve those? Or turn carvings into those items?

This little 'sign bear' was a commissioned project.  As occasionally happens, he was just too cute to be left as a simple bear... The client liked my suggestion to upgrade him to a lamp and as soon as we agreed on the price increase, I went to work.

"Lamping" a bear is a fairly simple task thanks to the do-it-yourself lamp kits available from hardware stores. Routing the lamp cord through the relief kerf eliminates the need for drilling a hole the entire length.  Pretty much all that's required is to carve a flat surface for the lamp base, drill the proper sized hole to join with the kerf, them assemble according to instructions.

For actual furniture, Big Wood is required!

I make multiple styles of carved benches and chairs but the full benches {those with a back to lean against} are the most popular.

These benches are heavy both in weight and "wow factor". They can be disassembled for moving {hand truck required} and, like all wooden products require regular maintenance if kept out doors.

Roman soldiers are said to have used the Keyed Chair.

This ancient design is probably the first portable lawn chair used by mankind. While heavier than an aluminum tube  & webbing chaise, these are very durable and the smaller version is great for fishing or sitting around the campfire.

The design is simple and very effective. Like your chaise lounger, it folds compactly for convenient storage.

Show Time in Kennewick this weekend.

Chainsaw carving demo and general artistic mayhem are happening Saturday and Sunday at Tri-Tech on the corner of Kellogg and Metaline streets in Kennewick, WA.  Chainsaw carving will be 'ongoing' throughout the weekend from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.  Carvings and sculptures will be offered for sale at the "Big Top" {see photo} as well as indoors.

This "chair" will be on display. 

Admission to the juried art show is $3 which gives you access to all the competition pieces, a chance to vote for Peoples Choice award, and all the vendors selling books, tools and materials for wood carving and pyrography. I think there will be a workshop or two as well but don't quote me on that...

I'll have lots of bears as well as turtles, cowboy boots and other door stops for sale. My biggest piece is a huge bench featuring mirrored bears priced at $3,000.  I accept Cash, credit cards, gold, silver, guns, or ammo by the case for payment.

Battery Powered Chainsaw?

Yep. Thanks to Lithium-Ion battery technology, we have entered the age of battery powered chainsaws.

My first thought, when hearing of this new technological leap, was "Why?" Gasoline powered saws deliver plenty of power and can be refueled in only a minute, and they're highly portable. Hydraulic powered saws offer power, never run out of power, are less loud than gasoline saws and they emit no exhaust fumes...

What advantage could a battery offer?  Hard to imagine...

Well,,, today I received a loaner Stihl MSA 160 C-BQ STIHL Lithium-Ion Chain Saw from my local Stihl dealer.  Over the next 2 weeks I intend test, use, learn about and report on this new piece of equipment.  I'll be carving logs into art with battery power!  :-)

Video, thanks to a GoPro Hero, will be part of my review / report so expect a few links to YouTube in my next few posts.

Good bye holidays!

Great Horned Owl / English Walnut

The holiday season has FINALLY past and I can now get back to carving for fun and inventory. Holiday commission work is great for bringing in money but commissions have their down sides.

For starters, when I'm carving what the customer want's, I am not carving what I want to carve. Poor me, you're thinking? Well, an artist needs to be satisfied by the work in order to be creative and carving to order is rarely satisfying. That is unless the customer brings their own log and says, "Carve whatever you want to." Like that's going to happen!

But that's exactly what happened with this English Walnut... I was feeling an owl as I approached the log but was mid-way through the carving before I decided it was a horned owl. I doubt the species mattered to the customer because they loved the piece :-)

Bluto 2

With all of the commissions done, it's time to have some fun!  We have a mix breed bulldog with a blue merle color pattern.  Yesterday was his day to be carved.  He's short, thick, has a really big head and lots of spots.  I choose a log as stocky as "Bluto" himself for this "Bluto 2" sculpture :-)

 This may be a little more of an exaggeration than a true likeness but I expect it to be decorating our house or yard for a long time.

But business is business so the next bit of fun had to be something to sell.  A beaver sounds fun...

The Buck Toothed Beaver

Today I set-up a taller than typical sycamore log to carve this little beaver.  He's 38" tall, including the draped down tail, and his teeth are big enough to say they're buck teeth. ;-)  What really made this fellow fun to carve is the sign he is standing above which reads, "WELCOME To Our Dam House"

I suppose that's an appropriate greeting from a beaver.

WELCOME To Our Dam House

Gone Fishing.

Occasionally an artist gets to discover something new in his work.  This week I was carving a bear on all 4 legs so was working down towards his feet a little at a time.  As you can see below, I never made it to the feet.  Instead I found the water's surface of a fishing stream and determined it was easier to carve water than it  was to carve legs, toes and claws.  And I needed a reason for my bear to be in the water,,, a large salmon.

This piece is about 38 inches wide, carved in red pine, and finished with burning, paint and oil.  It was also customer supplied wood so it's SOLD.  Customer hasn't seen it yet so I hope they like it :)

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