Christmas?

It's not even Halloween yet.  Not even close to Thanksgiving.  The Election hasn't passed!  Still, retailers like Wal-mart and Lowes are offering Christmas decorations for sale here at the start of October.  Wow!

In the past, I have not made "holiday" themed carvings so this is my first Santa sculpture.  I like the Old World type and have created this for my first Santa attempt.  He's 30" tall, carved from Sycamore, and finished with oil based paints and spar urethane.

He's listed in the For Sale area at http://woodhacker.com/gallery/

Election Symbol?

It's almost election time and while the elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party, what I've carved here is more of a Mouse-a-fant.  Or an elephant with mouse ears... 

Carved from cured Sycamore and finished with boiled linseed oil & urethane spar, this critter stands 24" tall and is being offered for $200 on WoodHacker.com 

The Orca have landed.

I have FINALLY stopped sanding, spraying, mounting, unmounting, and otherwise fussing over this sculpture!  Today I delivered it to the You & I Framing & Gallery, 214 W 1st Ave., Kennewick, WA. 

I put a lot of myself and a great deal of time into producing this piece.  Please go have a look.

Killer Sculpture ;-)

Nearing completion is my 3 part sculpture of an orca cow and calf mounted on "coral".   All 3 pieces are Sycamore wood.  The wood for the 2 orca (actually 7 pieces of wood) are all from one massive log segment.  The coral carving is a multi forked piece that's been laying around here for years.  I'm glad to FINALLY find the perfect use for it.

The orca have been sanded glassy smooth and are getting several coats of spar urethane.  Soon they will be mounted on the coral using stainless steel hardware.

These are not yet sold and are destined for display at the You & I Framing and Art Gallery in downtown Kennewick, WA.  Other carvings available can be found on my newly redesigned website at WoodHacker.com

This Saturday in Kennewick...

I will be giving a Chainsaw Carving Demonstration and will be selling my carvings in Kennewick!
Demo Carves at 10 am and 2 pm under the big tent :-) 

Date: Saturday -- July 14th, 2012
Time: 8 am -- 4 pm
Location: City Church -- 4624 W. 10th Ave. -- Kennewick, WA 99336 


New items will be available.  So new I don't have a photo yet but I'm calling them "Plank Art."
 :-) 

Timbers!

I've been working on this stump at Timbers Apartments in Richland, WA.  I lost 4 days to rain and wind so when good weather hit, I dove in to finish my "modern story pole."

In this photo, the pole's shadow areas have been burned and painted before adding 2 coats of boiled linseed oil.  The oil soaked into this dry wood very quickly which provide plenty of protection in the years to come.  When conditions are right, I will seal the surface with a single coat of Spar Urethane.

Just 40 feet away from the story pole is a second pine stump to be carved. My original plan for this stump was to carve several life size squirrels searching for acorns. The more I pondered the design, the more I though it would be over powered by the story pole.  So I upgraded the design.

Stump number 2 is now topped by a giant squirrel :) This big fellow is holding a very large acorn while looking at the acorn garden lamp to his left.

Today {Thursday} I made good progress on the squirrel in spite of being rained out by 1:00 p.m.

Rained out isn't "down and out"!  At home, under the shelter of my studio canopy, I carved a new bear which is ready for the detail stage of his creation.

Rain, rain go away!

I've got work to do! With all this rain and cooler weather it's a wonder anything gets done. Shown is my 90% completed "modern totem pole" at the Timbers Apartments in Richland, WA.  My doctor tells me to not use electric power tools in the rain so this one is progressing very slowly :(

Forty feet away is stump number 2.  Squirrels and acorns are planned for that stump.