Whittling and Whimseys
I went to a local bookstore and bought a copy of the latest "Wood Carving Illustrated" magazine and saw a really neat 5 Minute Owl that was shown step by step.
I grabbed a small pocket knife and set out to see if I was capable of following the illustration with any success. I was amazed that my first attempt turned out to be fairly close to the finished product in the magazine. Here is a picture of the first attempt and then a picture of a 6th or 7th attempt from memory.
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I decided to follow up with my earlier interest in carving the "Old Man" face on a piece of wood. I did some research and registered for free as a member of the "Wood Carving Illustrated" forum. There is a ton of great information and very knowledgeable carvers on the forum. One of the links that I found while searching for how to carve a wood spirit, was a link to a YouTube video by Gene Messer.
After watching that video, I tried to carve the monk ("Old Man") in a piece of 1/2" by 1/2" basswood. I didn't like my first attempt, but after trying a couple more times, I feel like I am able to carve the monk fairly well.
Since then, I have become friends with Mr. Messer and he has allowed me to package his carving videos on DVD. Check out these great wood carving DVDs. You will not be disappointed.
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My next project that I am trying to do is an old whittling "whimsey" that I found. The ball in a cage is a challenging project that I found layed out fairly well at:
So far, I have started roughing out the project and am just fixing to start carving the ball piece free.
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Unfortunately, my first attempt at carving the ball in a cage, did not turn out successfully. During the process of freeing the ball, one of the sides broke and I had to scrap the project. I will definitely be trying it again sometime though. It is now a challenge to get it right.
