It has been a busy spring and summer and I have found little time to carve must less post about it. So after giving it some thought this blog will be ended on 8/1/2012. Good luck to all and go and carve something.
Bruce
Monday, July 23, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Found Wood and a Rustic Bird Feeder
While not my normal carving medium my most recent project is a Rustic Bird Feeder made from found wood.
A golf course near our house puts the trees they remove by the road for anyone that wants the wood. Most of the time I don't pick any up but recently the put out quite a few chunks of native oak conveniently sawed to movable cross section slabs. Pam and I rescued this piece to become a backyard bird feeder.
I carved the hollow using a 4' grinder with a Lancelot carving attachment on it. The Lancelot is basically a small chainsaw. A chainsaw blade section is sandwiched between two metal discs and attached to the grinder in the normal manner. I then used a carbide disc to smooth and finally a sandpaper disc. All mounted to grinders.
Now this method is not for the faint of heart as you are holding a wood eating machine. Grinders turn much faster than chain saws so the chips coming of this are propelled at a good clip. In other words don't carve in shorts as the chip stream which is impossible to direct away from your body stings worse than weed eater debris.
Once it was carved out I then saturated with polyurethane and the underside has a waterproof coating. It should last for 5 to 10 years.
The finished weight of the project is about 45 pounds.
More projects to come.
Laughing Cat
A golf course near our house puts the trees they remove by the road for anyone that wants the wood. Most of the time I don't pick any up but recently the put out quite a few chunks of native oak conveniently sawed to movable cross section slabs. Pam and I rescued this piece to become a backyard bird feeder.
I carved the hollow using a 4' grinder with a Lancelot carving attachment on it. The Lancelot is basically a small chainsaw. A chainsaw blade section is sandwiched between two metal discs and attached to the grinder in the normal manner. I then used a carbide disc to smooth and finally a sandpaper disc. All mounted to grinders.
Now this method is not for the faint of heart as you are holding a wood eating machine. Grinders turn much faster than chain saws so the chips coming of this are propelled at a good clip. In other words don't carve in shorts as the chip stream which is impossible to direct away from your body stings worse than weed eater debris.
Once it was carved out I then saturated with polyurethane and the underside has a waterproof coating. It should last for 5 to 10 years.
The finished weight of the project is about 45 pounds.
More projects to come.
Laughing Cat
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Lack of Posts
Sorry for the lack of posts. I have a number planned. However I have been tied up with a remodeling project in our Master Bath I started a few weeks ago. Will return in the next few weeks with new projects and some new posts. I am also playing with adding video tutorials so check back in the next few weeks and lets see if I can figure it out.
In the meatime go carve something.
Bruce
AKA The Laughing Cat
In the meatime go carve something.
Bruce
AKA The Laughing Cat
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
and
Happy Sparkly New Year
From the Laughing Cat
Don't forget to laugh today. And Oh Yeah...Go carve something!
Bruce, Pam, Blaze and Smokey
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
2011 Carving Year in Review
Hard to believe that another year is working its way into the history books. It has been an interesting year in many ways but my purpose today is to look back at my carvings for 2011. This has been the year when I returned to carving and have begun to refine my skills. I had tinkered with carving back in the early nineties but never had the time to devote to it. The tools sat in a box and I pondered getting rid of them many times. Mostly when it was time to move and we moved several times between 1996 and 2002. For some reason I did not and it has turned out to be a happy turn of events.
Here is a generous cross section of my projects in 2011.
Here is a generous cross section of my projects in 2011.
This Santa is made from a wooden spool and has had some jingle bells added.
Santa ornament carved from a wooden egg.
Santa carved from an antique loom spool. These were used for weaving fabric.
Here is a whole group of Santa ornaments being finished.
Here is another group.
How about a hillbilly Santa.
Everyone needs a Santa Spoon.
Yep, More Santas.
Cat Ornament. (Blaze - Laughing Cat)
Santa Spoon with a twist.
Santa Spoon yet another version
Old world version (This is one the few of my carvings that is not my pattern).
Happy Santa
I do carve things other than Santas, here are a couple of angels.
Here is a cross I carved for a gift.
More to come look for part two of this post in the next few days.
Keep carving.
Bruce
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Alpha and Omega Cross
Our Church is having an auction to raise money for one of the missions. Pam wanted to donate something so I carved this cross. It is pretty obvious why it is called the Alpha and Omega cross when you see the picture. Reference is Revelations 22:13 NIV " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
The base cross is walnut one of my favorite woods to carve but also very expensive and hard to find in suitable (knot free) pieces. The middle cross is poplar and the top cross is again walnut with a brass accent. The cross is 17" tall. Look for a future post of how I proportion these crosses.
The base cross is walnut one of my favorite woods to carve but also very expensive and hard to find in suitable (knot free) pieces. The middle cross is poplar and the top cross is again walnut with a brass accent. The cross is 17" tall. Look for a future post of how I proportion these crosses.
Alpha and Omega Cross
Hope all is well with you.
Go carve something!
Bruce
Wooden Crosses with Family Ties
Here are three crosses I recently carved. The crosses are made from redwood and cedar. The family ties come in from where I got the redwood and the cedar. That is a bit of a story so here goes.
My father was an infinitely curious man. He had quite a few hobby's over his lifetime (as have I which is why my mother was always proclaiming "you are just like your father"). Very early in their marriage he turned to one of those hobby's to help make extra money. He would work during the summer vacation (he was a teacher) as a carpenter. For many years he pursued that at a lumberyard in Corpus called Priest Lumber. They sold a lot of redwood patio furniture and my father was one of the carpenters they employed to make the furniture. He at some point made a wooden file box from redwood 1/2 inch thick and 12 inches wide. You would be hard pressed to find redwood of this size and type today. Knot free and and after over 60 years still warp free. However the box had seen its better days so I decided to cut it up and make a keep sake for family members from it. So that is where the base crosses came from.
On one of the crosses I used cedar salvaged from a small cedar chest that had belonged to my mother as well as an old piece of costume jewelery that she had for as long as I can remember I believe she got it in 1965 when we visited my fathers mother in California.
One of the crosses was kept simple and I added a forged iron cross to it and finished it in a manner similar to the way my father finished untold thousands of plaster pieces over the years (but that is another hobby and another story). High gloss lacquer.
The other has a middle cross made of poplar and a small top cross of turquoseite (commonly sold for affordable turquoise jewelry it however is not real turquoise). Turquoise was a particular favorite of my mother. The poplar was used because of the color variation from cream to green I found in that piece.
Cross 1
Cross 2
Cross 3
Hope all is well with you.
Go carve something!
Bruce
My father was an infinitely curious man. He had quite a few hobby's over his lifetime (as have I which is why my mother was always proclaiming "you are just like your father"). Very early in their marriage he turned to one of those hobby's to help make extra money. He would work during the summer vacation (he was a teacher) as a carpenter. For many years he pursued that at a lumberyard in Corpus called Priest Lumber. They sold a lot of redwood patio furniture and my father was one of the carpenters they employed to make the furniture. He at some point made a wooden file box from redwood 1/2 inch thick and 12 inches wide. You would be hard pressed to find redwood of this size and type today. Knot free and and after over 60 years still warp free. However the box had seen its better days so I decided to cut it up and make a keep sake for family members from it. So that is where the base crosses came from.
On one of the crosses I used cedar salvaged from a small cedar chest that had belonged to my mother as well as an old piece of costume jewelery that she had for as long as I can remember I believe she got it in 1965 when we visited my fathers mother in California.
One of the crosses was kept simple and I added a forged iron cross to it and finished it in a manner similar to the way my father finished untold thousands of plaster pieces over the years (but that is another hobby and another story). High gloss lacquer.
The other has a middle cross made of poplar and a small top cross of turquoseite (commonly sold for affordable turquoise jewelry it however is not real turquoise). Turquoise was a particular favorite of my mother. The poplar was used because of the color variation from cream to green I found in that piece.
Cross 1
Cross 2
Cross 3
Hope all is well with you.
Go carve something!
Bruce
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)