[Woodcarver] great NEW SUBJECT(chat); what was your first ,your funniest and your most difficult carving you made

[Mike Bloomquist]

Great thread Harry...


> 1)what was your first carving you ever made?

>


A fishing lure that was ugly as sin and carved from cheap shelving lumber,
probably spruce, with a dull knife.  I didn't know about leather strops and
sharpening compounds back then.  According to my brother-in-law I was
insulting the fish of that small lake and was in danger of angering the
piscatorial-gods.  He ended up with several in his tackle box when I caught
an 8lb 11oz brown trout on it.  Success IS the best revenge.



> 2)what was the funniest carving you ever made?

>


My black bear chainsaw artist.  "The Delicate Cut" is still getting laughs
in Old Forge, NY at the ArtWorks.  My buddy Harold is a co-op member there
now, and he says when he hears a belly laugh from the back of the store, he
doesn't even bother looking up anymore... it's "The Bear" they're laughing
at.



> 3)what was the most difficult carving you ever made or

> what did you struggle the most with when carving, how

> did you solve it?

>


My first nude figure was an adornment for the top of an all cherry gun box
which was dimensioned for a matched set of pistols. This was only my second
or third commission... not much pressure <G>.  I struggled with it so much
it became well known to friends and neighbors as the "Naked Lady" project
(Sometimes the "Nekid Lady").  One day Yvonne was in the front yard raking
leaves at the same time as our friend Chris, a single Mom who lived across
the street, was in her front yard. Also present was a brand new next door
neighbor of ours, Moreen, who was dragging garbage cans to her curb.  So,
Chris-across-the-street yells over to Yvonne, "What's Mike up to?  I haven't
seen him out and about in a while."  To which my wife replies loud enough to
be heard over traffic, "He's in the basement with the naked lady!"  Well,
Moreen nearly spills the can she's pulling on and blurts out, "... and
you're up hear?!" After Chris and Yvonne quit laughing they translated that
"in the basement" means "down in his shop carving" and "naked lady" meant
"his latest project carving a gun box with a nude figure on it".

How did I solve the challenge (not a problem... a challenge)?  A great
figure carving reference by Ian Norbury, a cheap mock up of the box in pine,
and two versions of the figure modeled in plastelina clay.

Keep on Carvin'
-Mike Bloomquist->

Wooden Dreams Woodcarving
http://www.borg.com/~bloomqum