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My wife Frances commissioned Harold Enlow to carve me one of his caricature carvings as a birthday gift earlier this month. I was very honored and appreciative to receive such a rare gift as an Enlow carving. Harold has long been one of my carving mentors long before I ever met him, then becoming his friend and now fellow Caricature Carvers of America member. The cowboy is three and a half inches tall by two inches wide and painted with acrylic paints.
Harold Enlow is the one person who has done more for woodcarving than any other single carver and yet he would not admit that since he is a humble and unassuming gentle spirit. So a Rare Gift of a carving that was carved by a Rare Gift to the carving world made my wife’s birthday gift even more rare. Thank you.
Spuds are short, stocky and spud like caricatures who chomp on a cigar. When the first one on the right in the photograph was carved it reminded me of a “spud” like character. Each subsequent look alike carving became another “spud” whose stance and demeanor take on an air of the kind of no nonsense kind of guy who gets the business done. While the first few “spuds” were under three inches, the later versions were carved out of a three inch tall by an inch and half square basswood block. Each is finished with a monochrome finish of raw sienna artist oil paint mixed with boiled linseed oil in order to emphasis that “texture is color” by allowing the carved texture to speak for itself.
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Posted by: woodbeecarver in Noggins
Pumpkin Nogginsare faces carved into basswood wooden hen eggs and in pumpkin shaped thin basswood strips as flat relief jewelry pins. The photograph at the left is jewelry pins carved to look like pumpkins with various faces to bring a smile. Caricature faces to be more precise with a green cap of a pumpkin stalk. Each is carved using deep gouges and knife with some wood burning for the pupils of the eyes, cigar and the separation between the stalk and the pumpkin skin along with the veins of the pumpkin. The eyes and teeth are painted with acrylic white paint and the rest of the Pumpkin Noggin is painted with boiled linseed oil and artist oil paint. In the photographs that follow the Pumpkin Noggins are carved out of basswood hen eggs. Read the rest of this entry »
Clown Lite is the title of a clown who is holding a balloon in one hand and a feather in the other to determine which one is lightest or heaviest. This carving subject has been carved several times with each one a little different and yet still the same as to the overall theme. The latest version of Clown Lite was being used as a demonstration carving in progress at a recent show. The carving was still in its early stage of being carved without any indication that it was going to be a clown. Children who came by to watch were asked if they could guess what the carving would be of a person holding a balloon and a feather trying to figure out which was the heaviest. Most of the children would choose the balloon as being the heaviest since it was larger than the feather. But one young girl about eight years old said, “Neither, because a balloon is as light as a feather.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Chris Hammack, who is the newest member of the Caricature Carvers of America, rides again by returning to teaching woodcarving seminars. Following several successful years of operating his own casting business of carved subjects and supplying sculpted subjects for the gift industry, Chris is devoting more of his time to his first love of not only creating unique woodcarving art for his valued collectors but also teaching his art to other woodcarving enthusiasts. Read the rest of this entry »
Spuds are short, stocky and spud like caricatures who chomp on a cigar. When the first one on the right in the photograph was carved it reminded me of a “spud” like character. Each subsequent look alike carving became another “spud” whose stance and demeanor take on an air of the kind of no nonsense kind of guy who gets the business done. While the first few “spuds” were under three inches, the later versions were carved out of a three inch tall by an inch and half square basswood block. Each is finished with a monochrome finish of raw sienna artist oil paint mixed with boiled linseed oil in order to emphasis that “texture is color” by allowing the carved texture to speak for itself. 
