The WOOD BEE CARVER is primarily a knife carver who carves in a Whittle-Carving style. The knife is the favorite carving tool and the favorite knife is the one in the carver’s hand at the time. The side effect of this love affair with knives is that there is a passion for collecting and reshaping and refurbishing knives to be used in the carving process. Read the rest of this entry »

Rich Smithson of HELVIE KNIVES has wood  burned the art work of Don Stephenson on the cherry wood lid for the box that will contain twenty one of the WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Series knives made by HELVIE KNIVES along with an original carving by Don Mertz of a Whittle Doodle. Visit the previous postings in this blog about the HELVIE fund raising raffle for Juvenile Diabetes Research and how one can become a part of this raffle. Read the rest of this entry »

Don Stephenson is a very good friend who is an artist with a pen, wood burner and a knife. Recently he gave me the original drawings that will be used for inspiration on the cherry presentation box for the HELVIE Fund Raiser. Rich Smithson will use these drawings in an appropriate manner to decorate the box that will contain twenty one WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Knives made by HELVIE KNIVES and an original WHITTLE DOODLE carving by Don Mertz. Childhood Diabetes Research will receive the proceeds from the fund raising raffle as has been described in the two previous postings in this blog. Thanks to Don Stephenson for his creative genius and generous gifts to the arts.  Below are his drawings.

The HELVIE Whittle Doodle was carved to be part of the Helvie Fund Raising for Childhood Diabetes Research as described in the previous posting on March 16.  The first series of photographs are a panoramic view of the entire carving with its finished stain of artist oil paint Raw Sienna thinned with boiled linseed oil followed with a brushed on application of Deft, a brushing lacquer.

The next series of photographs depict the various sections of the Whittle Doodle along with the WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Knives used to carve each segment. Read the rest of this entry »

HELVIE WHITTLE-DOODLE composite photograph that shows a panoramic view of the Whittle Doodle carved for the Helvie Fund Raiser.  The Whittle Doodle is two inches square and eight inches tall carved using all of the Wood Bee Carver Signature Series knives designed by Don Mertz and made by Helvie Knives with Rich Smithson doing the wood burning art on cherry wood handles.

Myron Compton has been gracious enough to share photographs and written description of his journey to carve another of his wonderful cowboys. Ole Flint is a good “visual study” of an interpretation of a cowboy carving that any carver may want to try on their own. A “visual study” allows for one to exercise and encourage the inner eye of creativity to “see” this cowboy subject with an imagination of how to carve a similar cowboy. Read the rest of this entry »