It was June 30, 1968 when Gary was walking to visit his girlfriend Deb that he found a turtle along the side of the road. He picked up the turtle as a playful story began to formulate in his youthful mind. Meeting Deb at her door he presented her with the turtle saying, “Today is National Turtle Day in which the custom is for the fellow to give a turtle to the girl he likes.”
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The creative and imaginative mind of Don Stephenson makes him a “Wizard” as a versatile artist. His drawings with pencil/ink on paper, wood burning on wood, carving in wood and as comic book creator with art and written story telling are only surpassed by the generosity of his spirit. The publication of his first comic book “A Wizard’s Tale” with his self-portrait on the cover became the inspiration for a woodcarving of his likeness. In appreciation of the friendship and generosity of Don, the Wood Bee Carver did the wood carving and asked Don to do the wood burning art on the wizard’s staff and book as a collaborated partnership in art. Don has given the Wood Bee Carver many drawings of carving ideas over the years earning him the nickname “the Idea Monster.” So, it became a natural collaboration of friendship to create “Wizard Don Stephenson.”
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The photo journey below around the two-inch square friendship cane carved segment is a Whittle Doodle carved for the Buckeye Round Up on July 24, 25, 26, and 27,2019.
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The Wood Bee Carver has practiced his motto “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood,” as a way of living out the journey of woodcarving both as a personal pursuit and as an encouragement to others. The basic meaning of this motto is “we learn by doing and the more we carve the better we carve and there is always more to learn on the journey.”
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Posted by: woodbeecarver in General
A grandmother requested a caricature carving of her grandson and son as crossbow deer hunters wearing camo gear. Using a candid photo of father and son as a guide to inspire the imagination process resulted in carving the nine-year-old grandson holding a crossbow and the father holding a sling shot as a bit of teasing humor of who was the serious hunter. Read the rest of this entry »
A local knife maker, Pappy O’Machearley, commissioned the WOOD BEE CARVER to carve a caricature likeness of him posing in front of a blacksmith’s anvil shaping a red-hot steel blade.
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Whittle Scrapper Heads are novelty carvings that are the end result of carving practice heads. Every carving project is a practice in experiencing “the more one carves the better one carves.” There is never a wasted moment when doing practice carving because one can experience the interplay between creative imagination guiding the dexterity skill of the carving hand maneuvering the slicing tool to shape the wood to correspond with the imagined subject.
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Posted by: woodbeecarver in Knives
Making carving knives using blades from old junk pocket knives has been a fascination for the Wood Bee Carver. The four knives in the photo above are the result of rescuing four blades from a well-worn old souvenir knife with “Paris” and the Eiffel Tower etched on the plastic handle cover. The only clue as to its origin was the etching on the master blade of the name “PRADEL” which is a famous cutlery company founded in 1920 in France by Mr. Pierre Dubost. The first photo below depicts what a similar pocket knife looked like in better condition showing it multiple blades while the second photo is the junk knife used to make four carving knives.
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