The Wood Bee Carver is primarily a “knife carver” who carves from a “Block” with corners and chooses to shape the wood with a “Slice into position and Design by carving.” Process.

The carving process begins with a block of basswood awaiting to have its square corners rounded and then round surfaces flattened into the contours of the imagined shape.  Slicing off the four corners to shape the top of the block into a dowel shape is to prepare an area for the head covering and the head. As the head area is reaching an optional size the corners of the block in which the body will be exposed are receiving the initial slicing cuts once again to the corners.  This gradual shaping by whittling away wood will expose a desired shape immerging into view to meld with the imagined shape of creative imagination in action. The carving knife makes slicing cuts in a paring motion as well as making notch cuts to form a ditch or to make a three cut triangular chip opening hole so that additional excavating slicing can be done. These actions of wood removal to shape the basic desired form is called “Slice into position and Design by carving.” Excavating toward the basic form by the hand guided slicing knife enhances the creative imagination of the carver to allow imagination to play out before the carver’s eyes as the knife is shaping and texturing the wood into a design immerging.

Carving a Block in this manner sets the carver’s creativity free to explore while doing as the design develops during the carving process. A band sawed blank requires a predetermined pattern that handcuffs creativity to the limits of the pattern.  The same holds true with carving from a rough out of a machine shaped form that limits creativity to the confines of the predetermined form.  Carving from a Block using hand held and guided slicing cuts partners with the carver’s creative imagination to discover while shaping the wood that the mind and the knife become almost one.  What can be imagined can be in the process doing.

Carving from a Block by hand is not a waste of time due to the slow and methodical process. Rather it is an investment of time to learn various ways the carving knife can be used in shaping and texturing the wood during the initial “carving to basic form” to the point that the cuts become automatic from having already “primed the pump” in the well of carving experience.

“Slice into position and Design by carving,” process will be used to describe the progressive stages for carving Hobos Goose and Moose.  Beginning with Goose who is modeled after an earlier carving dating from around 2004.  The photos below are comparing the original with the six inch tall by three inch square block of basswood and the opening shaping of rounding the top four corners into a dowel shape to prepare for the hat and head of Goose. The base has also been outlined with a notch cut around the four sides at the bottom of the block.

Next photos continue the process with the shaping the area below the head.  A center line is drawn across the top of the dowel to indicated the direction the head will be turned and body landmarks are drawn to guide the areas to be shaped.

The progression continues as Goose moves closer to being ready for finishing touches.

The progressive stages for Moose begin with the corners of the block rounded and the base established. Then the photos show the guidelines of body parts drawn to guide the “Slice into position and Design by carving,” process.  Follow the development as the basic form of Moose is being refined and moving closer to the detail stage.

While Moose and Goose both have clothes worn, torn and tattered yet there are subtle differences in their appearances. Goose has white hair and mustache while Moose has black hair and is wearing a red vest and carrying a crooked stick.  More of their story along with more colored photos can be viewed in a previous blog posting by clicking on HOBOS ~ Goose and Moose.