A Thin Wizard is a Whittle-Carved project that uses a scrap piece of wood that has been cut into a thin and tall triangle wedge shape. The larger portion of the triangle wedge become the bottom of the head of the Wizard and the thin top becomes the pointed hat of the Wizard. The two thin wizards in the photos above were carved from butternut cut off scraps approximately five inches tall.
Using the shape of a pumpkin to carve representative human facial features is a good way to practice carving a variety of faces in the fun novelty of a pumpkin head jewelry pin. The earlier pumpkin faces were introduced in a 2016 posting Pumpkin Faces Carved in Wood.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.