The WOOD BEE CARVER  carves a variation on the “garden variety” of Gnomes associated with the Scandinavian origin of these delightful characters. Being mythical characters hidden from the naked eye only to be seen in one’s imagination, Gnomes can be any interpretation of the artist’s imagination.  Thus the style of gnome carved by this author is of the Southwest Ohio variety of gnomes who favor a floppy style hat rather than the traditional “dunce” pointed hat.  Clothing style is a little different as well but then all such variations from the original image are in the artist’s own imagination.

Gnomettes are a recent innovation that came about by request from a ninety six year old collector of a Wood Bee Carver gnome who she said her gnome was lonely and needed a companion. Read the rest of this entry »

Dusty Joe is a depiction of a character from earlier times who traveled around the country side working when necessary while enjoying a certain kind of free spirit freedom.  A hobo’s life was a hard life that is romanticized today as harmless adventures of traveling men.  Hobos have become fictional figures of nostalgia which takes away the reality of the struggle and difficulty of that way of life.  Today we turn our heads away from the homeless as not being the idyllic hobo of yesterday.  Today’s homeless have fallen on their own hard times complicated by the addition of illness, addiction and prejudice of society.  The hobo is the “comic figure” while the homeless are the “tragedy figures” of the drama of life. So in no way does Dusty Joe make fun of the tragedy of social sorrow but seeks to perk up the inherent worth each person possesses no matter one’s station in life. Read the rest of this entry »

Scrapper Face Study is using scrap blocks of wood to carve a variety of faces for creative fun as well as study of creative variations in facial expressions. Read the rest of this entry »

Block Heads are heads carved into a square block of wood that is used as a block to house the blade of a carving knife for a commemorative knife presentation.  The block began as a three inch square block of basswood. The top of the block or the end grain portion of the block is the location for the insertion of the knife blade.  This part of the block was decorated with free hand chip carving design.  The one knife used for carving the four faces and the chip carving is a knife made from a commercial band saw blade.  The blade with its scimitar blade shape has a slight flex that aids in some of the deep relief slicing cuts. Read the rest of this entry »

Three Hobbits, Three Gnome Wizards and Three Spud Characters make up this Trilogy of Three carving exercises.  Every carving project is a learning project.  What is learned in carving the first subject guides the creative subconscious in carving the second and then the first and second combine to create the third project.  While all three are very similar, yet each one is a little different from the other two. Read the rest of this entry »

Novelty Carvings follow the Old Carver’s Law: “Leave no wood uncarved.”    In the example in the photographs above, a head of a sea captain is carved on the top of the handle of a plumber’s helper (plunger) and with a roll of toilet paper it becomes a handy bathroom fixture or outhouse novelty.

Scrapper Faces are carved from “scraps of wood” that serve both as a novelty carving and a way to practice carving faces.  Novelty is “for the fun of it” just as carving is basically for fun.  Lets all have more fun by carving a little every day and “the more one carves the better one carves,”  a novelty in itself.

“Clothes make the man,” is a saying that is helpful for carving caricatures.  Every caricature has a face and that face could fit on many different characters depending upon the clothes and accessories that are carved into the subject.  In the case of these two “Tennis Bums” it is the tennis racket and tennis ball that gives it away that these caricatures are “Tennis Bums.”

Each was carved out of a six inch tall by two inch square block of basswood using only a knife in the Whittle-Carving style of the Wood Bee Carver.  One photo shows one tennis bum carved standing beside a block of basswood into which the second tennis bum will be carved. Read the rest of this entry »