The WOOD BEE CARVER often says, “The more you carve the better you carve,” and in that vein suggests that once a carving project is completed there is great value in carving it again and again.  The reason being that since each carving is a learning journey; each carving subject repeated will allow the carver’s creative sub conscious to improve on the previous carving. Read the rest of this entry »

A simple design for carving a Santa ornament in the Whittle-Carving style can also be adapted to carve a standing Santa and even elf like characters.

The original Santa Ornament design was given to me by Greg Douglas of Alabama who carved his using gouges, V tools as well as a knife.  So Thanks to Greg’s design a whittled version has become a good carving project. Read the rest of this entry »

Every carving project is a learning experience of learning about the subject being carved as well as the creative process to do the actual carving.  Carving a skull out of a basswood egg contains several lessons for carving the human face.  Wait a minute, the skull is bone and how does carving a skull teach about the human face which is muscle and skin?  The lesson is that the skull is the foundation and form which molds and shapes the muscle and skin to cover the bone skull. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps one of the most challenging processes of carving the human face is the carving of eyes. The secret is to PRACTICE carving eyes over and over again to find the method that works best. Read the rest of this entry »

Carving an ear in the Whittle-Carving style of carving only with a knife is presented here using notch cuts and a three cut triangular cut procedure.  Such cuts are ways to open up an area of wood for additional shaping and refining with detail carving. Read the rest of this entry »

Cowboys have always been heroes in the romantic nostalgia of Western lore. In the classic ballad, “The Streets of Laredo,” is the line that says, “I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.”   It is the outfit that a cowboy wore that made him a “dude” or a “gun fighter” or a “saddle tramp” or a “buckaroo” or a “cowpoke” or quite simply a “cowboy. Read the rest of this entry »

The Farmer was carved using a six inch tall by an inch and half square block of basswood in the Whittle-Carving Style of carving only with a knife.  Carving from a block of wood is much different than carving from a rough out or a sawed out blank.  The biggest difference is that it sets free the creative spirit to develop the overall design while shaping the block of wood into the basic form of the subject being carved. Read the rest of this entry »