A carving of a “Sea Captain” can also be called an “Old Salt” or a “Sea Man” (as a man of the sea) because their outfit is similar. The carvings featured in this posting are a five inch Old Salt and four Half Pints, three inches tall, that are in the motif of an Old Salt or they both could be considered as Sea Captains.
Early in 2008 the Wood Bee Carver carved the first Sea Captain and a year later carved four sea captains using four different knife makers knives in a Battle of the Knives for a comparative study. These projects were described in early days of this blog.
The stuff we learn as a kid and stored in our memories become the benchmark of experience that influences some of the things we do throughout our lifetime. When we enter the Twilight Zone of our advanced years we tend to reflect upon those memories to give a sense of where we have come from on our journey of living.
This Indian Half Pint is a smaller version of a six inch carving of an Indian carrying a lance and a shield. A Half Pint is a three inch tall figure carved to the scale of a half inch equals a foot. It begins as a three inch by an inch square basswood block.
The Wood Bee Carver has been known to have carved miniatures as one expression of Whittle-Carving of using only knives to carve. Here are seven recent carvings of two inch miniatures that are now on display at Peter Engler Designs in Branson, MO.
The first Dream Fish was carved in 2011 as gift presentation to a fisherman friend. At the time it was challenging carving project in which it was learned that “Challenge is a teacher of unlearned lessons.” Anytime a carver begins a new carving project it becomes a “learning exercise” of transposing an imagined subject into a tangible carving. Another lesson learned along the carving journey is what is learned in carving the subject for the first time will guide carving it the second time to expand the learning potential. So, it was when a commission came to carve the Dream Fish another time a renewed challenge of relearning while carving from a distant memory that new lessons opened during the carving process. Such a positive experience led to carving another Dream Fish to expand the “challenge learning lessons.” These two Dream Fish carvings will lend themselves to offering brief informative observations by way of photos of the carving process along with brief descriptions of explanation.
