This Plumber’s Helper caricature of a plumber riding a Helper like it was a pogo stick is a humorous way of illustrating how that Helper could be used in the imagination of the absurd. A caricature is always an “exaggeration of realism,” both in the carved figure and in the story it is telling.

The child in each of us remembers the suction cup toy guns and bow and arrow toys that would shoot a suction cup missile.   Licking the inside of the suction cup with moisture would cause the suction cup to stick to the object it touched. The suction cup was very much like the “plumber’s helper” which was often used in childhood cartoons like the suction cup toys.

This caricature was carved out of a three inch tall by inch and half square block of basswood and painted with artist oil paints thinned with boiled linseed oil.

 The knife used to carve the Plumber’s Helper is a Signature Series # 14 or WASP BEE of the WOOD BEE CARVER SERIES still being tested but soon will be available from HELVIE KNIVES 765-675-8811.