“SHELF SQUATTERS” is the name of Whittle-Carved character heads that sit on a shelf.  They were first created in 1996 as the WOOD BEE CARVER’S version of what was commonly called “shelf sitters.”

They originated as a way to utilize little end cuttings of  pieces of basswood and later became normalized in size from a one inch square by two inches tall basswood blank.  An angled saw kerf is cut in the back side of the blank about half way between the top and the bottom and cut about two thirds into the blank.  With the saw kerf angling up hill, the waste area (indicated by the X’s in photo) under the saw kerf is squared so that part can be whittled away to allow for the rest of the blank to sit on and over the front of a shelf. Studying the photo at the left will show the saw kerf, the waste area and the way the blank will squat  on and over the shelf edge.

The photographs below of individual SHELF SQUATTERS give a close up view of each one and shows various themes that can be developed.  Each one was carved in the Whittle-Carving style of using only a knife to create these characters.  Each was painted using artist oil paints and boiled linseed oil as in the “Painting Softly” method first developed by the late John Heatwole.

Click on Shelf Squatters to visit an earlier posting on the same carving theme.  Carver and Instructor Allen Goodman has popularized another style of the same theme that he calls “Shelf Elves,”as does Carver and Instructor Gary Falin and as  well as there being many other wood carvers who have carved human faces, figures, animals and birds all that sit on a shelf.

SHELF SQUATTERS are fun projects to carve giving the carver an excuse to practice carving faces of various themes.  Such practice pieces have the end result of being something useful beyond the practice exercise by having something to show for one’s effort.