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.

The Whittle-Carved version begins as a one inch square by three inch tall block of basswood.  The top part of the block has the four corners sliced in a flat plane slice to form the beginning of a cone for the hat.  In carving it this way with flat plane angles there is a natural progression for laying in the angle of the forehead and nose and the planes of the face.  The progressive stages of development depicted in the photographs give a visual tutorial to guide in the carving of a similar ornament .(click on photo to enlarge.)

The standing Santa also begins with the removing of the four corners to form a squashed down pup tent shape allowing for the ball of the stocking cap on the side of the hat.  To carve a ball in the Whittle-Carving style is to carve four notches in the shape of a diamond a little larger than the finished ball.  The notches allow for the knife blade to maneuver the shaping of the wood into stair step effects to form the hat.  When the hat is almost finished, then the corners of the diamond shape are rounded to form the shape of a ball that is refined as it is rounded with continued slicing cuts.  The progressive steps in the standing Santa photographs is a visual study of how to shape the rest of the wood into a standing Santa. (click on photo to enlarge.)

The elf like characters begins the same way of slicing the top four corners into a cone shape to begin the hat and the angles of the face.  The Santa ornament progressing steps photograph is adapted to change the face of Santa into a face of an elf like character.

Each carver will carve their own style of this simple and basic design to add their own personality to the carving process.  The key is to jump right into the project, give it a try and learn from it as it is being carved.  Then carve another and another and become surprised with the realization that the more one carves the better one carves. These projects are simple exercises in practicing the carving of faces with variety of expressions.  Carve in such a way to allow imagination to take you where you have never been before.  Woodcarving is the journey more than the destination.  Enjoy the journey.