“Man Stumped” in a new carving with borrowed design facets of a figure sitting on a stump and a figure holding a long stemmed pipe is an example of the Old and New coming together.

Two Snow Men are examples of an Old Theme of a snow man being carved as a New interpretation of the old them.

Santa as a carving theme is Old and yet each carving of this Old Theme becomes a New Santa.

Sea Captain carving theme is an old tried and true carving theme that becomes new with these interpretations.  One is painted traditional colors associated with a Sea Captain.  The other one is finished with a single colored stain to allow the carved texture and the spalting in the wood become the color of distinction.

Two Hillbilly carvings with the same basic pose and yet each is New with their own personality.

Photographs of the various carving subjects that have been carved in the last few months are examples of the Old and the New. Every carving project is new and different even if the subject has been carved many times before. That is because the carver has grown with experience in skill, improved the “observation technology” in being able to see the carving process with fresh eyes and imagination and allows the creative process to make subtle innovations in design and technique. Some tried and true carving subjects become variations of theme to become new while at the same time remain old. No two carvings are every alike even though each may possess similarities that make them appear to be alike. Sometimes a carver will borrow one part of a design from one carving to incorporate into another. Such borrowing may not be a conscious choice but rather the random accident of the creative process.

Recent carving projects depicted in a variety of photographs are examples of the back and forth swing between old and new and new to old. After having viewed any of these carving projects it may be a fun experiment to revisit earlier carving projects of the same subject in earlier posting in this blog. To find such projects by name the visitor should go the to “Main Menu” in the right column of this posting, scroll down to “”Blog Index Map” and then scroll down to “Carving Projects” to find a posting or postings that list the carving subject by name or type. Some of these postings will have instructional information of how that particular subject was carved.

Carving the Old into a New carving and carving the New using the Old as the teacher is another way to understand that “every carving project is a learning piece and the more one carves the better one carves,” so make the Old new again in the carving process.