total newbie to carving!

[knightflight]

Greetings all!
I am new to carving and to the WCI board. After several years of contemplating woodcarving, and buying a rather cheap set of gouges, one day last week I just thought "what the hey?" and started carving an elephant out of a red block of cedar hanging in my closet! Red Face It was as fun as I thought it would be and have carved an hour to two hours each day since then so I have to declare that wood carving is my new hobby!

Will be posting tons I am sure as I have a million questions. Hope to share pics of the elephant when it is done and get your valuable input!! (need a good digital camera first though ).

Peace! Smile

[Ron D]

welcome aboard you'l like it here.ask away you'l get all kinds of answers
ron

[santagibbs]

Hi Annita , welcome to the board..I can't wait to see your elephant.. I have a feeling it will be a good carving..Charlotte

[Chahlie]

Hi Anita,

Welcome aboard...we are all new to this excellent hobby/passion-wood carving. Some of us just newer than others. I found this board about 3 years ago...it is a wonderful resource for new/experienced, old/young carvers. I don't carve as much as I would like but then again if I could devote enough time(my idea of time devotion) to get good enough to sell my carvings I could devote all my time to carving...LOL! Several of the people you will encounter here are incredible carvers, and the really neat thing is that they really seem to enjoy sharing their experience with those of us less experienced. I hope you enjoy a long and happy experience with us...glad you found our little corner of the WWW!

Chahlie

[Bartster]

anita,

hello and welcome to the board and to woodcarving it is a great hobby and this is a great place to be when not carving. if you have any question do not hesitate to ask them we have a great group of carvers here and we all have a wide range of interests and skills. the one piece of advice i will give is to find a carving club in your area and join this will help you decide what type of carving you want to do and as to what tools you will need first,but if you cant find one then we can help the best way we can.

welcome
bart

[Kenny_S]

Welcome Anita.

You will have fun here and you will learn a lot.

[Nancy-G]

Hi Anita - Western Wisconsin ? Wow! All of my precious, precious basswood comes from western Wisc ... around Cumberland to be exact.
We're glad to have you here Carving is addictive and soooooo much fun.

[Blake Lunsford]

Welcome abord Anita! This sure is a great place to learn! You will find that the folks on here are more than willing to lend a hand to teach and encourage. Good luck and happy carving!

Blake

[knightflight]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! I can see already I am going to really enjoy this board! Smile

Here is a photo of what I have done so far on my elephant. I had to make a composite photo because the macro on the camera I am using was too close-up and without it I just could not get close enough. So forgive the poor quality!

Anyway, it's about a 4X3X1 in. block of red cedar. I am using some terribly cheap gouges and they are getting very dull! Like I said, this is my very first attempt, no training or anything, just had to do it! Next time I would like to have some better tools and some softer wood!

I am having a very tough time carving the ends of the wood. The tools I have just won't cut it very well without me just chipping, chipping, chipping very tediously. The problem areas right now are the bottom of the feet, the bottom of the trunk, the front of his head, and the back end.

[Tarik]

The one way to become a carver is... take a piece of wood and start carving so: Welcome to our pack.