[Thomp]

When carving figure charters the situation rears it ugly head occasionally.

due to the lack of planning or just changing your mind may cause us to rethink how a hand should actually be positioned, or a sleeve rolled up, or a gloved hand.

now re carving the character for the simple idea is time consuming besides it may be nearly done.

i guess the question is: is it acceptable to re carve lets say, just a arm with folded sleeve and gloved hand, and cut off the old one and socket the newly carved arm at the rolled up material on the sleeve and replace the offending appendage..

apparently it isn't one of the more practiced standards.
or we would be teaching it to each other.
but would it be exceptable?

and would there possibly be a better way without re carving the whole project?

Thomas

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

yep....its your carving, anything is acceptable

[Claude]

Cyndi Joslyn's book "Carving Santas from Around the World" adds on arms at the elbow. Dave Stetson's book "Caricature Carving" adds on hands and head both after they're carved separately from the body.

I think it would certainly be easierr than tryin to carve in a very restricted area...

Claude

[Thomp]

my thoughts exactly Claude..
i just haven't perfected a method.. of reconnection or forethought.. in the planning stage, other than the joints that would be necessary...

my grandson is going to make a good cat burglar, he keeps breaking into my carving display case. (an old Sony stereo cabinet i modified.) the glass door just temps the 2 year old. yesterday he had my dutch oven with the biscuits in it trying to feed the cooks biscuit's to one of lynn's horses i carved..
well to say the least, the dutch oven survived, but i got a bob tail 3 legged bisket eat'in nag in my display case,

these will be easily repaired but I'm looking towards the future of my grand sons efforts i must have 25 items displayed and just devised a new locking system.. see if Houdini can get in now..

[Irish]

Thomas, Maybe you need to carve your grandson a large version of Lynn's wonderful little goat ... just bigger. Then leave on top of the display case for him.

Did you read Bob's thread about his granddaugther's chickadee?

Susan

[squbrigg]

Susan's right Thomas, carving a "distraction" is easier than restoring one of your "keeper" pieces. Besides, the expression on their little faces when they find out you carved it "especially" for them, is worth it. At two, that's a little young to help you make it, but at 4 they love it when you let them help sand or paint!

Bob

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Years ago I actually ditched a figure but transplanted the hands. The French make a big deal out of transplanting a face a few months ago........Hey! I've been doing that for years!

Woodcarving, like any type of sculpture, painting, or anything for that matter, is a journey. If you stay on the straight and narrow you will never know what you might pass by. A side trip, or detour may turn out to be a dead end but sometimes, way down that bumpy dirt road, you just might find the thing that makes it all worth while.

I'm working on a figure now that will be one of the best I've ever done. When it's finished I will admire it for what it is, not for how it came to be.

[Thomp]

Well the grand son gets a lots of things made particularly for him.

yesterday it was a carved wooden cellphone just like mommies, he talked at it all afternoon...
--
he is a bob the builder freak and i have carved some small cement mixers 18 wheelers front end loaders and the charters for him becuse we cant find safe ones in the stores... we worry about the small parts whells and such breaking off.
the detail is mostly wood burnt into simularity shaped blocks of scrap. but he lines them all up and plays knock them down

i carved him a 2x4 scrap block farm animal barn yard 10 animals, but he chooses what he likes...

and its my daily intertainment to see what he can come up with to act up next... long as he's not hollering.....

Irish i guess ill have to hunt down the Bob's thread about his granddaugther's chickadee?...

distractions, and making deals , bob.... is how you deal with them at this age....

lynn,
as you said each carving is different, and thats the intention of this thread. it almost got away..

but it came from the problem ,
if i can carve a decent looking hand by its self but dont have the ability to carve the hand on the in the round figure, due to room or tool size constraints.
i was thinking it wouldnt be too much of a problem just to make a socket in the in-the-round carvings arm to except the hand carved by its self....

such a problem happened with the 2 carving scene on my pic trail of the boys playing marbles..
the one blowing the bubble's hands were weird looking. so i cut them off and redone them, but without making a socket and just gluing them on the end of the arm.
now 5 years later the hands fal off anf i get to hunt for them... superglue.. baa humbug..

thanks for all the experteese comments and suggestions
thomas

[Just Carving]

Sure it's acceptable. If you're carving Uncle Sam with the grain running from head to toe, and you need to carve the arm extended straight out like he's pointing at you, it would be much easier to carve the arm with the grain and glue it in place than to carve a larger piece of wood to include the arm and end up carving a lot of the wood against the grain. And the arm would be stronger too. I think we dwell too much on how it should be done when we should think about how we can be better carvers--even if a "rule" gets broken. And the end results will be better for it, too.

[Tom H]

Thomas, I too had the problem of little ones playing with carvings and chewing the tails and ears off. I solved the problem by making a special showcase for the stuff I carved the little kids next door as well as my grand kids. Made a big deal out of their own display case. They leave the other carvings alone now, and just play with their own clunky ones. Still working on gettin them to return the carvings to their case when they are done. Tom H