Spring Rabbits playing musical instruments!

[Gary M. Peiffer]

Hello all!

Well, Spring is finally emerging in my part of the country. With the coming of Spring in my area, there be RABBITS! And the rabbits in my area sometimes get together to make a little music. See link for three different rabbit caricatures all done in the Dave Sabol style of carving. All three were carved with wet Northern White Pine wood and painted in oils diluted with Min-Wax Clear stain. Eventually, I'd like to do a rabbit playing drums and one playing a piano. If I can do that, I think I will have enough pieces for a "Bunny Band"!


http://grogansite.homestead.com/RABBITS.html

[Mike-in-WV]

Lol, Now that is great work! How in the world do you carve wet pine without getting sap all over you. I'm a firm believer in wet or green wood for carving. Mike

Very Cute carvings, I love Sabol's style and you captured it well, good job on the painting too.

[Irish]

Gary! Beautiful!

I belong to the Cunningham Clan and that Scots rabbit with the bag pipes is fantastic. They use a similar rabbit dressed in a formal kilt as their logo. Beautiful job.

Susan

[squbrigg]

Nice carvings, cute idea. Well done. I bet they are a popular attraction!Smile

Bob

[Gary M. Peiffer]

Originally Posted by Mike-in-WV

Lol, Now that is great work! How in the world do you carve wet pine without getting sap all over you. I'm a firm believer in wet or green wood for carving. Mike

Hi Mike and all!

Thanks for the kind comments! Yes, these pieces were fun to carve and fun to show!

Mike asked a question about sap and carving. I strive to get my pine wood from the section of the tree that is between the pith and the sap wood (outer part of the tree, near the bark). This typically reduces the amount of sap that one has to deal with. If I have a piece of wood with sap, I try to carve off the sappy pieces, or soak in a bucket of water. When soaked in water, the sap tends to leech out of the wood a bit and turn the water brownish/yellow. Still worth the effort to use pine wood because if you get the right piece, it carves like butter!

[Callynne]

Gary, those are adorable!! I one in the quilt is my favorite....I think....it's hard to decide, they are all so neat!! Thanks for sharing! Callynne