How to carve a 'wrap-around' piece?

[toycarver]

I was carving a small Santa...about 3-4" high, the more I worked on it, the more it looked like the lion from Wizard of Oz. O.K...I've not carved a cowardly lion Santa, so I decided to go for it. He's carved except he doesn't have a tail. Wondering how I go about carving a tail that wraps around so he holds it ? I thought about finding a branch (twig) with a curve in it, because I can't visualize how to carve something like that where the grain of the wood would be fragile in spots..
Suggestions appreciated!

[pallin]

The tail doesn't have to stand free from the figure. It could be just a rounded "bead" that wraps around the body to the gripping hand.

[Terry Vance]

Get ya one of those molding duplicators from Home Depot. Ya know it has a kazillion little wires sticking out. Push it around the carving to get the shape, then use that for makin a pattern leaving some extra on the ends. round it over some, put a textured end near the hand. Lay the end in the hand, mark the place on the back where it comes out, cut or drill a hole and insert the other end.

Good luck.

Keep carvin'

[toycarver]

Pallin...I think that it's too late to do that. If I had started out knowing I was going to carve this, I could have done it that way though. Thanks for your idea.
Terry V... Thanks, you got me thinking about following the shape, and I remembered I have some sculpy ... I am going to use it as a model...I think I can attach two seperate pieces of wood to make up the tail. I'll fool with that tomorrow and maybe post a picture if it works.

[Terry Vance]

It sound like that will work. I would like to see some pics when completed.

Keep carvin'