Interest

I just wanted to get some feed back from others. I don't know that this is a problem or a common thing. I start a carving with all the interest in the world, then around half way or so through I get interested in something else I want to do and sorta loose the enthusiasm for the piece I'm working on.

Don't know why it happens, but it does. I have a garage full of half finished carvings. I got so I give them to the kids in the hood and let them paint them etc.

Yup! And not just with carvings either. Have several wood working, scroll saw, as well as carvings going all at the same time. In fact I can count six different carvings that need finishing from where I'm sitting. Don't have any idea why. Eventually, most of the stuff gets done.

I always knew I would be a good candidate to work in a think tank. I can come up with major lists of ggod ideas. When it comes to actually doing it...the thrill is gone, as the song says. So you are not alone.

[mdallensr]

I think it helps a lot to carve in a group or class. There's more structure, a schedule to keep, and some peer pressure as you see others progressing and completing their work. I always hit a point with a carving at which I'm not sure what to do next. My instructor gets me through those and from then on, it's smooth sailing. If someone in our class doesn't finish a project, we all notice and someone will ask what happened to it.

I made myself live by the rule, you have to finish it or trash it before you can start a new one. Because I hate to waste a good piece of wood I usually finish it.

Finish it or trash it ... I'd be doing a lot of trashing ... I seldom work from a pattern, just get an interesting piece of wood and go where it takes me and sometimes it needs to sit awhile so it can tell me where to go next. Woods kind of funny, it only talks when it feels like it. The exception being bass wood, it hardly ever says anything, so it's pretty much pattern time with it.