New "Carving" Medium???

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Just got back from the Kansas City Show.....There was a fella there with an exhibt of figures done an a medium I've never seen before. He mixes fine sawdust with Elmers glue to make a modeling compound. He then makes these absolutely fantastic animal and human figures that would put Desiry(sp?) or Debbie to shame. I'm not kidding! They stand about 6-12" tall and while you might think they're painted they are not! He 'inlays' different kinds of the sawdust mix from different collored woods to create the different colored areas of the animal or human. He had a figure of Marilyn Monroe standing over the sidewalk grate with her dress blowing. He made the hair out of Ivory dust. It was almost translucent! Too bad he didn't make the rest of her clothes out of the same material!!! Absolutely fantastic and unique. He burns in the hair texture finer than any I've ever seen. Wish I'd taken a photo.

[Donna_T]

Hi Lynn,
Wasn't the KC show good? I enjoyed all the displays and competition, and I always enjoy visiting with new and old carving friends. Sorry that I missed you. I always go thinking that I'll be there an hour or so and a half-day later, I'm heading home, wishing that I'd taken the time to enter carvings in the show.

Didn't you have a table there? I thought I saw some awesome carvings that had your name on them, but I didn't want to pick them up to check?

I replenished my supply of wood, picked up a few new (but entirely needed) tools. And am looking forward to the next show. I did meet a carving artist that does miniature (Canadian goose) birds--one that I'd signed up for a 3-day carving workshop for in June. Her work is awesome and I'm looking forward to learning how she does that much detail in a small package--and makes the habitat so great, too.

Donna T

[whitecree]

I've been using a sawdust/glue misture to repair cracks and do fill-ins for years. Much sturdier than putty.

I don't know that I would call it carving, since it is more modelling or sculpture, but thanks for the tip. I'm going to try that someday.