[William]

I know many of you have been carving for a long time and I'm curious what carving number your working on. some of you must be over a thousand.

Do you sign date and number all carvings including roughouts, bottle stoppers and ornaments?

I don't sign bottle stoppers or ornaments and other small carvings but everything else including roughouts are signed, I'm working on carving # 55 and have been carving for 2 years. How bout you guys?

HappY Trails
Bill
^v^

[Callynne]

Yes, I've signed, numbered and dated every carving I've done, right from the beginning. I'm currently working on number 161. I've actually done a lot more carvings than that however. For instance, if I'm working on a Santa and he has two separate pieces with him, like polar bears, each additional piece still gets the same carving number as the Santa, I just put Part 1 of 3 on the Santa, Part 2 of 3 and Part 3 of 3 on the polar bears. Hmmmmm, hadn't thought of it, wonder how many carvings I actually have done, a few more than 161, that's for sure! Deborah


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[susieq]

Hmmm, I never thought about it before.
I have been carving for about 15 years now and have photos of 90% of the pieces. Probably 150 or more, especially counting the ornaments. Now I'm gonna have to go look at that photo album and see if I can figure it out.
There were a couple of limited edition ornaments I did that were numbered but that's it. I do sign and date everything though.

[Donna_T]

Bill,
I think I've been carving nearly 18 years, although the first two years didn't produce more than a dozen carvings. For the next 10 years, I only worked (for pay) part time and I had much more time to carve. I just started my 874th carving. I would have to add that probably 300+ of those were pins and ornaments for teachers. I'd carve 20-30 pumpkins for halloween, 30 santa faces for Christmas, 25 bunnies for Easter, etc. and elementary teachers just loved them. I could sit down and carve 2-3 a night and paint a whole table full in one day. I don't do that anymore!!

I might also add that I have a basket of unfinished carvings awaiting motivation to be finished...hat might be hooves on a goat, wrinkles on pants for my Uncle Sam, getting far enough along on a duck body to attach the head, etc. There's probably a dozen projects in that basket.

Good exercise. Oh yes, I sign and date every carving although I don't take photos of everything. I photograph the big ones that are going to a different home.

Donna T

[whittleguy]

Interesting . I started signing and dating, and photographing carvings eight years ago. For those eight years I have completed 253 carvings.

That does not include the Husky Pencils that I carve. I have not kept any records on the pencils, but I do remember one year that I sold 10 dozen of them.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

nope, had several years carving under my belt before I even heard or thought about keeping track.....so don't.

[Colin_Partridge]

although I have signed everyone of my carvings I also have never kept a count. I have been carving for about 10 years and although I take pictures of a lot of them I dont of all of them. If I had to take a quick guess I would probably say in excess of 2000 maybe a little more maybe a little less not exactly sure.I know two years ago I did start numbering my bark carvings and sumac carvings and and they numbered over 500. It is a great question and if I had to do it all over again I would number everyone. This is a good lesson for all of you new carvers starting out number your carvings and you will see just how much you have accomplished.
Colin

[TommyPhillips]

Although I've been carving for a couple of years, now, almost everything I do still feels like practice. I've given away a handful of small carvings, but I haven't been tracking anything.

There was the turtle for my niece, the "rubber ducky" for my wife, and some little pocket-sized reliefs that my other niece ended up with, so fewer than ten.

I have a small batch of Christmas ornaments ready to paint, maybe a dozen.

Then, there's a bag full of unfinished projects, including a couple where I made drastic mistakes. Those convinced me to buy some Plastalina clay to start working out the details before I start carving.

Now that I think of it, that is more than I would have guessed, but still less than fifty.

It's probably a very good idea to start keeping records, including some estimate of the amount of time spent on each project. At the very least, I'm going to start taking a picture of anything I finish.

Thanks for the nudge. It's a grand idea to keep track.

-Tommy

[JIM QUILICI]

finished my first carving around Jan 2004 that would be number 1......I am now finishing up carving number 128.... a piece of a chess set..... It took me a long time to find carving but it was love at first sight. we have going steady ever since. lol
Jim

[Cottonwood]

I only recently have started to number my carvings. Should have started that long ago. All my carvings have been signed however.