kind of new

[wildhare]

Hi, I have been reading your forum for a few months now but wasn't sure I was good enough to be called a carver yet. I started carving on a piece of driftwood that I had picked up while waiting for my glass kiln to come to temperature. I was hooked. Tiring of X-acto blades breaking and becoming projectiles, I found a removable blade folding knife with a heavier blade. But when I got a used Flexcut knife from my husband, my carvings became even more fun. After reading this forum, I put Little Shavers on my Christmas wish list. And have tried to be good!
This was my fourth attempt at a human form. At least this one resembles a human. His eyes really scare me still.

[catbird]

Welcome to the forum! You will enjoy it here, I promise.
OOPS! No picture came through...

[wildhare]

Let me try again, apparently I should join a post it forum too! Apparently I already loaded it to base tools to start with and it won't let me liad it again.

[wildhare]

Let me see if this works.

[Bartster]

wildhare,

hello and welcome to the board your carving looks good, eyes can be alittle scary, but not sure how far you are from elk city but the bishops are there and some of the best caricature carvers/teachers around, just keep going at it and you will get the eye part,

bart

[cannuckcarver]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
Nice carving and Thanks for sharring.

[Donna_T]

Welcome Wild Hare,
Well, your fourth human carving is soooo much better than my first carvings. Be sure to keep it so you can look back on it a year from now, 10 years from now, and see how far you've come!

So, where in Ok are you located? Is there a carving club or instructor nearby? That's a great way to improve your carving--with hands-on help from someone else. Does your husband carve too (you said you got a Flexcut knife from him)?

Get you a stick and practice making eyes--do 10-12 of them and you'll improve. Sharp tools are the secret and it's something I struggle with--especially getting v-tools sharp. I don't do many "people" carvings and when I go back to them, I have to practice them all over again. I've got a couple of "go by" examples: a Harold Enlow "eyeball" which a casting that shows the process of making eyes, and a stick Steve Brown made for me that shows the step by step process he uses to make eyes. I always end up digging them out to refresh my memory.

Another hint that a carving instructor gave me somewhere along the line: when carving a human, get the face carved early in the project since it is the most important part of the carving. THen if you really screw it up beyond repair, you don't waste your time carving all the rest of the piece. He told me this when I said I put of doing the face until the carving is basically finished except for the face. Now I rough it in, do the face, then get on with the rest of the carving if I'm satisfied with the face.

There a couple of great carving shows in Oklahoma and in nearby Ark. Have you been to any of them?

Donna T

[Ron T]

Hello and welcome wildhare. It's nice to have you here. You should feel very proud of yourself. That carving is very nice. You can definitely consider yourself a carver.

[Preacher2nc]

Great to have you. In my opinion, if you carve you are a woodcarver! Just plug in and have fun.

Mark

[wildhare]

Thanks to all of you that welcomed me. I really enjoyed just reading your pages and now, I am among you. Thanks Catbird, Bartster, Cannuckcarver, Ron T, Donna T and Preacher2nc.

Donna T- No my husband doesn't carve ,(yet) although he is a whiz a building things. He has built the frames for my stained glass and all my worktable. He doesn't think he is creative but he is. He even goes with me to Fort Smith to a carving club. He questions them about their knives and has made me a detail knife and a curved hook knife out of resale shop old steak knives. He watched one of the carvers sharpen them while one of the others showed me how to use a u gouge.

Where can I find one of those eye sticks you talked about?