Bear and cub

DManning · #1 07-30-2008, 04:59 PM

Attached (hopefully) are pictures of a bear and separate cub I made for a friend so that she could let her kids know whether it was safe to approach her or not.
The unstained versions show the different positions that the cub can be placed in order to display the "mood" at the time. The stained one shows how the pair looked at time of delivery.
The "big" bear stands just over 6" tall. Both were carved from an old ceiling rafter someone left in the back alley. Since all I presently use is knives, there isn't much detail, but, I think you can still tell that they aren't ferrets.
Feel free to let me know what you think of the idea and construction.
Dan

Joy · #2 07-30-2008, 06:27 PM

You achieved a lot of personality without a lot of detail. Cute idea!

Ron T · #3 07-30-2008, 09:59 PM

Hi Dan,

What a splendid idea. Gives kids the chance to steer clear, cause we know, "If Momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy."

tnartist05 · #4 07-31-2008, 09:10 AM

Nice job Dan~ Forrest

oldbearx2 · #5 07-31-2008, 11:13 AM

Great carving I love bears.

Harold

Mottles · #6 07-31-2008, 11:28 AM

Hi Dan, super carving and a wonderful idea. You turned a discarded piece of wood into a useful teaching tool.
Kathy

Eddy Smiles · #7 07-31-2008, 10:27 PM

Dan... Nice job! You say that it stands 6" tall...What are the depth and width dimensions! Any idea what kind of wood the rafter was?

DManning · #8 08-01-2008, 12:57 PM

Eddy,
I think that the wood is probably yellow pine. It was easy to carve and still had good grain pattern. It was about 8" X 8" X 10' long when I hauled it in. Cutting it into 4", 8", 10", and 12" blocks gave me quite a pile to play with.
As far as the other dimensions, the big bear is about 4" wide from elbow to elbow and a little more than that from end of paws to the back. The cub is a little over 2 1/2" tall (from feet to extended paws) and almost 2" wide and deep.
I didn't want the big bears arms to break off during handling so when I made the rough block, I doweled and glued arm pieces on with the verticle grain running the length of them. If you blow up the pre-finished pics you can barely see the transition line (between shoulder and elbow).
Thanks to all for looking this over. It was a lot of fun to make and play with.

Eddy Smiles · #9 08-01-2008, 04:28 PM

Excellent piece of work! The cub is a nice touch!