My latest attempts...

[tsellati]

at whittling have gotten a little more creative.

First off is a pencil -



And, most recently, these pencil toppers -



My daughters really like the pencil toppers because you turn them one way and they look like cranes -



and if you turn them the other way, they look like pterodactyls -



The toppers were quite easy to make starting with a forked branch with at least one of the sticks being 1-1/2 to 2 times the width of a pencil.

After whittling the bird you drill out one end of the stick (starting with a thin bit and using progressively larger bits) and then sand/file the end of a pencil to a slightly smaller diameter than the drilled hole.

Then you snug the pencil up into the drilled branch and paint your bird with acrylic paints.

Tim

[Claude]

Nice work, Tim - those pencil toppers are cute!

Claude

[Sharon of the Dell]

Very cute, fun idea and you did a fine job on them.

[tsellati]

The nice thing about the pencil toppers is when you have sharpened the pencil down to a nub you just discard it and pop a new pencil into its place.

Tim

[Nancy-G]

I teach the "art" class for the kids at my church. Your pencil toppers are SO cute I wish my kids weren't too young to try a knife.
Those are really special carvings.

[AlArchie]

Now that's my idea of "whittlin' " and anyone who says whittlin' ain't carvin' oughtta take a better look at these little guys!

Al

[gene-messer]

Very nice and cute with a capital C

Gene

[draft51@aol.com]

I like them, kids will get a big kick out of those. fred k