Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Northwest Totem

End June - Early July 2011

Time to carve: 3.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hour

...and now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Whittlin’ Jim did a few Northwestern slides and I think this design is one of the best!

Doing some research on Northwestern Totems I came across this page as a good reference TOTEM POLES OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST
Though I’m really not sure what animal it depicts, I really like the lines on this slide!

Whittlin’ Jim called for a crooked knife for this slide but I found a straight blade and lots of small cuts were call for on this slide. Carved from maple, and finely sanded, I really hated to paint this slide. The Maple would have looked great with a redwood stain but staying true to form it is painted with craft paints and given a couple of poly.

The Ladies Tea

Mid June 2011

Time to carve: 1.5 hours
Finishing: 1 hour

While technically not a slide, I needed to find something for my mother-in-law to bring back to my niece (especially when I had carved a slide for her brother.) “So what are Emmy favorite things”, I asked. After thinking about it for a few minutes, she came up with the Ladies Tea. What is a Ladies Tea you ask, well I can’t begin to describe it but I found a good description on another blog The Small Town Mom

“Each year we enjoy a luncheon and tea while all of us ladies talk followed by an inspirational speaker. The speaker is usually a member of the church or closely related to a member and they never disappoint. They always find a way to make you take a step back from reality and remember what is really important!”

A tea cup it was! One of the smaller projects I have worked on, made from maple for strength, it is another design right out of my imagination. With the exception of the spoon, which was glued on after, this is made from a single piece of wood. Painted with craft paints and finished off with poly. A small eye hook was screwed into the top so it could be made into a charm on a necklace.

wolf

Mid June 2011

Time to carve: 2.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hour

So recently my mother-in-law was visiting and telling me how much my Nephew was enjoying being a Cub Scout and was going to be in a Wolf Den this year. Mathew is a big fan of my slides and has mentioned to his mom how much he likes certain slides. Ah…the perfect opportunity for a new slide.

I’d like to think the design was patterned after the Eastern Timber WolfEastern Timber Wolf as I have camped a few times in the Adirondacks but I have a sneaking suspicion the design in my mind is more based out of Hollywood. Carved from maple, the basic design originally looked more like a fox until I folded the ears back a bit and moved on to the fur. A dark red fur seemed like the right choice for this and I used a method I had use with a Whittlin' Jim pattern Little Stinker. Instead of coffee grounds, I used tea from a K-cup. It was a very fine tea and all I had to do was sprinkle it on the glued surface of the slide. I added some white plastic teeth made glued in place. The eyes were round pins and the ears and mouth painted with craft paints. A couple of coats of poly finish it off.