A Nutty Squirrel

Sometime between 2012 and 2015

Time to make: 1.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hour









Made from a couple of black walnuts the eye sockets were filed flat with file as were the bottom of the head and top of the body. The body and head were glued together, the eyes painted with craft paint and finished with poly. The tail, hands and ears were made from a detachable fake fur collar that came with my son's winter coat. (He want no part of that collar removing it and throwing it away almost the instance he received the coat.) The last part is a piece of hickory nut also found in my back yard. (Where are the squirrels finding these trees?)

Knot Slide

Sometime between 2012 and 2015

Time to carve: 2 hours
Finishing: 2 hour




Carved from red maple and whipped with some heavy black thread. Finished with poly.

This type of slide could be carved from almost any kind of knot that could be tied!

Gourd Slide

Sometime between 2012 and 2015

Time to carve: 4 hours
Finishing: 2.5 hour










Another set slides that took some time to find just the materials. In the end, I ordered a couple of dipper gourds off of ebay. Now this really surprised me when it came to carving because it was one of the hardest natural materials I've come across. I used linoleum v blades to cut the groves in the gourds and was sharpening often. I used craft paints and cotton swabs to get the paint into the groves wiping the excess off with a paper towel. A couple of coats of poly finish them off

Thermometers

Sometime between 2012 and 2015

Time to carve: 3.5 hours
Finishing: 2 hour









A couple of slide that took some time to procure (well at least the second one). The first slide was made from a piece of thin hobby plywood as a background, the tube from a dowel, and the bulb is made from a wooden bead. It was painted with craft paints and the tube assembly was glued to the background. The tube holders was made from some wire and glued in place through some holes in the background. A wooden loop and a couple of coats of poly finish the first one.

The second slide was made from a real thermometer zipper pull I found at a camping store. I glued it to a kitchen counter-top sample I found at a local home design center. I used model paint fine markers for the lettering and a wooden loop glued to the back.

Thermometers have local intrest here as the first made in America happen just a couple of town over
Kendal thermometer factory

Aluminium Slides 1 and 2

Fall of 2016

Time to carve: 3.5 hours
Finishing: 1 hour

So I avoided these slides for a long time because I'm not much of a metal worker but my discovery of an affordable doming block got me started on these. I also made some metal punches using some cement nails and a file for the design. (I think I got that idea from a 60's or 70's Metalworking Merit Badge book.) I use some aluminium sheets I purchased from my local hardware store which are a little thicker and worked well for this project. Once I had carved, punched and domed the slides, I rubbed the slides with some black model paint getting it into the crevices. Finally, once the paint dried, I buffed the aluminium to a shine.

John Henry

Sometime between 2012 and 2015

Time to carve: 4 hours
Finishing: 2 hour









An odd slide for me to make. I chose not to include a face because I wasn't happy with the way it was coming out so here is the result. Carved from maple, this took quite awhile to carve as there was a lot of material to remove. The handle of the hammer is made from a piece of metal rod I had lying around. The slide is painted with craft paint and given a couple of coats of poly.

There is some thought that the folk tail of John Henry is based on a real man. You can find more information here Steel Driving Man

Milkweed Butterfly

Sometime between 2012 and 2015

Time to carve: .5 hours
Finishing: 2 hour


It's interesting to me that this slide is called the Milkweed Butterfly and not the Monarch. Was this because the larva eat milkweed? Anyway the body was carved from a piece of scrap wood and painted with craft paint. The antenna were made from a couple of bristles from a paint brush which was super glued into some holes drilled into the head. I sealed the body with a couple of coats of poly. The wings were an image I found on the internet and printed on a color laser printer. I cut out the sections of the wings and glued them to some black foam board. Once the wings shapes were cut out, I glued the top segment to the bottom segment then glued the wings to the body. A wooden loop glued to the back finishes up the slide.

When researching the milkweed name for this butterfly, I stumbled across this article