There was a time I was a avid wood carver. I'm more into gunstocks, handles and misc now days.
Here's some of my carvings. The bearded hillbilly had a pipe at one time, need to carve a new one.
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I used to carve quite a bit but I have not done much in the past 30 years or so. I am not sure where The Princess has deployed all of my carvings, but these are the few I can find quickly.
Warning: there is a story that goes with each.
"Tree of Life" was carved as a gift for The Princess.
"Ear Infection"
I found a tortured piece of drift wood on the shore of Lake Erie that I think is grape vine. After a severe ear infection where I would have chewed out my ear if I could have reached it, I was inspired to do my impression of one of the levels of hell as described in Dante's Inferno. It was the layer where the sinners had to hide under molten tar and when the rose up demons ripped them apart with pitch forks. I cut off the two ends of the drift wood to represent rock formations and the center was used to carve the tortured sole.
"Land Ahoy!"
There used to be a waving flag at the top of the mast but my son liked taking my carvings into kindergarten for show and tell and the flag did not survive being dropped. I could have glued it back on but when I finished a carving I was done with it and I did not care to bother with that. The good news was my son liked it/them enough to bring into to school.
"On the Edge"
Was an experiment in using a more rough carving style inspired by Van Gough. I limited my work to what I could do with just a Dremel tool and did not move to hand tools or sanding. If it is not obvious it is a knight cornered on a cliff by a dragon wielding a septar (sp?).
"The King's Wine is Late"
Was inspired by The Princess and suffered from Show and Tell. She used to hold a goblet and had a platform but those are long gone.
Carving was great way to keep myself entertained and let express ideas that were stuck in my head. Since then I have filled that void with remodeling and other projects that keep me busy. When I get to the final phase of The Hobbit Hole I am building for The Princess, I plan to include many relief carvings in the wood work.
Take care,
Ben