Pwn'd

Yea this beauty came from my imagination. Since I can't sleep much I spend my wee hours of the morning coming up with designs to make stuff. Here I have come up with a cool looking beer bottle carving. I wanted to put my maiden name at the top "Ade" and also put the coat of arms from the town the family is from in Grossbottwar, Wuttemberg, Germany. One image shows the carving after I just finished carving. Another has the carving with two coats of pecan colored stain and the last well is the almost finished product.

I need to put one more coat of black paint on there and then put a clear coat on.

The carving is almost 2 feet high and 6 inches wide and 1/4" thick.

Spare Parts

While the girl's were over I looked at all the wood chips that I had in the trash bag by my mini workstation and thought it would be neat to make something. I gave them all the materials they needed and told them to go at it.

I need to paint a trim on the edges and then I will put a clear coat on it.

In order of maker.. left to right: Abigale, Mom, Zoe.

Abigale made a rainbow sky with a small rainbow in the middle with some grass at the bottom.

Zoe made a horizon with a palm tree.

I made a flower.

Girl's Play

The girls really have enjoyed playing around with all the blocks of wood I have aquired and that have now find themselves (the wood) stashed in the spare bedroom, which now has turned into my mini workshop, hidden in a large cardboard box. Aby is happy with putting color on anything she finds and Zoe is happy with just hacking something up and looking at the wood chips.

A Sense of Pride

My ginger never was painted, by me at least, and I ended up making a small teddy bear who suffers the same fate. My girls' artistic hand. They both have talked about how much they want to join in on the journey and I explained I will let them with a few adjustments: Ivory Soap & Butter knife.

Over the last few days I have been working on painting my coat of arms and spraying a few good coats of lacquer on it. Some of the fumes coming off the freshly sprayed coat of arms took me back and also made me nauseated. It took several hours to do this. I had to wait 20 minutes between each coat to put a new on one. So I would roll out and poke my head out the patio door, give the can a shake, spray spray spray, and quickly close the door. 5 hours later I had a product I was ready to say "Done".

I also made another trip to the Hobby Town USA store and bought myself a few more pieces of basswood that would allow me to make a larger, sturdier coat of arms, and the ornaments I had in mind.

So what's next? I want to try my hand at chip carving and decided on a Christmas tree ornament set in one of the books I got from the library. I have already cut out and carved the outside edge and with chip carving I am going to paint the ornament first and then carve the inside of the ornament. This will allow the chip carving work to 'pop'. Yea I just used it... POP! Lets see how this goes.

Day 4 - Sanding

I was pretty proud of what I had going and I was liking what I was making. I felt good about myself being productive while I was stuck here in the chair most of my day with very little to do.

Today's goal was sanding my two projects and putting a base paint. I got my sandpaper out, 220 grit, and cut a few small pieces off and gathered myself in my recliner and placed a plastic shopping bag on my lap, at this point I was making major messes that I had to vacuum up. I started in on my task at hand. I was still pretty hung up on my coat of arms and dug in on that first. I cleaned and sharpened its edges and it seemed like it was coming to life once again as if I had just got done carving it. I slaughtered the hangers that just wouldn't let go of its home and blew off the dust and just couldn't help but do that smile again.

I went for the gingerbread man next. Rubbing its edges with my sandpaper to make that soft smooth edge. I found myself sanding the left foot of the gingerbread man when all the sudden his little foot just popped off and landed 3 feet in front of me. Without moving a hand I looked with eyes wide in horror at the tiny foot laying there alone in the middle of the living room. Thoughts raced through my mind as to how I was supposed to get that foot back on my gingerbread man. Little time went by when I noticed my cats had caught eye of the abandoned foot and I quickly leaned forward and gathered it up.

I quickly remembered reading through my books that elmer's glue was actually a good cheap glue that was made with wood fibers and dried quickly. I had some in the girls' art box. I sent Neal after my needs and he delivered as always. I took my gingerbread man in one hand, glue in the other, and debated the amount I should put on. I remembered reading that beads of glue were easy to pluck off after drying and it was also a sign that enough glue was used to seal the deal. So I lathered it on with what I thought to be enough, put the bottle of glue to the side, and grabbed the little foot. I carefully smashed the ends together and held it while blowing on it to speed the process up. When I thought time was done I took my hand away and continued to sand the gingerbread man. Shortly after, his tiny foot fell again. Apparently I had not let it set long enough. So I applied another application of glue, held it for a few minutes, and set him down on side table. I got myself situated in my wheelchair and looked at him once more before I headed off to bed. My amputated ginger was back in action.

Day 3 - Gingerbread Man

I am all kinds of ready to get this mama rolling with projects. I pull up my woodcarving books and start flipping through them. I get lost in time as I look at each book with all its possibilities. Nothing quite hits me so I decide to surf the web for a design and come across a page designed for beginners. Here I find a set of Christmas decorations that look easy enough.

I print out my design, cut my slab of wood, transfer the image, and settle myself down in my recliner. Carving knife in hand and thumb guard on I start my next project. At this point I am trying to get a feel for the gestures I am to be making with my blade. Testing the wood this time with the carving knife instead of the gouges that gave life to my coat of arms. Stroke after stroke I can see the smooth edges of the wood underneath the fresh cuts of my blade. Debris flicks through the air and lands here and there.

I find an obstacle as I work against the grain. Through all the books I have read I know I must make an effort to work with the grain and not against it. How do I over come those edges to make my curves? I take my carving knife and I pick at the grain. I lay it on the side table next to me that once was covered by remotes and magazines and now is littered with carving knives, gouges, paint, and wood. I try to slice the wood like a hospice saw being ever so gentle as I cut. Millimeter by millimeter I whittle against the grain and find my finished edges.

Failed First...

I have got to start with something I feel in my heart, that coat of arms!

I lay the sad caged cat down and head over to the kitchen table to find another piece of wood to fashion at my desire. I decide that I have to go with the balsa wood since it is only 1/4" thick. I grab my mini saw, make my lines, and cut my slab off. I am really excited now! I etch my pattern onto the wood and gather my woodcarving tools. I realize that I have nothing to hold the block down and steady it for safety but I have to get at this and carve to my desire.

I decide to start off with carving out the open space around the stork and antler. This should be easy enough for me to start out with. I start my carving and I am feeling good about this. Each stroke comes a shaving of the wood flakes off and lands somewhere on me, the table, or the floor. I am immersed as time passes without me even giving it any thought to the world outside me. My stokes are thoughtful, novice, and purposeful. I am feeling the wood's texture vibrate in the palm of my hand as each groove is made. I can hear the clean yet rough noise from the friction of my blade against the wood. Splitting, carving, chipping, shaping this block before me, I stop. I look down and a smile comes to me as I stare at the wood now my desire in design.

Back Home Again...What Do I Do First?

We make it back home and I lay my spoils out over the table and I eyeball all I have acquired. I smile again. Where do I begin now? I pick up a book from the library and head over to my recliner and dig in.

Several hours later and I am ready to cut into something but its late, 02:00, and I should go to bed.

I wake up eager as ever to get working on this. I want to see if this is what I want to do. I want to grab a knife and just cut something! I open the box of basswood, my "grab bag" box. The wood was beautiful but it was huge chunks. I wasn't ready to carve yet. So I go back to my books to see what I could make. I needed something easy, something to show me the basic ways so I could get a feel for the wood, its grain, its strength, and how it cuts. I find this beautiful picture of a cat. Smooth and slick, standing up and looking over the side and in a beautiful dark amber color. Oh, I want to make this! So I grab a slab of wood, the smallest one, from the grab bag box, and transfer the image I printed out onto the wood.

I gather my carving knife and my thumb guard and settle into my recliner. I hold the block out in from of me and stare at it. Where do I begin now? I stare at it some more. I think to myself..'well maybe if I just start cutting into it, I will get the hang of it'. So I start cutting away. Stroke after stroke and I can feel the fatigue in my hand. This design is to small for this block of wood and I am still cutting away at the scrap edge! I feel slightly defeated as I stare at this sad cat stuck in this block of wood.

Off to the next store...

Woodcraft was out of the gouge tools I was looking for in order to start woodcarving. I had the basswood and the carving knife purchased for whittling but I had my heart set on making the coat of arms from the town my family, on my Dad's side, in Grossbottwar, Wuttemburg, Germany.

I hit my Garmin up to see if it had any ideas where another store might be that would have this tool. I called several it listed but no one there seemed to know what I wanted and kept trying to look for electric tools.. and yes the beautiful Dremel.

I wanted this to be old school whittling and woodcarving from the craftsman's hand.

Lightbulb: call Dad. So I do. He refers me to the stores I had already hit up, minus one that I didn't know existed and was already 30 minutes behind me. Through our ramblings, while he searched for his woodworking magazines, it hit me that I might try a store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Neal knew Hobby Lobby was closed on Sundays and thought Michaels was no longer there. We thought we could try our luck and just drive down 31 to see what we could find but first.. the library.

We stop by the Indianapolis Central Library right downtown. I forgot my library card, go figure, and Neal has to sign up for a new one. While he does that I turn in some books the kids had read. We meet up and I find a computer to find my selections.

They had several selections and I wasn't sure which aspect I wanted to get involved in with woodcarving/whittling so I decided I should gather a few of everything and see what appealed to me most. But i definitely needed a book on carving signs so I could make that coat of arms. I get five books, check out, and head on out. Now it was time to venture down 31 and find a hobby store that carried the gouge tools I was missing.

It was a shot in the dark and while I was on the phone, Neal spotted a little hobby store and we rolled in. Hobby Town USA. This place was stocked with all kinds of hobby gear. This place made me feel like a nerd and I loved it. I made my way to where they kept their carving tools and found a small kit. It was cheap and I knew it wouldn't last me long but its all I could find. To my amazement they had nice long slabs of basswood just perfect for cutting off what you needed and getting off to work. They also had Balsa wood. I had not heard of it and I thought I would give it a try. We check out and head home.

The beginning

One Week Ago...
Here I am bored as ever and stuck at home in a wheelchair.. again. This time 'round I am determined to find something to do with my time till I can go back to work again. I struggled with what to do with my time alone here at the house.

Then I get an email from my little brother, Brandon. "Why don't you try whittling?". I thought to myself, 'wow that is a good idea'.

Where do I even begin? I surfed the web for hours upon hours trying to figure out where do I even start. All I had was an image of an old man on the porch with a carving knife and stick with a smile on his face. Surely this cannot be that hard to figure out.

I got a general idea of what tools I needed to start things out.. but what was I going to do.. whittle or woodcarving? I didn't even realize the difference between the two.

Whittle: use only one tool: carving knife.
Woodcarving: using several tools: carving knife, gouge, v-tool, and several others.

Well I wanted to do both.

So a few days later I found myself at the Woodcraft store up on the north side of Indy and with my list of basic tools and materials to start this adventure I carry on and find my goodies. Well, lets just say that I gave my list to a nice young man and he went out on his own adventure finding my goods. Meanwhile, I am in the back looking at all the different types of wood. I pick them up, I feel them, I carefully look over texture, their grain, their possibility to become something at some point.

My order is ready for check out and on my up to the register I am stuck there going down the aisles with eyes all wide looking at the tools coasting by as I ride up front. I think to myself, as I sit in awe of all the little things I want, this is what my Dad has to feel like every time he comes in to one of these stores. I smiled.