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.
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