Whittling, wood carving

im not too much on turning but (why did you buy all thoe woods when you can gt em for free?? Youre gonna hav to lern how to harvet if wood i gonn be your game). If youre gonna turn the wood, first get you a FOREDOM tool. We have craft shops that can rent thes, They cost about 250 US new and they have a nice comfy hndle. Start by drwing pttern for a decoy and do it out of somthing really c heap(PINE). using 1x6 boards, draw your pattern by doing it in slices on a jig saw or band saw.
then plane em and glue em together the first glue up will have you make a duck that is in layers like a topo map. then, using the Foredom ( a Dremel will also work but youll be working on it long). then after you carve off everything that doesnt look like a duck, you start sanding to define and smooth. I wouldnt make my first duck really detailed cause (trust me) you ARE gonna make some mistakes an they are easier to correct on a smoot back duck rather than one with all the feathers carved. Relax and enjoy the mess, and embrace the mistakes as lerning resourcs.
I quit carving of objwcts in 3-D and I make flat patterns carved so I can insert them into intaglio prints that contain embossed surfaces (like coins or my carved shapes .
About 15 years ago, I bought a used printing press from the Delaware Art museum school of art (ANythime a Dupont supports an art program, they go first class. The Art school would ispose of its cadre of presses very so many years and I was there for the auction. I got a 5 gran motorized prss fo 300 bucks. You can lay any carving (so long s its thin ) on the press bed and place the print paper over the carving (Its not that simple but this is just an easy intro.I did an etching of an abstract ve and a very realistic snake The print had the snake as an embossing an Eve as an etching.

If your interested I can give you some ides to follow , just gimme a PM

wood is fun but it wore off for me, i alaways get back to paper and paint or print.

See if you might want to use something like a Dremel or a Foredom.Dont get a Pfingst yet (they travel at about 100to 250 K rpm) thy cut vry fast and can cause injury if you arent familiar with em.

I know you guys have Woodworkers Worlds up there, and those places have classes as well as products. (I recall one in Halifax and aniother in Frederickton NB) They even have lessons on doing cut out wood sheep material with laser cutters or CNC (I did some laser work but I quit the CNC stuff, tooo much hands OFF. Its more a trade thn an art.

When you asked this question it was like a salmon fly nd it got me to rise and I wont shut up cause art is my life and wood is a mdia that I love as much as watercolor and oil landscapes.

As I said, Im not much on turning mostly because of my crippled left hand and arm).

I absolutely will pm you because I love your perspective and your advice. Just to calm you down somewhat, we don't have that kind of wood here so we have to import it and what i got was cheap! Literally maybe $40 and a lot of projects in there (maybe 30), so never you mind about that. I wasn't born yesterday.

I am doing everything by hand at this point, so not turning wood. I am just experimenting - wanting to make bowls and cups. I will pm you - you are a fount of info!! Love you FM!!

how bout wood palette s? When I started I was already a grown up and was teaching so We were poor. i ripped hundreds of palettes apart an glued up my wood for crving .I also went to a kichen shop that made SOLID WOOD cabinets and I was allowed to pick out through their scrap. I wound up doing sort of scrimhaw of marine subjcts on highly polished butternut for one of the kitchen shops customers. I still do some carving stuff for this shop.
So theres free or really chep wood out there. I think Hightor was a carpentry teacher so He probably has some ideas that will work. Hes my go-to guy on A2k for wood working tips.


Ya know, thia was how A2K use to be, exchanging cooking tips, talkin facts nd hobbies. I recall getting Hand ut dovetail tips rom a lady woodworker who is no longer on the board (Probably all the faction talk did her in)