de Gaulle

First sorry about de Gaulle being a messy eater, I did n't notice that ketchup stain till after I took the photo.  For a couple of reasons I'm running out of carving wood so this is a bit prefabricated, 4 pieces in all.  Interesting but restricting.    I'd like to carve all WW2 leaders . However for the time being I'm fish stuff out of the trash bin.

Cauld laddie

If nothing else its seasonal!  I fished a messed up carving from the bin and got this out of it around 5 inches in height, limewood.

opinions needed

 Can I begin by saying I'm not keen on what goes under the guise of PC.  Nor do I believe in tramping over the feelings of others.

 I recently posted my latest caricature, Hitler.  This seemed to provoke an over reaction from a fellow carver.  " throw that efigy into the stove".   First of all I will not do as dictated to. 

  This is one of a deries of WW2 figures I want to carve, de Gaulle is almost finished,

 My question is , does anyone else find this caricature offensive?
Let me know.

Seasonal greetings

    For anyone who follows this blog and some do;
A merry Xmass and a Peaceful New Year for you all.

snowed in.

Well it takes little for us to be beaten by the snow here in Scotland.  We've had above average and we're grinding to a halt.  Janice went to her work yesterday and is snowed in.  Her relief can n't get there.  Still its not all bad, plenty food and heating both here and at her work .  I've made a big pot of golash in the slow cooker.  The dogs' treats, liver I've cut up and micro waved.  So send it down.  The carving is a 5 inch one of the madman, I hope to carve other figures from WW2..  Unfortunately I'm running out of wood .  De Gaul might be next he was a thin man and I've a bit of wood that might fit the bill.

quote

The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.”

  The claims of originality, in fact copywrighting carving designs has often amused me.    After voicing my concers another carver suggested some quotes on the topic.   The one above I feel its accurate.  It also rules out me, and alot of others from claims of originality.

thoughts

 Here's some of the Santas I've carved.  The shelf sitter looks as though he's in his underwear.

Whatever

The snow for the first time today shows signs of a thaw.  Because of the changing wather in this part of the world we'll get this regular in the winter. Snow thaw, snow and all the mess it suggests.

Both Janice and I are keen ebook readers and have used this a lot because of the weather.  I'm reading a book on the loose of freedom of speech, I'm half way through it and have to say its made me more convinced that being PC is not something I find I want to aim for.  Seems to me that if I  do n't follw the dictates of a minority, usually of foreign origin I become a racist.  Do n't hold with being rude nor offensive but feel I retain the right to express myself.

snow

Well we've got snow here ahead of the normal time,  But its here, not a lot but 6/8 inches fortunately we can expect it to shift with the climate we have here.  Managed to give the dogs a run and although its was a short run we enjoyed it.

The above are two carvings I've finished, the pistol wheelding has been a pain.  The original came from an Woodcarving magazine and I reduced it to six inches.  That was a mistake that showed up in the carving.  Ah well live and learn.

izart

   This is the end result of a doodle, maybe it influenced by my research or a visit to Auschwitz.  Whea ever or where ever it came from its different. 

I think I'll go for another carving on a similar theme , or maybe the very opposite, an SS Guard.  We'll see fed up with Santas.

mrclaus

A couple of  photos of the last carving I've finish, 4 !/2 inches plus base.  This one is going to the STates.

Geordie

This is Geordie a Scottish gnome who looks after the haggis in the winter time.   He's out giving them their night time feed, larks tongues dipped in heather honey

Ekern Santas

 These I carved from a pattern in Gerald Ekern's book.  I like the design and they were fun to do.   The book I bought on Ebay and my friend Jack forwarded it from the US.

  Just now I'm doing a clean up of bits left from previous carvings .   The other source is almost finished carving, one's I should have finished but did n't.

  I'm told there's a saw mill nearby which sells limewood so I'm going to chack it out .

  Maissee behaves better at the Saturday class .  Each time she showed aggression I corrected her.  Better than the previous week but a long way to go.  We just hope this socializing works.  Having a dog on a lead all the time is not something I want.

more wood I've spoiled

 A bit unkund but a caricature of my pal Jack and his hound.  Fortunately he has a great sense of humour and the Pond will be between us when it arrives.

   Another pal, 5 years old goin on 50, has gone off with my little carvings of Santa.  These were put on a shelf he can n't reach.

angry fishermen

 EEC regulations are making for a lot of unhappy fishermen in this part of the world.  So I carved this wee fella to represent their anger.  The regulations are restrictive and yet fail to answer the problems related to over fishing.  The over fishing on our costal waters is caused not only by our vessels but all EEC members fleets.   Brussels has a knack of letting regulations over rule commons sense.  

PMS

My wife commented that " You never carve female caricatures"! Well that's cured now. 

For my own protection this carving is not based on anyone I know nor anyone I might not know.

presents

 Seems that demad is over taking demand on the wee carvings.  Youngsters birthdays and xmas tree ornaments are being requested way too much.   However that is n't all bad in ffact its good, at 70 I can not only growl at kids but make them smile.   The above is a photo of the old dog we lost a few months ago.  A bit like her owner she could get into trouble even in her dotage.

poplar

  Not much further in my mission on tree bark.  Not entirely true, the cottonwood tree is of the poplar family.  Poplars grow in Europe.
Interestingly its the red pine of california which is credited with the thickest bark.

I'm back blogging again

  After a series of events I'm back blogging again.
Nothing drastic just a heap of things that limited my time.

One of the more pleasant was a short break in Poland, my first in 30 years.  Then it was north Poland Gransk in what was refered to as the German Corridor.   This time it was all different in all senses, we went to Cracow and then visited Auschwitz.

  We met up with a carving pal and had a meal together.  Apart from the brotsch which I never liked the food was to my liking.  More to the point the company was good.  Romek does n't speak English and I speak no Polish so we depended on his son to translate.

  The churches were full of carvings and other artistic works.   Some had been looted by the Germans and then returned after 1945.

 On a more down to earth level I came across these carvings, in bark for sale in the market of the old City.

 These impressed me but poses the question which bark.  According to my research cottonwood does n't grow in the old World.  All I can say is the bark must come from a very old tree.

bark carvings

These are NOT my carvings.   They were on display at the Old City in Cracow.    Bark they were but what bark I do n't know.

 This is part of the perimeter fence, electrafied.    I believe it was forbidden to for prisoners to commit suicide, and also those who tried to stop them were themselves punished.  German logic?

Kracow

We spent 10 days here in Cracow - returning yesterday. The medieval history and the proximity of Auschwitz made the city attractive from a historical perspective.

A previous concentration on the northern outskirts of Berlin faded as it was  dwarfed by this death camp.
The photo below is some, yes some of the photo wear, and razors taken from prisoners on their arrival.

I feel this says it all.

Ipad

Last week iterated myself to an ipad. This is one of two reason for this blogging. The other is the time I spend on the pup. Hopefully both my iPad skills and the pups manners will improve!

back to normal

WE've had a hectic spell due to my wife have real problems with her back.  Poor woman has been in agony.  Confined to bed most of the last three weeks.  However her treatment seems to be helping and this week shows real improvement.

The above pup has added to disruption at 5 months thats to be expected.  Jimmee the older Dally is trying to teach her some manners. We've had little success todate.

As a result my carving time has been limited.

The wee man looks the way I felt in the chaos while the gorilla was a new field for me.  I think he needs some vegatation , bamboo high grass or something..

On Gene Messers opinions I bought two Mike Shipley knives recently , these are great knives..

Hopefully I'll have more time for my blog now.

Bloody pup.

Jimmee looks on in disgust at the lack of manners the pup is showing.  he's trying hard to train her but, she obviously is a female.

We enrolled her tonight in a obedience class.  She introduced herself by pissing on the floor and challenging the trainers dog!   She's a festy bitch.

A very jolly Rodger

This is from another roughout.    A pirate whose full of grog.  I made him as colourful as possible.  He's a tough old pirate have survived a few attack from the pup.

daft bookmark

This is from an idea I seen on the magazine WCI.   A small carving of a witch , holding a piece of elastic cord.  At the other end is a small block of wood.  The length of the cord is variable and makes a bookmark thats different.

occupied

  That wee pup is proving to take more of my time than I intended she's a real Tasmanian Devil.  However her vaccinations have meant she stays in doors till this week end.  Maybe then she'll get the exercise she needs.   No doubt she's no worse than any other pup, it might well be I'm getting older and grumpier.   This is the last pup I'm taking on, I've trained more of them than I can remember, so I want to finish on a winner.

Bonecrusher

Here she is at 3months.   Looking ahead I'll need to feed her the whole coo.

Tasmanian Devil

 We've been had!  This was sold to us as a Dalmatian pup.  Its turned out she a Tasmanian Devil.

These are dockyard chisels,, tools.  They are micro chielsand I think good ones.  BUT they came slack in the hndle.  The right most one is unaltered.  The reason for the slackness became obvious when I removed the old handles, there was no sign of glue.  The handles I added are scraps of purple heart left over from a spoon.  The shapes are random.

new pup

Here's the latest family member Maysie. - 8 weeks old and manner less

Here she's being introduced to her brother Jimmee who is set on keeping her clean and teaching her manners.

spoiling more wood

wood carving, dogs and fitevircomes: Bentley

wood carving, dogs and fitevircomes: Bentley

Bentley

Here's my holiday dog, Jack's  wee mongrel.  He the dog adopted me and we'd a great time.

In fact the entire holiday was great inspite of Air France.   The Auld Alliance was put in jepardy more than once when the volcanic ash meant landing at  President DeGaulle airport necessary.   However home safe and sound now.    I've a couple of carving to work on a caricature, almost finished, thanks to my Whittling Jack and another stick Jack wants.

holiday

 Well we're enjoying our holiday.
Jack has good days ad soe not so good.

We got fine weather for a trip to Chicago.

not a German Shepherd

  Well like most plans this one did n't work ou.
So it turned in to me and Jimmee.     Dogs for some reasonn I find difficult, strange giving my fondness of them.

  We leave for the US via Skipol tomorrow looking forward to 14 days there.

two wee carvings

Here's the latest, the Viking is for the kids and the other, Cheeky Chappy is for Paul my disabled friend.  If they get the fun I did carvin them - mission accomplished..

I've tried and failed to get a reasonable carving of a GSD.  So I've settled for a Dalmatian hoping it looks less like a goat than previous ones!

Now the male figure has to be altered to resemble myself.

Meanwhile the litter of pups have made it to morning TV so there is our "Maisy" not three weeks old and already a star.

Our planned trip across the Pond is getting nearer only a fortnight to go.  Trying hard not to get excited but admit that even for me its difficult.

more pups

These are little ones I carved from scrap.

trouble

Some where in there is our next pup.   That poor auld Zena is in for a hard time rearing that size of litter.

pups checked out

  We spent the evening with the pups, Zena, Gayle and James.  Socialising is not my forte but Janice enjoyed ohing and ahing over them.   Can n't say they do much for me at that stage.
However on the return trip it snowed and still is.  Not the crips clean stuff of the hills but slushy runny muck we gt here.

she's here, somewhere

As the blog includes dogs here are a few.   Among that heap is  a bitch we'll be keeping.   This photo was taken during the time Zena was whelping finally she gave birth to 14.   So she's done well I think her owner Gayle intends this to be Zena's last litter.

  Zena was the bitch we , Janice, wanted but she was not for sale.  She was a year old then and one smart dog.

 We intend to go and see the pups later today.

new carving

I'm working on a carving of a friend, who has a German Shepherd.   The dog will be at his left side so this carving does look "squint".

These are three knives, I like.  The blades are thin and get a great edge on them.  The steel is layered in the traditional manner , I bought them from Dick's Tolls in Germany.

Success