WOODCHIP HAVEN: WOOD SPIRITS, WHIMSY, AND SOME OTHER STUFF

NEW NAME AND CHANGES

I DON'T KNOW IF CHANGE IS ALWAYS GOOD, BUT I FELT LIKE IT WAS TIME TO CHANGE THE NAME ON THIS BLOG. I'M STILL A CAMPBELL - AND GRATEFUL FOR THE SCOTTISH HERITAGE. I'M ALSO STILL CARVING, SO I AM DEFINITELY A CARVER, BUT ONLY BY HOBBY. I JUST WISHED I HAD STARTED THIS HOBBY ABOUT 50 YEARS AGO. WHEN I THINK OF ALL THE TIME I WASTED WATCHING THE STUPID BOOB TUBE, IT MAKES ME WANT TO HEAVE! AND, THINK OF ALL THE CUTS AND WOUNDS I MISSED OUT ON....

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TWO GREAT PHILOSOPHERS FROM NASHVILLE, TENN. ASKED TWO GREAT AND LOADED QUESTIONS BACK IN 1958 ON ONE OF THEIR RECORDINGS. THE QUESTIONS WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

HOW MUCH WOOD COULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK
IF A WOODCHUCK COULD CHUCK WOOD?

HOW MUCH WOOD WOULD A DINOSAUR SAW
IF A DINOSAUR COULD SAW WOOD?

(HOMER AND JETHRO)

LUCKILY, MY HOBBY OF WOOD CARVING HAS ALLOWED ME TO CONTEMPLATE AND FINALLY RECEIVE ANSWERS TO THOSE TWO GREAT QUESTIONS OF LIFE. NOW, IF YOU WANT THE ANSWERS, YOU'LL HAVE TO GET RID OF YOUR CURRENT HOBBY (PROBABLY EITHER YOUR SMART PHONE OR THE BOOB-TUBE) AND START CARVING WOOD. (WOOD SPIRITS DON'T TALK TO THE IMPURE. YOU HAVE TO BE INTIMATELY INVOLVED WITH WOOD -- AND NOT THE WOOD BETWEEN YOUR EARS.)

JUST A WORD OF WARNING -- WHILE YOU ARE CARVING, THE WOOD WILL START TALKING TO YOU. THE WOOD WILL TELL YOU (AS YOU ARE TRYING TO CARVE SOMETHING SPECIFIC) TO NIX THE PROJECT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO AND DEMAND THAT IT BE MADE INTO SOMETHING ELSE!!!) REALLY! I'M NOT KIDDING!

Monday, August 25, 2014

WOOD SPIRITS, WHIMSY, AND SOME OTHER STUFF

After two or three months of messing with projects from Michaels' and Hobby Lobby - paint and finishing things that were are already built - I decided to try my hand at actually carving wood. The tools and wood I found at a business in South Provo named Treeline. One of the people who works there (PJ) has been most helpful and MOST enthusiastic with my slaughtered carvings and full of helpful suggestions.

I started with wood spirits. These are characters which are normally carved into hiking sticks and canes. So, the following pictures are a few of the ones I have done. (However, not all of them since I have been negligent in taking pictures of them before giving them away. Sorry!)

This is the first attempt at a wood spirit - obviously not in a walking stick or cane. This carving is now in our son Mark's home, thanks to my wife who packed in with some things going to their home.

If you enlarge either of these two images, you'll see plenty of mistakes. The eyes are not well carved, the nose is a mile long, and the hair and beard look pretty ratty. Also, the cheeks are pretty "jowly" But, for the first carving, I was pretty satisfied.

A variety of others have followed (remembering that all of them are not here).

The spirit of cheese (recarved and
painted - following below:

This one was carved from a remainder

piece I sent home from Alaska. The

wood is Diamond Willow.

A different style

This fellow no longer exists - he

looked too much like a lion with

a human head.

This is the front of a key chain

fob I carved for our youngest,

Sharon.

I didn't get a front view of this one.

Don't know why...

This dude is a part of a walkingor hiking stick. It was precarved and attached to the top. I'm informed that the hiking stick accompanied a Ward Young Women's President to Camp LoMIA in

Arizona.