First of all -- I've been out of commission for nearly 6 weeks, thanks to back surgery (three vertebrae fused). So, my output has been severely curtailed, to say the least. I did, however, do a couple of projects between aching and paining...
SISTER ORTIZ' FOX
The little vixen above I actually finished around Christmas for one of the full time sister missionaries working in our stake. She's Sister Ortiz, and hails from the Dominican Republic. She's too cute to tell no, so she's now the owner of a fox -- missionaries aren't supposed to have pets, eh?
TREE SPIRIT
This is, without a doubt the best "tree spirit" I've done so far. This spirit now resides in the house of a friend, a neighbor, and a linguistics prof. at BYU. I told him if he didn't want it, he could always start a fire in his fire place and use the spirit for kindling.
DEMANDING WOOD
I'm always kidding people that the "wood" dictates what it wants to be. Actually, I'm not kidding. If I let the carving "go where it wants", rather than trying to dictate what it should look like, I usually end up with something entirely different that I started out to do.
These next two carvings are exactly what I'm talking about.
A SOLDIER FROM THE 20th MAINE
This started out to be a carving of a "Moses" character until the scarf band on the head went terribly awry. While removing the band and reducing the size of the cranium, it started looking like the hat from a civil war soldier... go figure. So, I copied a few pictures from the Internet, and away I went - or, away it went.
This soldier is now in the home of a best friend in Orem, Ut. He and I worked together at the County Recorder's Office for over 30 years.
CASEY AT THE BAT
Now! I didn't intend on this carving looking anything like this. It was supposed to be a wood spirit. But, as I removed the beard to remove a Santa resemblance, I ended up with a player from the 1895 New York Yankees baseball team -- except, the mustache is from a little earlier in the 1800's. But, what the heck. Call it artistic license.
