Carving Update

I made my first sale two days ago!! I made a sign out of maple for Ken's cousin John. He wanted to make a sign to give the people that he is going to visit in Wisconsin.

Currently I am making some Maine themed signs and other projects. When we went to Acadia last Friday I came up with an idea to make replica signs of the various signs in Acadia. When I was looking around in the gift shop at the top of Cadillac Mountain I saw a carved replica trail marker selling for $50 and some random small signs selling for quite a bit as well. I made one sign for Thunderhole and another random sign from the park loop road. They are all carved and look really good, but I need to go get some brown paint. The other project I am working on is a carved checkerboard with the outline of Maine in the background. I have carved half of it so far, but it needs some minor tweaking to get it just right. Once I get enough samples finished I plan to go back to Bar Harbor and talk to some shop owners about selling my works.

I went to Lowe's yesterday to get some paint and some more wood, but I forgot to bring a sample of the color brown that I need. I did, however, find some gallon cans of stain for only $1!! They had five and I bought all of them... I'm sure I'll find use for that much stain.

Hopefully I will make it out to get some paint some time this week.

I'll post some pictures once the checkerboard is stained and the signs are painted.

Carving and carving some more

Well, Rachel says I have been spending too much time in my workshop lately, so I better take a break!

I have been learning the carvewright designer program and I can finally get it to do exactly what I want it to do without having to yell at it. I have been making some carvings just playing around with scrap wood and they have been coming out really well.

The first real project made was a maple cross. It took about 40 minutes to carve out and then another half hour to clean it up by hand, but I am really happy with how it came out.



One of the first designs that I thought of was a wood case for my Mac Mini. I don't feel up to that challenge yet, so I made a new faceplate for my workshop PC. I carved my logo into it, and it looks really neat!



I have a new apprentice in my workshop. He sweeps up the sawdust and brushes the sawdust out of the carvings. He is doing a very good job so far. Good thing he's cheap though!