Archive for the Carving Category

Automata! Automata! Automata! – who knew?

Posted in Automata, Carving, Toy Making on March 14, 2010 by Jim

Oh man, everything else in the shop has come to a screeching halt. Chips are flying, brass is being milled, gongs are ringing! I discovered automata.

This idea stopped me like a ball bat to the forehead. Specifically, take a look at Dug North’s website.

Here is a preview of my first. It should be quite handy. When it is done, it will be a praying machine. I mean really who doesn’t need one of those? I will take all the help I can get!

Automata praying machine

I cannot stop thinking about this thing.  I will post more as I begin to rough in the mechanism.

Book Review: 20 Folk Bird And Fish Patterns

Posted in Book Reviews, Carving on March 11, 2010 by Jim

 

Who carves a wooden catfish?  I do, and I loved it. The first thing that caught my eye in this book was a wooden catfish. I knew right away that it wanted to be on wheels and be a toy – hence the birth of Captain Catfish. The pattern in the book was fun and the instructions were great. I really enjoyed carving this fish.

I was a little less happy with the bird patterns though. The birds all had side view patterns but no top view.  There was only one photo even that showed a top view during the patterning stage.  All 0f the fish had both top and side patterns to use.

I wanted this book specifically for the birds, the fish was really just a bonus for me. This makes the book less desirable to me.

The Author published his phone number and address in the back of the book but the phone number was no longer valid when I called. I emailed the publisher to ask if there were side patterns to have and did not get an answer.  If you are most interested in the bird patterns on the cover of the book, I would not buy this book.

If on the other hand, you are into Captain Catfish! (hehe), he is probably worth the cover price alone.

-Jim

Carved wooden trout

Posted in Carving on February 28, 2010 by Jim

We have an annual auction for charity where I live and I was asked to do a carving of a trout.

Here it is about half complete.

Trout Carving in cedar

This post was moved from Make Stuff With Your Kid.

Captain Catfish

Posted in Carving, Toy Making on February 28, 2010 by Jim

I had just bought a copy of Al Streetman’s book 20 Folk Bird and Fish Patterns and I got inspired. I needed a birthday present for a child and I had this wooden catfish…

All that fish needed was a boat – so I give you Captain Catfish:

Folk Art Retro style wooden catfish toy

This is another post moved here from Make Stuff With Your Kid.