
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Horse Soldier

Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Black Hawk
Monday, October 26, 2009
Cowboy Bust Patterns
Smoke Break

Saturday, October 24, 2009
Opps! Out Of Memory
Friday, October 23, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Bust – Part 6 – The Hat Brim
With the lower body now done we can concentrate on the hat. In this video we lay out the brim and carve it’s general shape.
Carving A Cowboy Bust – Part 5 – Finishing Up The Body
This video will wrap things up for the body portion of the project. Up next will be the hat and with that things will really start to get interesting.
Carving A Cowboy Bust – Parts 3 & 4 – The Neckerchief
In these two videos we’ll choose just what type of Neckerchief we want, lay it out on our blank and begin the roughing out process.
Also, the hole for the head drilled and the proper head position is chosen. Things are moving fast!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Bust – Parts 1 & 2 – Laying Out and Cutting the Blank
With the head carved in the first group of videos we can now move on to the lower part or body of the bust. This segment will show you how to lay out the blank using a paper pattern, how to cut the blank out on the bandsaw, and how to begin roughing it out.
One thing I’ve notice about these videos is that they are a high enough quality that you can open them up to “Full Screen” and not lose that much detail.
More coming…..and comments always appreciated.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Ranch House Cook
Every once in a great while I do a carving that I think really stands out and represents the best of my efforts. This, I think is one of those. Everything about this little scene just seemed to fall in place. From the spilt soy sauce on the floor to the coffee grinder to the gold tooth gleaming from Chang Li's wide grin. This is a carving that just makes you smile and I'll bet anything that if you could step into the picture you'd be looking for an open seat at the breakfast table to partake of some of his cooking.
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For this piece I built the stove first as it is the anchor of all the action. It is made from several pieces all pegged together. I had originally planned on having the oven door open with biscuits baking inside but to do that would have caused the cook to stand further back from the stove and that composition just didn't work. The loaf of bread carries the oven. The same goes with the Quaker Grits container. Seeing that you can easily tell what is boiling over on the stove. The coffee grinder and Arbuckles crate on the floor ties in with the coffee pot and the bacon with the eggs. Even though there's no bacon visible thats been fried we know that it eventually will be. The spilt bottle of Soy Sauce I just added as it's something that a Chinese cook would have. There is also a bottle of Brandy setting on the stove top. I don't really know why thats there......Maybe Chang likes a little morning nip once in awhile.
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I think I'm going to hang on to this guy for a while but I'll take him to Dayton to give him some exposure. There are lots of photos in the Gallery and, as always, I'll look forward to your comments
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Skipper

Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Renegade
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Pop-A-Top!

Friday, October 09, 2009
A More Detailed Look At Carving Eyes
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 9 – Finishing Up!
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If you’re interested in the San-O-Flex sanding wheel you can get all the information at http://www.meritabrasives.com/product/sand-o-flex.aspx. I use the 320 grit refills. You won’t be sorry in getting this tool as the more you use it the more uses you find for it.
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In the future I hope to do additional videos with this same head where I’ll show how to give him a hat, a bust-type body and finally, a paint job. However, that will be down the line a bit as I have to get some things ready for the upcoming Dayton show in November.
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As always your comments are welcome especially as I’m trying something new. I appreciate your input.
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 8 – The Eyes
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 7 – Style & Hair
This video has a hiccup in the beginning. But it’s not so bad that I need to go back and redo it. So I’ll just apologize for repeating myself.
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In making hair I keep it quite simple. The reason I do it this way is that for my carving style I think its all that’s needed. And speaking of style I expound a little about my thoughts on developing one of your own. There is no greater satisfaction than when people recognize that something you made is truly yours.
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 6 – Ears & Eyebrows
We also start adding some distinctive features to the face.
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 5 – Cigs & Ears
This one starts off with the appearance of a bad habit. I’m not sure whether all cowboys smoked but I’ll bet a large majority of them did. Well, this fella is in that last bunch. To make his cigarette I used a piece of coat-hanger wire. The reason I use wire vs. wood is that wood breaks and wire doesn’t. I’m carving for the long-haul and I want my pieces to stand up to any possible wear or abuse as much as possible.
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I also outine the sideburns and set up the ears for their final, inner details which we’ll do in the next one.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Head –Part 4 - The Mouth
With this post we start carving the facial details beginning with the mouth. Again, it takes two videos to do the job. I’m just about to give up on my 5-minute time as I never seem to stick to it.
We’re starting to get into the detailing now. Just take your time.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 3A-The Nose
We’re zipping right along with this project. As you will see I’m having a hard time sticking to that 5-minute time limit……maybe I talk too much? I also noted in this video that I have a tendency to move that head around so much that it sometimes completely goes out of the frame! Sorry! I’ll try to reign in my movements. Its just that I want the camera in close enough so you can see exactly what I’m doing.
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Once more this will be a two-parter as those short segments just don’t seem to cover enough time for a separate Blog post. Hopefully this isn’t presenting a problem for you. We have a pretty high-speed DSL here and I forget sometimes just how slow some of your circuits are. I already have one dedicated follower pulling into McDonalds each morning on his way to work to watch the videos on their wifi network as he can only get dialup at home. Now that is true dedication!
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My wife continues to do a great job trying to keep up with me. Hopefully you won’t experience a sudden loss of picture due to her throwing the camera across the room in disgust because I can’t keep my hands in one place.
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Again, I really appreciate your kind comments and suggestions.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 2 – The Ears
In this post we will locate the ears, block them out and indicate the hair
and jaw. I had to do this in two videos to keep the download times within limits. Once these steps are done our head blank is set up for the upcoming details, i.e., the nose the eye plane and a big decision…..whether our figure will have a mustache, a beard or just a 5-o’clock shadow.
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In the first video of this post I talk about knives and how you should only carve with a curved tip blade. Just disregard that. Carve with whatever you want. One of the things I’m finding as I do these things is that I have a tendency to preach to the viewer. I certainly don’t want to do that. I even caught myself wagging my finger in the first one! Yikes! Fortunately, my editing program allows me to delete these embarrassing scenes before anyone has a chance to see them.
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One more thing…..in doing these videos I want to let you see the whole process from start to finish with all the details in between no matter how small. In doing this the series just might seem to run on forever, but that’s okay, I’ve got plenty of time. Also, the videos have been tagged to not allow any copying, at least I hope they are. My plan is that once the series is finished I can combine them all onto one DVD which will be available for a small charge. But that’s down the road a ways so right now lets just have some fun.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Carving A Cowboy Head – Part 1
As this is the first instructional carving video I’ve made other than that Boot experiment I placed on YouTube quite a while back I’m not really sure how many parts it will take to complete it. Whatever, I’m going to try and keep the time of each
video around 5 minutes otherwise it will take forever for you to download. I’ve already gotten a few comments from those of you using dialup that the download time is long. Unfortunately there is just no other way I can do a video. My suggestion is to upgrade to a DSL or Cable modem connection.
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So let me know what you think.
Moving Around The Blog
