Cowboy Coffee - All Done!

Have you ever had Cowboy Coffee? By that I mean poured into a tin cup from an enameled pot taken directly from the Chuckwagon's cooking fire. If you have you'll probably admit that it was a cup you will long remember whether it was drinkable or not. The saying goes that the coffee is ready when, after dropping the horseshoe into the pot it floats to the surface. Now I've tasted some pretty strong java but never that strong.
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The biggest problem I had with this crusty fella was picking the design to paint on the flour sack apron. I like to paint a design that is unique to each figure but I also have to take into account that the person purchasing him will want something that's recognizable. As this one will probably be sold at the Dayton Show vs. a Cowboy event I went with the latter. If you want designs for flour sacks just go to Google and type "Flour Sack Art" and you'll get all kinds to choose from.
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Back a moment to Cowboy Coffee, here's how I fix it we we cook from our wagon. I have a 2 gallon pot that I fill almost full with water. I bring that to a rolling boil and then put in a heaping cup of ground coffee and give it a good stir. After the water is back to a good boil I give it a minute or two before I slowly pour in a cup of cold water and then set it back from the fire. That cold water will take the grounds to the bottom. Sure, you'll still get some grounds in your cup when it's poured but they'll settle to the bottom and besides...that's part of the experience. And that experience is something you'll never find at Starbucks no matter how much they charge you for that cup of joe.
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Anyway, I hope you like this piece and if you're in the neighborhood of Coffeyville, Kansas on October 4 you can drop by our Chuckwagon and I'll pour you a steaming cup of real Cowboy Coffee! Might even throw in a Dutch Oven biscuit!
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More photos in the Gallery.

Cowboy Coffee

As I haven't carved a Cook for quite sometime and as the wife and I will be heading up to Coffeeville, Kansas with our Chuckwagon the first of October for Dalton Defender Days, I thought I'd whip out another little piece to set on the Chuck Box lid. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to sell it!
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Not much new with this one as I've pretty well explained the process of making him. The cup is made from tin roof flashing which I polished up after soldering and gave a coat of clear laquer. I decided to just use the horseshoe mount to keep the cost of the piece down. I haven't decided on what type of design to use on the apron but will try and come up with something unique to make him different from the others.
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Anyway, hope you like him. A few more photos in the Gallery and comments welcome as always.

From Wood to Bronze

Several years ago I thought I'd have one of my pieces cast in bronze to see whether the wood medium would transfer over to bronze. For those of you unfamiliar with the bronze process here is a link that will fully explain just what is involved. One of the most important things to consider and remember before you start is that dealing with bronze is not an inexpensive process. Normally the foundry you choose will want it's money up front. They will give you a cost for the molds and for another for each casting. Have you ever wondered why the artist always offers a "precast" price on a piece before it's cast? Well, this is why......he doesn't have the money to do it on his own. Anyway, here is that link:
www.artworksfoundry.com/process/casting.htm
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Here is how this process worked for me: I paid a visit to the Bronze Horse Foundry in Pawhuska, Oklahoma to talk over my project and to get an idea of just how much this was going to cost. I wanted to have 20 castings made to keep the edition small enough so I could afford it. They gave me the figure for the molds and the first casting, after that each new casting would be made on demand. I then completed the set of boots and turned them over to the foundry along with the money for the molds and the first copy.
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When the first wax casting was complete I checked it over, found it okay and gave the go ahead again for the first bronze. You can just imagine how I was feeling at the time.....Wow! My own bronze!
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A month later I got a call from the foundry saying that the cast was complete and ready for my okay and the final step....the patina. I would have loved to have been able to watch them pour the metal into the mold but Pawhuska is a ways from Jay so I missed that step. Anyway, on arrival I found my little pair of boots a bright and shiny piece of metal with a few weld marks where they were permanently fixed to the base. The foundry owner, an artist himself, placed the piece on a platform and with a torch started applying chemicals to get the look I specified. In short order the process was complete and I was on my way home with my little piece of artistic immortality. Someday I hope to have one of my Cowboys reproduced in bronze but that's a ways down the road yet.
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Oh......and those twenty copies? I have two left! If you think you might be interested they're $450.00 each.
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More photos in the Gallery and I've left them big so you can really see how the detail was reproduced.

Billy The Kid

This is a little carving I did off of that famous photo of Billy. The only change I made was to place his rifle in his hand instead of having him holding by the tip of the barrel with the butt on the ground. I like the way it turned out.
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Here's an interesting piece of information on Billy that I always found amusing...it's from Wikipedia:
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"While Billy the Kid was right-handed, it was widely assumed in the 20th century that he was left handed. This belief stemmed from the fact that the only known photograph of Bonney, an undated ferrotype, shows him with a Model 1873 Winchester rifle in his right hand and a gun belt with a holster on his left side, where a left-handed person would typically wear a pistol. The belief became so entrenched that in 1958, a biographical film was made about Billy the Kid called The Left Handed Gun starring Paul Newman. Late in the 20th century, it was discovered that the familiar ferrotype was actually a reverse image. This version shows his Model 1873 Winchester with the loading port on the left side. All Model 1873s had the loading port on the right side, proving the image was reversed, and that he was, in fact, wearing his pistol on his right hip. Even though the image has been proven to be reversed, the idea of a left-handed Billy the Kid continues to widely circulate. Perhaps because many people heard both of these arguments and confused them, many hold the belief that Billy the Kid was ambidextrous. Many Billy the Kid sites describe him as such, and the idea of him being ambidextrous is still widely isdisputed."
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I think it's fun to try and render a carving from old photos of real people.

Bound For Rendezvous!

Here is a really nice piece I did quite a few years ago. It was the first one where I experimented with making water so it was really a lot of fun figuring out just how to do it. The technique is really quite simple, especially in this case as the canoe is resting flat on the water. After the water base was cut and the canoe completed and painted and the edges of the blank whittled to look like rippling water I used a hot glue gun to build up the waves against the prowl and down along the sides of the canoe. Next I radiated strings of glue out from the front of the boat to look like waves would look if the boat was traveling forward. Next came the paint which was just acrylics. The last step was to brush on clear acrylic resin. It took a couple coats to get a really smooth surface free of bubbles.
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A collector out in California has this one and I'm sure it's one of his favorites as it continues to be one of mine.

A Piece From The Past

Here is a carving I did back in 1974 that I've always been proud of. You might recognize the pose if you're familiar with Frederic Remington's work. It's from an oil painting titled "Stampede by Lightening" which hangs at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. I did a copy of the painting back in 1974 and once I became interested in carving thought it would look great in 3D.
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As you can see when comparing it to the actual painting I changed a few

things.....did away with the rain and added a lasso. He's mounted on a piece of redwood with a 1/4" steel rod. The figure is nothing to be real proud of but the horse and it's paint job is quite good, at least I think so.
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There are no other photos in the Gallery section. Comments always welcome.

Tequila Sunrise - Finished

With the Grandkids back safely in Bahrain I was able to wrap this piece up this morning. I think he turned out pretty good. I was having a problem trying to settle on a name for the village sign until I looked up Tequila and saw that it is a village in Mexico. Just by chance we had a bottle of Jose Cuervo in the liquor cabinet so I spirited it off to the shop, taking a sip on the way to get the true feel of this fella's situation. If you're familiar with the Cuervo label you'll recognize it. Once the sign was painted I thought it wouldn't really look complete without a few bullet holes so I drill a few random shots and then used the burner to lightly outline each hole. Makes a nice little touch.
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More photos in the Gallery and I left them large so you can really zoom in on that poor fella. As always, comments welcome.

Tequila Sunrise - Now For Some Paint!

Just how that poor fella can sleep with those two around is beyond me!!! You might remember these two smiling faces from my post some time back on making a paper manikin. Well....they're back! That's Hannah with an "H" on the left and Miriam with an "M" on the right.
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I've posted some photos of the piece from all angles in the Gallery section. If you compare them to those in the first post you will note some subtle changes. His sombrero has been lowered a bit as I thought it was setting too high on his noggin. I've added the right arm and as it's hidden from view when looking at the carving from the front I didn't bother having the hand do anything but just relaxing on the stone. I made the base out of a piece of 2" red oak with gives the piece a little more authority than a thinner one. To me the base is what makes the carving....any carving into something above what you normally see. The stone is mounted by three 1/4" bolts epoxied into holes drilled into the stone and bolted on from beneath. I've also added spurs. The name of the town on the sign is still up in the air.
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There are a few more photos in the Gallery and as always comments are welcome.

Tequila Sunrise

I've been having so much fun with the Mexican theme I thought I'd do one more but try a complete figure this time. I have done this little scene a couple times before but have always used a Cowboy as the character. While it's basically the same thing the addition of the sombrero completely changes the overall look. Also, instead of making the normal scenic base I thought the use of a material more closely associated with the southwest would be neat. Scrounging through my collection of rocks I fould the one he's setting on. It's a piece of Caprock from the Palo Duro canyon we picked up a few years ago while horseback riding in that beautiful place. The pole he's leaning against will be the sign on the outskirts of the town he just blew his months pay in. The hardwood base is just a scrap one I had laying around so it might change before the scene is finished.

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There are a few more photos in the Gallery some of which show that I have yet to attach his right arm. This will give you another look at how I go about this part of constructing the figure. The area where the arm will attach has been sanded completely flat and as you can see there is a lot of gluing surfact to hold the piece coming.

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I hope you like him and as always comments are welcome.

Santiago...Up For Auction!!!

I just knew it was going to happen. Santiago was picked up by the Border Patrol just west of El Paso while trying to

smuggle over another dozen undocumented aliens. The Judge says if he can round up some dinero by next Friday he'll release him under house arrest so here's your chance to help this poor unfortunate and at the same time add a nice little carving to your collection.

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The Auction is over with a winning bid of $200.00. I appreciate all the interest this little experiment generated and down the line just might do it again.

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Since I posted the photo above I added a little more value to the piece by giving the fella a gold earring and a nameplate.

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Thanks again.