A little while back I was asked if I would consider doing a whittling demonstration, with proper social distancing etc., during our town’s “mostly” (COVID canceled 2020) annual holiday event (Sutton Chain of Lights 2021) the first Saturday of December at a local Artisan’s Shop (if you can believe that). Now, I am not a speedy whittler, I am sure it would make for fascinating viewing to watch me chipping away for 8-10 hours on one of my typical projects…
I figured if I was going to do this, first I need to find a quicker project, second I need to get some practice in so that I can reasonably repeat it (this in itself is a novel idea as I have almost never repeated anything I have carved to date…).
Luckily I ran across an article from December 2017 in Woodcarving Illustrated by Bob Kozakiewicz that seemed perfect and a suitable subject for the Christmas Holiday flavor of the event, Santa ornaments!! At just 1x1x6, its an easy to come by size for my current stock of Basswood and should (per the article) take about 2 hours from block to ready for finish (paint etc.).
You know Bob is a smart guy, the first one DID take me just about 2 hours (happens to be the one on the left above), having now completed 4 I have shaved some time off of that with the practice and settling on the right knife (the last one I did with my Drake Angled 1 1/4 Detail, which is just about perfect for me and this little guy). Side note, I really love my Drake’s, some find the points too fine and they ARE fine, but they work great for me and the ergonomic handle is a good fit for my hand. This is actually the first Santa I have ever whittled, these guys are just plain fun to carve and I have to say Bob’s design is pretty darn cute! There is ample enough flexibility to tweak the basic pattern to keep things interesting.
After carving 4 or them, I figured I may as well work on my painting (which I also rarely do, but if you are going to make an ornament, kinda seems like ya should add some color…). I am normally a natural finish guy, but the painting on these two came out pretty OK. Just acrylic washes followed by some Howard’s Feed-n-Wax and a bit of “elbow grease”.
Back to the event itself. I will be setup at The Artisan’s at Polly’s at the Common, along side my Photographer wife ( April Eaton Brown of Tiny Leaf Designs Photography) and our dear friend and painter Linda Sinacola This is a free demonstration, I am not trying to sell things or teach anything (I am just a beginner myself). I just want to share a hobby I love with anyone that may be interested. If that causes anyone else to try their hand at it so much the better for the community!