Warped Wing Whale Video
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Category: woodcarving
Warped Wing Whale Video
St Nicholas Carvings
The following are examples of the hundreds of these carvings representing the gift givers of Christmas. Each one has a deep history to the region and is based on these legends. St Nicholas is most commonly known, but Julesnisse is from the Norway region. Belsnickles are German based. Interestingly many of these legends have a sidekick or helper as well such as the terrifying German Krampus.
Warped Wing Barrel Aged Whale
Great projects begin with great designs and this was an incredible design from noted illustrator John Pattison. This is our second collaboration for Warped Wing Brewery. We also did the Baltic Argonaut project in 2015. John did the design work for this mythical beast and helped at many critical design decisions on this massive 5′ long project.
The whale initially weighed over 75 pounds and was made from a single 12′ long piece of basswood that was cut up and glued up in the rough shape of the design.
The cardboard mockup was essential to getting the shapes right.
The project was so big I worked on it hanging on the wall to visualize how it would look when finished.
A tale of two Snowmen
Several years ago I made the snowman below as a gift. One year it got misplaced and was assumed lost. Another year went by and I realized it would never be found. Another year or two went by when I got around to remaking it.
I did not remember that there was a photo of Mr. Snowman and made it from memory. As expected within months of finishing the new Snowman the original was found, albeit with broken arms. The fact that they are so similar shows that I have reached the point of working consistently.
St Patrick
This carving was a commission piece based on a stained glass window the customer liked in his local church in Middletown, Ohio.
The Academy Award for best woodcarving in a feature film goes to…
After the Toxic Brew Greenman show the propmaster for an upcoming movie contacted me to carve some figures for “A Kind of Murder”. This movie was filmed slightly south of here in Cincinnati, Ohio and starred Jessica Biel.
Apparently the murder was a woodcarver who was not very good and made some sinister figures. Unfortunately the woodcarving scenes were cut in editing. The figures can be seen for about 5 seconds on a windowsill while the murder is drinking a beer.
Regardless my work was in a Hollywood release premiered at the Tribeca Film festival.
Santa Carvings
Here are a few of my 2015 Santa  carvings in work.  If you are interested in purchasing a Santa Carving this year  or want to go to the Santa Show this year please send me an email.  The show will be in Middletown Ohio in November.
The unfortunate tale of 2 geckos
I had made a red gecko that was on my studio wall for several months with no interested customers. The prevailing advise was that it was the wrong color and should be green. The only way to change the color is to paint over it with opaque thick layers of paint. One key signature of my work is thin layers of transparent stains built up to show the wood underneath. This left a really unfortunate option of carving off the top layer of stains and restraining it. If you think this is a painful process you are right on target. Granted it is only removing a thin layer, but any errors can ruin the piece since it was carved to exactly the right shape prior to staining.
I put the green one up on the wall ready for willing customers to want to hand him in their home. The first night he was up a local glass artist came in to buy the RED GECKO. Apparently lizards like this gecko are talismans of glass work since they would crawl into the warm embers and he wanted Red to match his studio walls.
So I carved a new Red Gecko for him. Lesson learned was trust your instincts on these projects and don’t go looking for advice or validation from others. I gave the green gecko away.
Steampunk Whale
I entered this piece in a brewery themed show at the Loveland Galleries. The concept was that this steampunk whale was carrying a Pirogue filled with beer kegs from the brewery. The whale has many steampunk influences.
A Pirogue is a type of canoe and more importantly one of my favorite beers from Warped Wing Brewery here in Dayton, Ohio.
The piece sold immediately and more importantly was award first place in the show.
Making St Nicholas look old
Many visitors in the studio comment on on how my St Nicholas carvings look antique. The process is really simple. I stain the carvings with layer after layer of color to build up the richness of the color, but the thin layers allow the figure (grain) of the wood to show through. Then I coat it with a really thick layer of gel stain and wipe it off with clean soft rags. Â The photos show the process.
These are two Russian Dez Morod figures. Â The Gel Stain is applied and ready for wiping. You might have guessed this is a messy process to say the least.