They say all good things must come to an end.

Maybe. But at least this has come to an end. I will be migrating my website from blogspot.com to Word Press.

My new website is ericowensart.com

You can find me on Instagram as Eric Owens Carver.

You can also follow along with my YouTube journey. My channel is Eric Owens Carving.

Check it out and stay tuned. I will be updating my site to link any of my Ebay or Etsy (Eric Owens Art) items to just a click on my new site, ericowensart.com.

Thanks for being with me for the last several years and I hope you follow along with me.

Patterns

 Here are the patterns for my latest Native American caricature carving.

Thanks for watching!

      I guess this Covid-19 mess has hit us all, to varying degrees. At first I was eager to relax and spend some time at home, but after a summer at home, no travel, no classes and nothing new, it is getting to be too much. But if that is what it takes to kick this thing in its a#@, then I will stay home, wear a mask and social distance.

     Here are the finished products form my video series on carving from a block of wood. I hope you enjoy the pictures. One carving was finished before the series, and the other was the one we finished in the video carving series.

I hope you enjoy them. Thanks for looking.

Staying at home (otherwise known as "practicing for retirement")

     I realize this time of "Stay at home" social distancing is harmful to some in our communities, especially those who lost their job and are having to file for unemployment or even bankruptcy. I am lucky in still having a job and being able to work from home, as is my wife. We are lucky, incredibly so, to have savings in the bank, food in the pantry and hobbies to keep our hands busy and our minds off the crisis. We can only pray that we can get back to some semblance of normalcy soon and that our country, and the globe, can bounce back stronger and better than ever.

     I have been busy carving, creating more Youtube videos and creating more class projects. I want to create a series of carvings that can be used for classes. The series would be based on our new-found heroes (although they have been with us behind the scenes for a long time), such as nurses, doctors, EMTs, firefighters, other medical personnel, truck drivers, delivery personnel, police officers, military members and so many others. 

     The carvings would be simple, specifically for intermediate and advanced carvers, although some beginners could tackle the project. Of course, that assumes we are back to being able to mingle together soon, taking classes and enjoying each other's company.

     I have been able to create some carvings as well during this time.

     These carvings are from either blanks or from roughouts. The first two pictures are of a carving I did from a roughout  from Dale Green, a CCA member from Utah. His cowboy roughout is one I picked up in Provo last year, and was fun to carve.

     This carving comes from a blank created by Marv Kaisersatt. I purchased this one from Woodcarvers Warehouse. He was a lot of fun to create, especially his smiling face.

     This one was from a roughout from Marv Kaisersatt, if I am not mistaken. I am not sure, as it was started by another carver, and I received it from him. The right hand and the left foot had been carved, and I finished the rest. It did not come with a head, so I had to create one that looked like it would fit in with the carving.

     This carving was one I bought somewhere, but I can't recall. It was quite old as the wood was sort of dried out and hard to carve, but still fun to carve. It is a Phil Bishop roughout. Phil and Vicky Bishop are a carving wife and husband from Oklahoma and are long time members of the CCA, the Caricature Carvers of America. I hope to be a good enough carver to be included in their ranks before too long, but we shall see. It is by invitation only. 
     

     So, I hope you all are staying safe, having a great time with family, and have enough provisions, patience and activities to keep you busy during this rough patch in our lives. Look on the bright side. We will certainly have some stories for our grandchildren. and hopefully a few carving heirlooms that can be passed down and talked about. 

     I predict the birth rate will go up significantly in 10 months, possibly as much as the divorce rate! Haha!

     Have a great day!

Time off to get things done

     So I am sitting here waiting for the coronavirus epidemic to die down and things can get back to normal. Looking at the bright side of it, this is giving me time to get some things done. 

     I finished a series of instructional videos, titles "Carving the caricature figure with hand tools". There are 22 videos from start to finish, showing how to take a 2x2x6 inch block and carve it into a figure without using power tools. The only power was getting it cut into a block and using a drill to drill out the space between the legs. It was a fun series and I enjoyed it. I hope it helps a few folks doing a carving without having to go out and purchase a number of expensive tools that they may not have the budget or the room for.

Here is the link for the first video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxQ2z5jDEiY

     I was also asked if I would post the project drawing (pattern) for it. 
This picture is the carving pattern. It is slightly larger but I show how you can adjust it down to fit it into a 6 inch (15 cm)block.

Here is a picture of the "bojangle" carving aid. It allows you to position the figure in a variety of poses to get what you need. They are relatively easy to make in a variety of sizes, just size them down on the computer or on a copy machine. They are held together with brass rivets.

Below are the individual pieces you can make out of stiff cardboard (cereal boxes work perfectly for this). You can then arrange them into almost any pose you want.

This allows you to make a front and back pose for your figure drawing. I do not have one for the sides, but I believe you can take the front and side drawing and figure out the rest. Use similar figures or drawings to finish the side dimensions.

I hope that helps you with your carvings and layout of your figure. These are not my ideas; I am just passing them along. I have seen such noted caricature carvers as Lynn Doughty (outwestgallery.com) and Cleve Taylor (emeritus member of the Caricature Carvers of America) use these to great effect. I hope they help you as well.

Have a great day, stay safe, do some great carving and enjoy!

Too busy to post

Here are my latest. I have just forgot to post lately. My apologies to those who were wondering where I went to. Still here. Enjoy.

 Bark faces. Examples for a class I will teach in December.

Puppy in a stocking ornament. This is also for a class at Woodcraft in Boise.

Santa is a football fan, wearing his favorite colors. This is on his off day.

This cowboy bust turned out really well. I enjoyed carving him. Head and bust are two different pieces.

This bony o.' Cowboy was a pleasure to carve. He is based on a Harold Enlow pattern. I like him. Hope the buyer does as well.

Anyway, I hope to be more attentive to my blog. But if you prefer, I post most of my latest carvings on Facebook or Instagram. See you there, or here, or around the carving table, or in a class, or...............wherever.

Article and teaching

I am extremely pleased to have another carving article in Woodcarving Illustrated magazine. This article is a carving project (step-by-step) on how to carve my sports bears. This is my 2nd entry in the magazine and I hope to have many more.

If anyone is interested in having me come teach a class to your carving club, or for just a group of  carvers, I am available. My contact information is in the magazine. I can be reached at boiseowens@gmail.com

I will also be teaching a class for the Salem, Oregon carving group, the Capital Area Woodcarvers on August 9-10 of this year. It promises to be fun. I taught there last year, and am returning with new projects. I have some projects such as my "First Date" project, my "Leaning Hobo", my "Sports Bears" (see above), my "Coat of Many Colors" (Joseph from the Old Testament), my elf carving and my "Baby it's cold outside" (snowman wrapped in a quilt) carving. I will also bring a few of some other rojects I have coem up with. But I am working on quite a few other carvings as well. Many of them are just ideas, but I will soon begin to work on examples of  each of the ideas I have in my head. Hopefully I can get some carving classes for clubs to call me about. cross my fingers.

Thanks for listening. Stay safe and happy carving.

Teaching

     We just got back from teaching and attending classes at the Tri-Cities Woodcarvers Club Rendezvous in Kennewick, Washington.. We always have a great time there every year, learning new techniques, greeting old friends and making new ones. Due to lagging attendance and interest, numbers were down from previous years and revenue dipped a little, but all in all we had a great time.

I will be teaching more at the Woodcraft store in Boise, as I am now also teaching intermediate carving classes along with the beginning carving classes. Woodcraft agreed to teach beginner classes every other month and intermediate classes every other month. So the beginner and intermediate classes will alternate months. Beginning in July, I will teach a fantasy door class as a beginner class, then cottonwood bark faces in August, then a ghost Halloween carving in September, then a face study stick in October, then a dog/cat stocking ornament in November and a gnome in December.

I have outlined about 24 beginner classes, 14 intermediate classes and 30 or so weekend long classes. If you know of any carving club or group that wants me to come teach a carving class, contact me and I will set that up with them. I love teaching and always feel I give a great class for both beginners and intermediate carvers. I look forward to working with any group that wants a good teaching experience. Thanks.

New series of Youtube videos

If you are interested in learning how to carve, check out my latest Youtube carving video series.

On Youtube, check out my channel:  Eric Owens Carving

Thanks.

Christmas sale

Thekla and I did a short, small bazaar at the King of Glory Lutheran Church for the Sons of Norway lodge a few weeks ago. We did OK, but not as good as we had hoped. I will have to promote it a bit more aggressively next year.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from that sale. Thanks for looking.
                                   

New Woodcarving Illustrated article

I will have another Woodcarving Illustrated article coming out sometime next year. I pitched another article on my sports/fan bears, and they accepted. 
Here are the bears I carved for that article.

Thanks for looking.

Finished!

It took me a while but I finally finished the carving article for Woodcarving Illustrated. I am excited to have a 2nd article in WCI. 

I don't know when it will be published, but I suspect it will be next summer or next fall. We shall see.

Now it is on to the sons of Norway show. I will have a booth at that show, and hope to be very successful. A friend of mine challenged me to do some viking carvings, so I will have some at that show, as well as the usual characters posing as Santas, shelf wizards, cowboys, and a few others. Come see us on December 1st at Kings of Glory Lutheran Church from 9-3. You might even catch some lefsa if you get there early enough.

I also want to enter the Caricature Carvers of America competition this year. I have several good ideas I plan on carving. I also hope to line up some teaching dates for some of my designs for next year. 

We shall see!

Thanks for tuning in.

New article

I just received an email from Woodcarving Illustrated on a carving I proposed for an article. They want it and now I have to get moving on getting the article finished.

I proposed my sports bear and they want the article, write-up and pictures by November 15. That's quite a tight time frame, so I better get going. I have already carved a few, and am getting the sequence down correctly. After that I will work on the pictures and captions, as well as the directions, tips, tool list, paint list, etc.

So excited!!! Yay!

Above is an older one I completed and have since sold.

These two I worked on over the weekend.

Thanks for listening and tuning in. Stay tuned. I will let you know which issue it will be featured in.

More vikings

These Vikings are more of the ones I taught in the Salem, Oregon class. I know, Vikings did not put horns on their helmets. But whenever you look at drawings or images of Vikings, they seem to have a lot of horns on their helmets, so I kept the theme going. Besides, they seem to make it more finished with some sort of helmet adornment on them. I plan on doing one with wings on them. 

Interestingly, I read in an armor book that most of their helmets had fur-lined ear flaps that they often would swing up and out of the way when not needed. It was thought that they may have looked like wings,  as Thor is often depicted having on his helmet. That may have given rise to the impression that Vikings put some sort of helmet adornment on their helmets. So anyways, that is why I do it. 

Enjoy the pictures. Thanks!