She Gets it on Friday…

I have been working on a carving to give to a friend who is retiring after the better part of a lifetime working at the Post Office. She is still more or less sane. A little less, than more I think.

I have done a number of these over the past seven or eight years and some have turned out not too bad if I do say so myself. Some have been somewhat less than perfect, and some should have stayed blocks of wood. The thought is there, and I really don’t care too much if they use them for fire wood. Sure I do, but a gift once given is a gift gone. I try to find some trait or characteristic that I can incorporate into the carving which will indicate just who the person is. Not always successful, but I do try.

                                                                   

Some carvings are a lot easier to do than others and I‘m not sure if it is because the wood is better or that I am swept away in the moment. Carving, like anything else, is an outlet for your creative juices and kind of puts you in an almost Zen like trance. Not too deep a trance of course, after all you are working with what are basically razor sharp knives. The carving takes hours and there are quite literally thousands and thousands of chips carved from the block. Once the carving is complete, it needs to be painted. Sometimes the painting is what makes or breaks the gift.

I try to put other items on the mounting block which will give a hint as to what the person will do once retired. Generally I have fun doing the carvings and get a little depressed when I give them away. They are after all a part of me since I created them.

This one for Donna I am finding very difficult. I have found that women are hard for me to carve. They are a lot more concerned about their appearance than men are generally speaking. I also have a hard time rendering women in wood. With a man I can carve a huge nose or big hips and they don’t really care, but I think women are a trifle more critical. I want these things kept and loved if possible. So far I have carved two heads for Donna and neither one looks to be right. I am going with the least offensive one and hope that Donna isn’t too touchy. I have tomorrow to finish the paint job and mounting, but since it is cold and snowy outside I have all day.

She gets it on Friday…