Cardinal…

Owl…

Butterfly…

Eagle…

Another great carving show with the Metro Carvers Club. I want to thank everyone that stopped by and chatted with me.

And my Turkey got a blue ribbon for the whittling category in the contest.

Here at the Carving Show this weekend in Madison Heights. Looked like a great turnout today. As always, I met a lot of great people and looking forward to tomorrow.

Come on down and say hello to me and my birds.

The pictures don’t due it justice. There is a shade of pink in the wood that you rarely ever see.

This is my eagle friend that I have hanging above my computer monitor at my office in Detroit. It is constantly moving from the air movement which brings it alive… city bird.

Here is my smallest fan  bird carving to date. This is a piece of scrap wood that I would usually throw away. And yes, I did have to use tweezers to fan the feathers out. Dimensions are 1″x1.5″x2″

So, my father-in-law, Jeff, had a special request for me. He wanted me to carve an owl for him. Since I had never carved an owl before, I said, “sure!” Well, this wasn’t going to be a fan bird, just a straight up carving, which I typically don’t do.

The story is, his mother passed away a few years back, and at the house he grew up in, she had planted a Catalpa tree in the back yard over 40 years ago. His mother loved owls, and it would mean a lot to him if I carved an owl from a piece of that very Catalpa tree that his mother planted. I am no expert carver, but this is what I came up with:

I kept it simple.  Not a lot of detail. I ended up sanding it and gave it a coat of Danish oil to bring out the grain. Thanks for looking!

I have made angels before, but only with wings on the back. I was trying to think of a way to also incorporate a fan for the angel’s gown. So this is my attempt. I just wanted to see how the body and the fan for the wings and gown would come together. I think I am on the right track.