Pine Tree Studios of New England

As the 1/4 scale carousel horse neared completion I carved a relief version of the head to experiment with techniques and paint schemes.  2023. Recycled eastern white pine, acrylics, polyurethane finish.

This sculpture was inspired by this  Awesome Asparagus Wood Carving Tutorial , some newly acquired wonderful local Eastern White Pine, and my wife's favorite vegetable.

This piece of cherry branch has been kicking around the workshop for ages.  It's suffered from several starts and changes during that time.  When I came across it again I decided it was time to finish it.   2023, Cherry, polyurethane finish.  

 During the 1990s in the infancy of the use of the internet by the general public, an informal email list grew out of conversations on a USENET news woodworking channel. At some point some conversation turned acrimonious and in an effort to bring the group back on topic I offered an original relief pattern of a fisherman to the group suggesting we all have a go at it. The idea was more successful than I had hoped and the conversation turned away from the argument. Ivan Whillock https://whillock.com/ was part of the email list and sent me a private email complimenting me on the idea and offering a great deal of constructive criticism on the original design and my execute of it.  The email managed to both inflate and deflate my ego in just a few lines.  After a few days I returned to the email and read Ivan's guidance and found it was, like most of his writing, invaluable.  I adjusted my original design in my archives and re-carved my relief to incorporate Ivan's sugge...

 I originally published this tutorial online in 1997 on the New England Wood Carvers website and recently I have noticed versions of it missing the attribution.  The tutorial was removed around the time I turned the site over to the person who maintained it after me. Since the original posting, golfball carving came into vogue and this technique works with those as well. It's added here for the benefit of anyone to use.   Cut a 1.25" long piece of 1x1 in half diagonally for your blank. Use a coping or bandsaw to first remove the corners then to make two stop cuts to divide the face into thirds. From now on we will use only the carving knife. Take your knife and cut up to the stop cuts: First from the bottom of what will be the nose to the eyebrows, Second from the mouth area up to the nose. Now remove a chip from the forehead and the chin. Remove a chip from either side of the nose to define the eyebrow. Remove a chip from either side of the mouth to define the top ...

 In May I got word that my dear friend and woodcarving mentor M. Paul Ward had passed.   A  brief biography of Paul  I wrote for Carving Magazine.   Paul's family reached out to me to help them break down his workshop and prepare items from the workshop for donation to the New England Wood Carvers .   The carving below had been started by Paul some time ago, possibly as far back as the 70s or 80s when this style of carving patterns were making the rounds.  A piece broke and I assume that Paul mended the break and it found it's way into the back of his shop until it was discarding during the cleanout. I rescued the piece and with the permission of the family decided to finish it myself.  If you look closely you might spot the mended part. It was quite therapeutic for me to finish something that Paul started. 2023 Walnut, polyurethane finish, personal collection

 This stamp was designed for the students of our taekwondo school.  An original design, heavily influenced by coloring pages found online, it is executed in a silicon based stamp material and fixed to recycled pine to facilitate stamping. The example shirt was colorized with alcohol markers. 2023, mixed media