I mentioned in a previous post that I got into wood carving and making from wanting my daughter to have pieces representing the family pets to play with.
The very first, her Dads dog, is made from a bought Ostheimer dog blank that I then further shaped. Rather it was tried to further shape, with a lot of difficulty, using first try the penknife on her Dads multi tool, second attempt a blunt penknife borrowed from my mum, somehow got it finished with brand new penknife I thought would be fine for a little wood carving. Anyway it did work with a lot of difficulty and the result got painted appropriately. Coated in varnish.
There was also a few 'stone' walls made with random wood offcuts, this wasn't easy without suitable tools either!
After this I went and ordered proper carving knives and some lime wood from Beavercraft in Ukraine and I absolutely love their carving knives and it's what I still use (with a lot added since that first set). The first piece was the black and white cat and I made it from the straight block, making quite slow progress and learning as I went. This got painted and then waxed as a finish, before I discovered this wax isn't really a protective layer and it just rubs off with play and then the stain gets taken off. As my daughter has aged it's not got worse so I haven't refurbished it yet.
The next make, tortoiseshell cat, I bought my first scroll saw to shape it a little before I then started carving it. Loved making this one. This piece is finished with the Tiny Land sealer which I was using right up to finding I couldn't get my Storm Kelpies prototype pieces to pass the UKCA conformity soak tests and switched to something else.
From the family pets I started making characters from favourite stories and a lot of things out of offcuts. I started to develop ideas about Scottish themed things I wanted to make especially wildlife pieces I couldn't find from other makers and this lead into starting prototype making for Storm Kelpie Workshop.
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