The Taco Lovin' Indians Fan, Orange Bird

Orange Bird is a favorite of our next "One of a Kind Wood Carving" Recipient. However, with a little help from another co-Cast Member, I tweaked Orange Bird just a tiny bit. Audra loves the Cleveland Indians and can't resist Tacos.

 

Here's how Orange Bird worked up....

 

Trying something new here. I've decided to make a paper template rather than sketch the piece directly onto the front of the wood blank. It dawned on me that it's much easier to correct an image and cut it out on hard paper stock than the actual piece of wood. The heavier paper stock of a cereal box works great.

Once the outline is satisfactory, the piece is ready for the band saw.Due to his head being a rather large orange, I'll need to add his beak! 

The band saw makes quick work of most of the excess wood.





 

Now the piece is ready to be "roughed out." By now many of you know I carve with a MasterCarver rotary tool. (Much like a dental drill.) This stage of the piece can appear pretty rough. At first a very course burr is used so care must be taken so as not to remove too much wood.

 

As the piece begins to take more definition, smaller and finer burrs are utilized.

Now the fun begins, we can begin to work out the details of the piece.

 Oops! After a closer look at his photo, I notice his feet were incorrect. A wedge was needed to fill the large gap between his toes.

 

 

 Orange Bird needs a bucket to hold all the Tacos he enjoys!

 

  Three Tacos are prepared for him; one in his hand and the others in his bucket. (Not to mention just how many are in his belly!)

Finally, the piece is rubbed/smoothed prior to adding paint.

All the pieces are sealed and ready to come alive with color.

 

Orange Bird's Disney trademark of course.



 

The Cleveland Indians logos.



 

Hi Bucket of Tacos! He's all set to be sent home with his new owner.



 

The Taco Lovin' Indians Fan, Orange bird!



 

 

 

 

The Airborne Runnin' Chugger

The ideas for this piece stem from the recipients friends. Chris is in the Airborne, loves to run and has been known to frequent more than a few Craft Beer establishments.

 

First off, we have the runner in military athletic attire sporting his Campaign hat with a keg of his favorite brew strapped to his back. The keg, I call the "P.I.R.P! Which stands for, Personal Imbibing Runner's Pack! Of course, the tank and carrier are molded to the individual. (You'll notice that the keg is not round at the top of his back.) To continue the storyline, the P.I.R.P. has a special internal regulator that allows the individual to draw in the elixir without the highly compressed liquid being forced into the drinker. It works similarly to the SCUBA tank only with a liquid.

 

The carving starts out as a 3"x4"x7" block of tupelo. Centerlines are identified on the block and an image of the piece is outlined.

Recently, I've been trimming the entire image from the face of the block about 1/8" thick and then edging it out so I can use the piece as a template. In this case, I used the template for the left and right side of the figure.

 

 Below, the template has been carefully trimmed and then outlined onto the block.

Next the band saw removes as much of the bulk from the figure as possible. 

 

 Much of the bulk can now be removed with a burr. This step begins to bring out the overall figure.

 

 

 

 Here, you can see by simply flipping the template, the right side can easily be outlined.

 

  From this point on the figure begins the reducing and finish shaping stages

  

 

This is the first piece I've carved that will stand on one leg. I came up with the idea to insert a metal rod into the foot/leg the runner will be positioned on. The concern is that the leg may not be strong enough to withstand very much handling. The runners left leg is somewhat thicker than his right leg. Having to run a 3/16" drill up his leg to his thigh confirmed my decision to leave some thickness to his leg. (After all this work, I really didn't want the drill cutting out from the side of his leg!)

The rod is inlaid flush into the gluing extension at the bottom of the sneaker.

The base and runner are sealed and ready for color. The thin plastic tube between the pieces is the drinking tube for the keg.

Here's the finished piece, "The Airborne Runnin' Chugger."