A fitting gift. "Take Her to Sea Mickey" is being given to a friend who just happens to enjoy Disney Cruises with his wife. Yes, he is a long time Disney Cast Member and most helpful to me as I work in my new Disney role.
The Tupelo wood worked up easy but for some reason this carving took much longer than I expected. There are three pieces that will make up this carving.
First the ship's wheel and pedestal.
The ship's wheel is easy to draw. A compass and ruler made a quick template. The pedestal too was an easy design. Cutting out the ship's wheel however, required some delicate sanding. I found out after I had the ship's wheel cut out and was well into positioning Mickey on the base that the ship's wheel was too large. So, another wheel had to be cut along with resizing the pedestal.
As the process was similar I didn't want to be too redundant and add the resizing photos.
Sanding the spokes was simple. Cut a long strip of fine sandpaper, wrap it around the spoke and pull on the sides
I had to wrestle with just how to fasten the wheel to the pedestal. I gave up on the screw idea and just went with gluing the center to the wheel.
Mickey is always a challenge to me. His muzzle and nose seem to be my nemesis. Drawing the template is easy but the fun begins as you cut away the pencil lines!
The band saw saves lots of time but you need to "think" ahead not to cut too much wood away.
There's continuous looking and checking your carving with the photos you work from.
Working the face is always frustrating. I find working the overall piece helps rather than working one specific area at a time. Sometimes as I work a piece, I can become hung up on one aspect, so I move to another area to reduce frustration. Eventually, you get to a point where the overall figure develops.
Once you can "see" the caricature you can work the details.
This is the point where I realized the ship's wheel was too large. Mickey will be glued to the base by inlaying the wood under his feet. As you can see if I lower him another 1/2" the wheel will be in his muzzle!
The photo I used for the image placed Mickey between the wheel and the pedestal. You can do that in a two-dimensional photo but not in this case. Therefore, Mickey was going behind the wheel. That meant the pedestal will be in front of him and it needed to be reduced in size. And that made all the difference.
Mickey had plenty of wood under his feet for gluing but I had to add a piece to the pedestal.
The Disney Cruise Line Logo on the pedestal was a last minute thought. (I prefer not to waste space.)
Besides, as they say, "the devil is in the details!"
Oh, remember I mentioned that Mickey's nose and muzzle always manage to frustrate me. Well, with Mickey all painted and ready for his clear top coat, I decided to remove his old nose and replace it with another. It was also positioned higher on his muzzle.
"Take Her to Sea Mickey!"
