A Prince among wood sprites?
Surely he must be! Look he has a crown on!?
I’ve put in place a self-imposed ban on making these sprites as they seem to be quickly taking over the house! Until I start making more again I’m just going to drip feed the existing ones to you!
Available to buy here.
I have blogged about these before, so won’t bore you with the details again. I have been trying to get some decent individual shots of them though and having struggled with lighting and props I finally managed to get some pictures for the shop, I’m rather please with them so I thought I might as well share them.
Click to view full sized images, there will be more to follow as I upload them.
These sprites are available for sale here.
This will probably be the final batch of plant pokes until after Christmas as ‘other priorities’ take over … also, the workshop gets hellish cold at this time of year due to gaping gaps under the doors and roof which may as well not be there when the cold winter gales get going!
Click image for full view!
As ever these were made using the power carver, actually my new power carver following the untimely demise of my last one. I went for a different model and whilst it doesn’t have the same grunt as it’s predecessor it’s actually not too bad once you get used to it’s foibles! Next time I may need to invest in one of the heavier duty motors.
There’s a good chance that I’ll be putting the power carver to greater use in the future for larger carvings, currently I exclusively use traditional hand tools for these but the amount of time this takes just even from a roughing out point-of-view can be excruciating … time will tell. Still at least the traditional tools can be used in the house … by the fire!
I’ve developed a real joy out of making these little characters, generally I’ll closet myself away in the workshop, put on some Razorlight and get into a general carving frenzy.
This batch were made using some of the last remains of the silver fir and elm, although I do have some european larch, Birch and Ash waiting in the wings for when the mood next takes me.
Here are a few group photos for your pleasure:
As much as I’d love to upload these to the shop we’re continuing to stock up for a glut of craft fayre’s in the run up to Christmas, our main event will be in Dundee with a couple of smaller events more locally. Details will follow in due course anyway.
I’ve finally completed a new set of plant pot ornaments (plant pokes), extending the range to include a smaller variety of ‘wood sprites’ measuring between 3″ – 4″ tall as well as the usual range measuring between 6″ – 8″ in height.
These particular plant pokes have been carved in either silver fir or elm (the majority being the fir), before being treated with oil to preserve them against decay in moist plant pots and finally having their uppers finished in a tough varnish.
As ever every piece is an individual with it’s own character, everyone has their favourites and every sprite will shortly be looking for a new home. These sprites have been specifically created for a forthcoming event, details of which will be given nearer the time, although if you’re particularly keen to re-home one of the wee souls drop me an e-mail using the contact details on the contact page.
The items in the uppermost image are priced at £6.50 / each, whilst their larger counterpartsin the lower image are £8.50 (incl. postage and packing).
Work in progress:
- paper pulp sculpted head (fund-raising project)
- paper pottery bowls
- paper pulp sculpture
Ah yes, finally! This has, without doubt, been the single most time consuming carving I’ve done, normally I keep track of the time taken in order to assign some sort of meaningful price to the object, however, as the hours ticked by and began to appraoch 20 hours of blister inducing carving I decided to ‘forget’ to record anymore hours?!
It did however give me a good chance to get to know this particular character:
Larry is something of an unpredictable fellow prone to contradictory outbursts espousing first one position in an argument before immediately taking up the other, of course this may have something to do with the argumentative mouth-piece that resides on the back of his head.
Some have suggested that Larry has become unstable over the years, no doubt as a result of continually having to justify himself to, well, himself. Inevitably his ’sap’ pressure has risen to levels where his health really has been compromised, indeed, you can see it in his bulging eye!
It maybe won’t come as a particularly huge surprise that Larry is indeed, a piece of Larch wood, taken from an over-sized beast of a tree that had taken over my sisters garden and requires a certain amount of ‘pruning’. It’s an incredibly pale wood, almost pastel white, with a grain that’s almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wood. It creates a very subtle contour which is best seen in, well, in real life!
The finish here is acrylic paint with a coating of a couple of hard wearing varnishes.
I now have a shed full of this wood, much will be burnt in the stove although I’ve already picked out a couple of prime pieces for carving, not least of all a trunk section with two partially intertwined branches rising out of it … branches doesn’t really describe them though, maybe slightly smaller trunks. It’s about 3 or 4 feet tall and screaming out to be carved.
I may need largely gouges though!
The little owl has been floating about for a while and I was surprised he’s not featured in a previous blog entry, he’s made out of ecospun felt, with recycled polyester stuffing, and old buttons. I think he’s a rather cute wee fellow, especially with the little ‘o’ embroidered on the front. With luck Jolene will see fit to make some freinds for the fellow, but as things stand he’s a one of a kind!
Available in the shop.
I’ve also been trying to get some decent pictures of the ‘plant pokes’ for the shop, but hell have they been acting up! I don’t know whether it’s been the poor lighting or just their irregular shapes but it’s been a complete ‘mare trying to get in focus shots!
Available in the shop.
SOLD OUT! Please contact for custom orders.
This is the first larger carving I have completed using my new gouges, they have essentially allowed me to abandon the set of craft knives I had been using and at the same time has also eliminated the fear I had of breaking the rather flimsy knives. The gouges have certainly made life a lot less difficult, making cutting and shaping far simpler and far less frustrating!
Dougie Fir had been living at the foot of our garden when I discovered him during some routine maintenance. Seemingly he’s been there for some time living amongst the rather awkward and jaggy Sitka family of wood sprites. To be honest I think he was grateful to be rescued from amongst their clutches.
Generally he seems like a bit of a sad fellow, his sad eyes show the lie of his forced grin. Personally I just think he needs some decent company and a good cuppa tea, but I think he’s disconcerted by his current view from where he can see his former captors. In this case I’m sure that a bit of distance will do more to heal his wounds than any encouragement I can offer.
I have also used paints on this carving to a far greater extent than I have on previous carvings where I have limited things to eyes and lips. On this occasion the entire carving has been painted, either with the application of various washes or with more detailed work. The over-all effect has come out better than I expected and I think it’s an aspect of the carving that I shall continue to develop.
This item is available for sale in the shop: http://madestuffshop.etsy.com
Possibly one of the most important aspects of whittling or carving with knives, aside from actually having a knife or two, is making sure that those knives are sharp. Any fool can tell you that you’re more likely to have a nasty accident with a bluntknife than you are with a sharp knife, how to get your knives sharp though and how to keep them that way is something that, for many, is shrouded in mystery.
Probably for about the first year of my carving I was one of those people who just didn’t get it, and my knives became duller and duller … the truth is you really don’t notice it a great deal until you do sharpen them, then you find yourself thinking “Wow! This is so much easier now?!”.
A huge amount of the information online takes great joy going into the deepest detail about different sharpening stones to use, the different ‘grits’ available, the different types of steel, angles, techniques, approaches, yada yada yada … it’s all terribly dull (no pun intended!).
Here’s the key points:
The video below is probably the most straight-forward that I’ve found and dispenses with the jargon and angle obsession that makes many of the other ‘how to’ videos so very tiresome, except for knife geeks … obviously.
If you’re looking to hone your sharp knife, maintaining the edge in between sharpening sessions, but aren’t sure about the technique the video below give a fair indication of a few techniques you may wish to try. Remember though, honing is not sharpening, it’s purely maintenance.
Tags: carving, craft, harder than it looks, knives, sharpening, whittle, whittling
carving, craft, knife sharpening | Alasdair | 
3 August, 2009 9:03 am | 
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I’ve been chatting recently with my sister about what one might do with 200-odd left-over roof slates, how she might engrave, decorate, and otherwise use them in a crafty capacity. Since I have a rotary hobby tool I use for some wood carving and grinding stones to use with it I suggested I’d see what you could do with it before she made the investment herself. By coincidence Jolene and I have also been looking at engraving, carving and polishing pebbles, although we’ve not made any in-roads there yet so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to lay aside the sandpaper for a while and break-out the grinding stones!
I made a few attempts, just messing more than anything, trying out different shapes and the like with limited success. What I did come away with though was this little face, nothing particularly exciting but I think it could be a start of something and with that my thoughts return to the pebbles!
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