Greg's Bar & Grill: The Sign

This project took me over a year to complete.  Not a years worth of carving, just life taking priority over my hobby.  I am glad to have it completed.  The client wanted this as a gift for her husband.  It will be outside in thier pool area for the summer months and inside for the winter.  It is made of a western red cedar.  I purchased the blank online from PefectPlank.com  It may not have been the best choice for hand carving since it is very brittle and tears out easily.  These planks are intended more for sandblasted signs but I overcame my difficultys by using a dremmel tool rifflers and sanding sticks.  Not what I wanted to do, but sometimes you gotta do what you "have" to do.  My client, being a close friend, was very understanding in regards to the time taken to complete the sign and as it was completed in time for Christmas, she was excited to see it completed.
Dimensions are 3ft wide x 2ft high x 2.5in depth.  I burned it with a propane torch before finishing it whith a spar varnish.  Hope you like the results.

My pattern began as an image from a vintage Polynesian Resaurant menu.  I modified it to more closely resemble a hut from the island of Guam and added some other details to reflect the culture of the ancient Chamorro people of guam.  After the pattern was done on the computer, I used PostoRazor to enlarge it to postor size.  The link is here...http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/ 

Transfering the pattern to the wood. I used a large sheet of carbon paper and a stylus to rub it in.

A little hard to see in the picture, but it is there.  I darkened it using a #2 pencil.

Starting the stop cuts with the router.

Router work finished.

My set up on the front porch.  I like to use other relief carvings as a reference.  These are not pictures of my work, but those of other artists that I admire on the web.

Starting to round out some of the details.  I listen to alot of different music while carving.  I usually try to fit the theme of the carving to get the proper motivation.  So, alot of Hawaiian music, slack-key guitar and of course, The Beach Boys.

A nice place to work.

The main hut taking shape. Those large collums are calle "Latte Stones"

The ancient Chamorro people carved them from the the island coral and built their houses on top of them.  From some of the pictures I've seen, some of them were as high as the roof on a modern single story house.  Amazing!

The "Flying Proa" canoe.

Showing some progress.

Carving complete.  Waiting for finish.

All done.  Burned and finished.

I thank God for the talent he has given me and the patience I have learned.  It is for His glory that I live my life. Amen.

Christmas Tree Harvest

When I was growing up in Southern Oregon, it was a tradition for my family to load up in the old 4 wheel drive Dodge, and head in to the hills to cut down our own Christmas Tree.  Since the move to California, we've had to settle for picking out a tree at Target or Home Depot ever year.  So this year we decided it would be nice to start the tradition of cutting down our own tree with our kids.  Problem here is there is no place to do this legally in Southern California...unless you go to a Christmas tree farm.  Onother problem is...we like Noble firs and they dont grow them in the tree farms down here.  Usually, they only grow Pines trees or Douglas firs and have the Nobles shipped in from Oregon.  There is a place up the coast though, that grows a variety of trees that are similar to the Noble and we decided to go for it and make a vacation out of it.  We first visited Solvang, CA and enjoyed thier anual Christmas Parade and did some shopping.  It was a lot of fun.  My sister in law, her two kids and my mother in law came along also.  We made them stay in a different room. lol.  On the last full day, we drove up to Nipomo, CA and hunted for the perfect family Christmas tree at Holloways Christmas Tree Farm.  that night I shoved them into the back of the mini-van to keep them from being stolen over night.  The next morning, we did our final shopping and then, I decided that it would be smart to keep the trees inside the mini-van for the trip home as I didnt want them to desicate in the 3hour drive.  This was extremly comical getting both of these 6-7 foot trees to fit and still allow three kids to sit comfortably in the middle section.  I wish I had taken pictures of this process because it is just too crazy to explain it and I'm not that good of a writer.  So, anyhow...here are som pics from the trip...

Thanksgiving Visit

An old friend from way back in the day came to visit me and my family for Thanksgiving.  He is a pilot in the Marine Corps and is about to retire in a year or so.  We owe him our gratitude, as he has served 2 tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.  Plus, he's just  a great guy.  His name is Tony and he reads this Blog sometimes so, leave a comment for him if you would.  (Of course, he may be the only person who reads this Blog in which case maybe he should just say hello or something. lol)

Debo's Latte Stone

Ok, so while I was waiting for material for the next big project, I was able to knock out a Latte Stone for the son of my wife's good friend, the same person who ordered the BIG Latte Stone last year.  It took me just under two weeks, working part time of course.  It is about 14" tall and 5' diameter.  The wood is
Blue Palo Verde (Cercidium floridum.)  It was given to my by a man that I go to Church with and it was a pruning from a tree on his property.  This branch had been drying on my porch for about 3 years and it never checked.  It was a pleasure to carve having a nice tight grain and not too hard.  I carved the basic shape with my large mallet tools and did the warrior and lettering with palm gouges and the Dremel.  Lightly burned with a propain torch. 

 

So without further ado....

Work In Progress (WIP)

Well, not sure if anybody is checking this blog, but I use it in order to show other people some of my previous work when I get a chance to, so I am here today to bring this blog up to date.  It has been several months since I've done any actual carving although I have been doing alot of planning for a big upcoming project.  I have my design all laid out and the wood has been purchased and is finally here. Sorry, since it is a surprise for someone that I know,  I can't post any of the details until it has been delivered.  But I assure you that it is the most ambitious project for me to date.  I will make efforts to document the entire carving process and will post the whole WIP after it is delivered to the happy recipient.  Stay tuned, it could be YOU.  Or NOT.  lol

OutWestWoodCarving: And The Winner Is.....Myron Compton!

OutWestWoodCarving: And The Winner Is.....Myron Compton!

Myron's Quigley is nothing less than awsome.

OutWestWoodCarving: Times Up! Here Are The Entries!

OutWestWoodCarving: Times Up! Here Are The Entries!

Head on over to Lynn Doughty's blog and check out the competition. I'm kinda sorry I didn't get mine done in time. Not that I had much of a chance...

Update on Quigley Contest

Well today is the deadline to send in my entry pics.  Nada.  I simply did not finish in time.  This has been a very challenging project for me to say the least.  Way out of my comfort zone.  I will continue on and finish it, just not sure when or even if it will look any good.  I think my biggest problem was that I tried to go with realism, when the contest was for a caricature.  I should have just gone for "fun".  Oh well, lessons learned right?

Quigley - Work In Progress

OutWestWoodCarving: The Out West Challenge - The Rules

I will be throwing my hat into the ring on this contest.  Check out the link below and see what the prize will be.  I am really a big fan of Lynn Doughty's western characature carvings and although I probably have a snowball's chance in Hades of winning, I know that the challenge will be fun and push me along in my carving abilities.  I will document the design and work-in-progress photos after the contest is over.

OutWestWoodCarving: The Out West Challenge - The Rules

Look what Santa brought me.

Family Home Sign Post #3

The sign is almost finished.  All of the carving is completed and it has been sanded, sealed and stained.  The stain is Minwax Ipswitch Pine and as soon as it dries, I'll do two coats of exterior verithane just in case they decide to put it outside which I will advise against.  Overall I am satisfied with this project.  I have only done three releafs prior to this one and I'm finding that I really enjoy them.  Hope you do too.

Unfinished

Stained

Family Home Sign Post #2

Well, didnt have enough time to order from Heineke and I really felt more comfortable with the idea of carving basswood, since I already know what to expect.  So, I went with the Walnut Hollow basswood from Michaels.  It's not very good basswood.  Very brittle and I keep having to glue small pieces back on.  I'm told that the sign will be kept outside, but protected from the weather in an enclosed entry area, so I'll seal it really good.  Still trying to decide weather to paint some of the features or go all natural.  Leaning toward painting the letters, backgound and house, leaving the borders natural. The plaque measures 12" x 18" an is about 1" thick. Not much time left to finish this one, a couple of days.  Got to kick it into high gear.  Here's some pics of the work in progress.

Family Home Sign Post #1

My Sister in-law and the some of her coworkers have asked me to make a Famly Home sign for their boss for Christmas.  So I google mapped their house and did the streetview thing and got a pretty good picture of the front of their house.  Pretty scarry how easy that was.  So I did a screen print into MS Paint, drew around all the edges with black and erased all the other colors and this is what I ended up with.  The fonts were done in MS Power Point using the Word Art function and I put it all together in MS Visio, grouped them into one object and saved them as a bitmap.  About an hour to do the whole image.  Someday I'll have to step up my game and get Photo Shop.  But for now, I use the tools I have and do my best.  Today, I'll pick up the wood to make the sign, I'm not very impressed with the board stock at either Lowes or Home Depot, so I'll probably go to Michaels and see what they have in basswood.  Their prices are a bit high, but I have a 40% off coupon and I don't have enough time to order online from Heineke.  And so It begins.  Stay tuned for more updates as this project progresses.  Please, If you by any chance know the family who's name is going to be on this carving, keep this a secret until after Christmas.  OK?

What's a Latte Stone?

My wife's friend, who is Guamanian, asked me to make a wood carved replica of a "Latte Stone".  I know, you're probably thinking about coffee and milk.  That was my first thought also.  So, having never been to Guam, I had to do some quick research on the subject myself.  Thank God for the internet, although a fact finding trip to Guam would have been really sweet.  Not enough time, not enough money.  I don't want to deprive you of an educational opportunity by telling you what a Latte Stone is, so Google it now......I didn't keep track of the hours I put into it, but it took me about a month to complete it.  This was the largest carving I have done to date and it was intimidating for a number of reasons.

1. I'm not from Guam.  My biggest fear was that I might in some way dishonor the Chamorro culture.
2. Where to get wood that big.  (Turns out I have a friend who is an arborist)
3. I don't have the right tools for a large project.  (Bought some)
4. The wood is really green, won't it crack and split (Yes, but it looks rustic that way)

Setting my fears aside, I laid tool to wood and mallet to tool and the chips began to fly...

Green Wood

Roughing out with the chainsaw

As my chainsaw is not set up for carving, I opted to go for...

NEW TOOLS, YEAH!!!!

Finally taking shape...

Now for some FIRE...

Details...

More FIRE...

And, FINISHED...

Satisfied "Undercover Carver"

Satisfied Customer...