Happy Father's Day!

It's quarter til one on sunday morning, father's day weekend. I'm at St. Joseph's in the Hills on my annual retreat with the six-three group of Men of Malvern. If you've never visited here before I suggest you do. It doesn't matter what race or creed you are this is strictly about spirituality. The second you pull into the property you get this overwhelming feeling of peace. Any stress or frustration you carry is left outside. You can't help but be inspired by the surroundings here. The last time I had a free minute to carve was one year ago...when I was here. I brought my tools with me again this year and started carving. I was thinking about maybe doing an angel and veered off into a little girl praying. Eleven hours later with a few smoke breaks and some walking around, here's what I have so far. I'm pretty rusty but it's starting to come back to me. It's not finished and it doesn't look like it's destined for greatness but I am so excited to be able to carve again. Hopefully I can finish this carving soon and as soon as I do I will post more pics. Happy Father's Day!
Joe

Thank You! I'm still here

Just wanted to say thanks to all the comments and emails i've been getting. I do have some projects lined up and some I've started and will be back to posting soon so please stay tuned. We are in the process of moving and I will be setup in my new shop in August or September. Among some of the projects are St. Joseph the worker and an eastern dragon, two sides of the spectrum. I will take lots of in progress pictures and work on posting a more "how to" style. Keep checking back as I may be posting some smaller projects real soon.
Thanks Again!
Joe

What I did on my vacation

So it’s been so long since my last post. A five month old and an almost three year old keep my wife and I really busy. I have started some new carving projects and will soon be back to posting so stay tuned. Our cutting board at home started breaking down. The cutting board we have has always been too small for me and now that it’s falling apart I decided we really needed a new one and I really needed to work on a project and get some sawdust in my system. I picked up some hard maple, black walnut and my father-in-law had some wenge laying around at his shop. I ripped the walnut and maple into 2” ,1.25” and .75” strips and glued them together. I then ripped across the piece into 1.25” strips and glued them together in an alternating layout with the end grain up. Then I attached the wenge around the whole piece and here is what I came up with. My wife says she doesn’t want to actually use it because it’s too nice. I just need to convince her that this board will last forever with an occasional mineral oil wipe down.

A New Addition

It has been quite some time since I posted and I haven’t really worked on anything new lately. It’s not because I’m lazy or because I’m giving up carving or I just forgot. It’s because on August 19^th 2008 I became a new Papa…AGAIN! Lia Rose Muscella has been taking up all my time and I love it! She is such a good baby and our 2 year old, Angelina, is such a big helper. I now have two new carvers in the family! I will be getting back to work in the next couple of weeks. Talk to you then.

 

Madonna of the Streets

Well, I’m almost finished with my Madonna of the Streets relief. At this point I think I’m just going to clean up some spots mainly baby Jesus’ face. I just need to be careful as I’m running out of wood and am almost about to put a hole in it. I love using this basswood slice; the grain is all over the place but is teaching me so much about being aware of the direction. I hope you enjoy it!

Joe

 

 

She's all done

I finally finished my Virgin Mary woodcarving. I used sanding sealer and paste wax to finish the piece off. The five roses represent the five mysteries of the rosary. I'm getting ready to head out to my retreat...I hope everyone likes it! You can click the link to see the woodcarvingillustrated message board and check out some really beautiful works from great artists.

http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/f61/carving-mary-progress-17715/

Starting over

I'm starting my Virgin Mary carving over from scratch. The original panel didn't have the cleanest joints and there were many gaps at the joints. I also decided that a full figure of Mary would be too small and did not allow for too much detail. I decided to change the pattern to a portrait style and I am much happier with how it's turning out. These pics are in the rough out stage and a lot of work needs to be done. I will use the original background design with the oval frame and roses.