Snowmen pins

These little snowmen pins add a nice touch to your festive outfit and at only $5 dollars the price is good too.

Natural rack

We needed to build a display rack for the Santa ornaments and this was our first design. Were working on others now but nothing to show ya'll yet.

We wanted to keep it as natural as possible to stay within our realm of medium.

This is the fine detailed Santa ornaments i produce, I ask $25.00 for it. Grab one for your tree today for this season.

One of the show carvings that didn't sell, an English style Santa, one in a soon to be series of Christmas around the world. I'm asking for $45.00

While this was our first real craft show, and the tables were some what free, we were a bit disappointed for we only made one sale on a $7 bear.

This picture, besides showing my wife and sister, shows the items i had for sale and my display. Though not the best i'm working on the display with something other than the santa rack in the left of the picture.

This was our grand experiment and though it went badly it was a learning experience for the carver in me. I've done craft shows in the past with other crafts but never have i displayed carvings so i was eager to see the reactions of the people that came through, this was mixed. Some were impressed with the amount of detail in the little Santa ornaments but were unimpressed with the price thinking it was too high for a piece of wood, others thought my prices were too low for the amount of work i put into all my carvings. Though all the costumers put back my carvings without buying their reactions told me volumes about the kind of carvings they liked and that my prices were spot on. I just need to work on that darn display.

There is another craft show in Zanesville Ohio on the 13th of November which we're thinking of joining, and it will be an every month thing, but we'll see.

As far as the carvings themselves i'll post them individuality

Craft show October 16th

Going to be at a craft show in Zanesville Ohio at the Moose lodge on October 16th. Come on down, we'd love to see you.

Try a different wood

That's the next lesson i can teach, and that is the best advice i can give.
When i started out, like most folks, i went a bought basswood. Yes it's darn good for carving, some of the best, but there are others. Like butternut, pine, tupelo, etc. the list goes on and on.
But, some wood is over looked simply because it's never thought about as being wood, i mean real wood too. Take this picture for instance, looks like a nice small limb doesn't it or maybe a sapling. But truth be told it's really a bush, Yes a bush, it's called "harry lauder's walking stick" and it carves like butter. This was given to me by my friends mother to see what i thought of it as a carving medium, and i loved it. I'd never in a million years have thought of trying to carve a bush or shrub.
Now most shrubs and what not does have quite a bit of sap in it so you need to test it before trying to carve it with your good tools, no since in ruining them. But if it's sap free then have fun. I didn't end up keeping this piece, i gave it back to the lady that gave it to me, carved of course. But i did get a lot more of that good carving medium and i hope to get a lot more of it.
So just remember friends, don't be afraid to try different wood types cause you might be pleasantly suprised at how good it might carve.

Be safe and have fun