Is Small All About?
Owl awe! or owl that makes you go aww! What is it about something that is small, that makes you go aww! Kind of makes me go aww, in another way. More like oww! Because it is almost painful to work on something this small. But ohh! so challenging to skills. Most of the skill though, involves being steady. Working between breaths. My body goes into a full body clinch as I prepare to go into the wood with a cut. I am fully conscious that this next cut could go askew, and destroy the entire work. My body tenses, as I work with breathing subdued. My Hands come together in support each other as I brace for the anticipated counter-torque of the cutting head at first contact with the wood. Then the plunge into the word is made, and you just hope that you have calculated everything correctly.
MoonGlow
This little owl (moonglow) is carved from a piece of wild grape-vine. I have never used grape-vine to carve from before. So I can’t attest to its wondrous qualities as a carving wood. You can see it is a very light color, almost white. Medium hard so it does well to hold detail from cuts. So all’s good. But then the major reason I used this piece was for its wispy delicate looking bark. I felt this would be a great feature to enhance the overall look of the piece when it was finished. It lends a more elegant feeling while a coarser bark moves the mind toward rustic. Elegant goes better with the rather slender stalk of wood that he is sitting on (not apparent from this picture). I imagined an owl on a broken tree, aglow from moonlight on a still night.