Christmas is upon us

Christmas is around the corner, and Santa Claus is everywhere. I have fun demonstrating my skills at wood carving at Hanson Tree Farm in Anoka, Minnesota where people come in the warming house after chopping down their Christmas tree and watch me carve. The farm has a ‘Norman Rockwell’ ambiance about it. The warming house is a building that the owners use to store their heavy equipment. It has been turned into a little boutique of Christmas art shop. Christmas music is playing while customers can have hot chocolate, hot tea and Christmas sausage while I discuss the fun of carving Santa figures and ornaments I find it satisfying to see people looking and my carvings and say how they help make their Christmas tree experience brighter.

Mr. Scary

Holy smokes I can’t believe that it has been almost two months since my last entry onto my blog. It’s time that I took a more dedicated interest in continuing my blog. I plan to have more pictures and how to pics and videos out in the near future, but this being the holiday arts and crafts season, it will be a bit difficult but I will try to keep up.

This carving that I have done is made solely out of scrap pieces that I have found in my scrap box. After I carved each pieces I glued them together with toothpicks as pins as extra strength. But using toothpicks or small dowels as pins would strengthen the joints. I have found that without placing pins in the joint pieces break off easily.

This guy is another ideal of mine. He is ready for Halloween.

It is fine to learn to carve like other carvers and using their patters to create a great carving, but in time, change to your style with that pattern to create your own work of art. This simple Old World Santa carving started from a video I have used over ten years ago. I first copied the pattern, style and form that the instructor had taught. The results were great and I began to use that pattern to create more Old World Santas much like that. As I got bored using the same style over and over again I decided to change a little here and a little there. I have also made discoveries as how to make the carving simpler, making a few short cuts and still end up with a good looking carving. I’ve changed the paint color and paint pattern to create an ever more interesting design. In time, the carving will take shape and becomes your own.

Some time ago I bumped into an old copy of Chip Chats and seen the advertisement of his video. It was from the old video I stated to make my Old World Santas from The ad showed a picture of the creator and many of the Old World Santas creations shown on the video. I was shocked to find that if you were to compare my carvings to his you would not be able to make the connection between his and mine. I was amazed at how much of a transformation that took place through out the years had now made my Old World Santas truly my own. Keep changing, creating and reforming until you have your own true design and masterpiece.

7/27/10
This past weekend we had a tent and table at an art fair in Owatonna, Minnesota’s. Many people stopped at our tent. Hopefully most were interested in what we had on display. The thing that interested me was how fascinated children were by watching us demonstrate woodcarving. The children were so engrossed by what we were doing that it was difficult for their parents to drag them away. One little boy and his sister were so interested to see what I had in my ‘to do’ bag (cut outs and other wood pieces to work on) that I had to take out every piece for them to inspect and decide what it would be when it was done. They kept score, unfortunately for the boy, his sister won. Another little girl wanted us to make her a carved doll for Christmas. She spouted out details on how the doll would look, “I want her to have a poofy pink dress, I want her to have brown hair and brown eyes like mine, I want her to have a smiley face” and so on. I said ‘do you want her face to be like this?’ and I turned my Jack o' lantern over, “here’s a smiling face.” Her reply was a definite no. Another teenaged boy came back three times to ask questions about our carvings and if we gave lessons.It is exciting to see the interest that children have in the art and also in the process of creating a carving. I wish I would have had the opportunity to start carving at that age. I hope that they will keep their interest so that when they become adults they will take up the art. Unfortunately, in our area, there are very few people who will teach carving to children, mainly because of the danger factor and probably the need for lots of patience.

I suspect one of the reasons that children are interested in woodcarving is because it is a touchable art as compared to paintings, photographs, or drawings. Children wanted to touch our carvings. They were very attracted to them. I think we need to come up with some simple carvings - like the 5 minute owls - so we can give them a sample when they stop by the next time we are at a show.

I have taken a lot of carving classes with some excellent carving teachers. While they were important in helping me to learn different techniques it is enjoyable to get out of someone else's shadow to create carvings of my own. Nothing wrong with other carvers' patterns, some are fun to carve. But I believe that the creativity process is even more fun when you create a grand original wood carving. Stretch out, look around, and you will come up with ideas for a new carving. I carve human figures so I find ideas by observing people's faces, watching how they stand or walk, browsing through the Internet, looking at cartoons, magazines or newspapers. Use the techniques you learned carving from other patterns; they will help you to finish a creation of which you will be proud.

To see more of my carvings, go to www.scottcarvings.com

Sorry that I haven’t posted in awhile, I was busy finishing my website. I wanted to make my site as professional as possible and easier for the viewer to read and see the pictures of my work.

Creating a website is not only a good way to communicate your interests as a wood carver (or any other means), but to show off the art that you’ve created. However, the site can be a problem to up-keep since I sell carvings constantly. I need to remove old pictures, put new pictures up. I think I would like creating and keep a Blog because older messages and pictures just get archived.

I have had websites for over 15 years, learning to create via HTML language coding. I started to post all my findings and pictures from my historical research. I have gotten into the Civil War and find that era interesting. You can see them at: www.russscott.com. I have come along way since then.

Visit my primary wood carving site: www.scottcarvings.com


Well, time for me to get blogging. Please be patient, more will be coming.

Hi
My name is Russell Scott and I'm a wood carver from Minnesota. I have been carving for over eleven years. I carve mainly human figures in basswood and cottonwood bark.

I want to share my passion for wood carving with others. I hope to find others who are interested in the art. In this blog I hope to have demonstration videos that may help you to gain a better understanding in the techniques of wood carving. I will talk about my experiences with the use of different tools, woods, patterns (those out there and those that I have designed).

I like to attend carving shows and share what I have learned from them. I would like to hear from other carvers who have attended wood carving shows.

To contact me:
rscott56@netzero.com
www.scottcarvings.com