We began with a wood blank. Mostly Basswood but there were some Butternut. Butternut is much harder to carve!
Our idea this year came from a fellow carver Sheila. She always has lots of ideas.
Left; blank cut out on the bandsaw. Middle; partially carved. Right; carved and sanded. The carving on the far right is Butternut. Butternut has beautiful grain.
I decided to keep the stockings/boots (whatever you want to call them) very plain versus painting them!. I drew and painted a spring of Holly and Berries on them...one by one.
Here the ornaments are hanging up to dry. My "holder" will hold 12 ornaments. It is a fancy smancy "holder" ...a Peanut Butter Jar with a piece of wood screwed to the lid...the piece of wood has small nails for individual holders.
The ornaments were sealed.
Phase Two began. What to put in the boots/stockings ? We tried to carve a teddy bear...what a laugh that was. Far Guy carved all the candy canes. We decided that we would purchase some small beads for balls and some tiny bells. I painted the beads. Far Guy cut out blocks. I visited the local five and dime and bought some clay to see if we could make a bear out of clay...it worked and I went back to get more clay!
Boot stuffins
One day we had enough stuff to begin stuffing the boots/stockings.
No two are exactly the same. It was a good project. Names and dates are on the opposite side of the boot/stocking. These in the photos were kept blank I believe we carved 110 and I have 9 left over.
Far Side
What a production! I am in awe....
ReplyDeleteHow precious those are! I about choked when you said you were going to stuff them too! That is such tedious and exacting work as it is. I thought they were done when they were hanging up. They are amazing works of art and you and Far Guy are amazingly talented!
ReplyDeleteI too am amazed at the detail and the creativity that you two display every year. I love the candy canes! :-)
ReplyDeleteWow, what really cool ornaments. Love them.
ReplyDeleteThose are absolutely amazing. You are both very talented and creative. ~Lynne
ReplyDeleteVery Cute!! What talent & patience you both have.
ReplyDeleteNice idea - they're adorable!
ReplyDeleteI am always so excited to see what you come up with each year. And I MUST say...every year you out do the year before! Wonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteLove.
ReplyDeleteWow! You are both so talented, these are just adorable and I love the stuffins. :)
ReplyDeleteI love seeing the step by step process of making these wonderful ornaments. You two have such talent and patience! Each Christmas I look forward to seeing what your ornament will be and this year I was blown away to be one of the winners of the drawing! I love my ornament and have it displayed front and center on our tree!
ReplyDeleteLove hearing how they were made! They are wonderful! I am so excited to be able to say that I have one of them! I love my ornament! Thank you for all your inspiring ideas and hard work!
ReplyDeleteYour ornaments are awesome! I love the little teddy bears.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness woman those are pure art!!!!
ReplyDeleteEverybody else has already said it: they are awesome, creative, painstakingly made, original, amazing, such talent and patience, adorable teddy bears and they are beautiful. Thank you for sharing the process too.
ReplyDeleteThose are so cute!!! What a lot of work, but worth it. They're just perfect. :)
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of boots rather than stockings.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am a winner of one of these amazing works of art! Mine arrived yesterday and I had a photo shoot twith it his morning. Name, year and all. I so enjoyed seeing and reading of the process of making the ornaments. You and Far Guy are unbelievably talented my dear Connie. Thank you so much for blessing me with one of the beautiful boots/stockings. I will cherish it and our friendship always
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Betsy
Those are so very lovely. You did a wonderful job.
ReplyDeleteThey really did turn out great. I like the little things that fill it up.
ReplyDeleteDamn these look great, I would love something like this, hand made is awesome
ReplyDeleteThey are soo cute and very much loved! I love the stories behind each ornament you make - thank you!!
ReplyDeleteSo impressed with your dedication to projects like this, and the cute results. All I could think of looking at those was that I would have left the handle part off and just drilled a tiny hole in the back of the boot/stocking for the hanger thread. Anything to make it easier in my books, and I just cant imagine having to carve so many the same. And then to make all those little bears too, wow. You have much more patience than I do!
ReplyDeleteThe ornaments are absolutely stupendous!
ReplyDeleteSo very pretty! What a lovely idea to make ornaments and give them out. Ya'll are very talented.
ReplyDeleteAdorable. What a work of HEART! So much detail.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your process and your final product.I have no doubt the recipients will treasure them.
ReplyDeleteWow, very nice!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of work goes into those tiny ornaments! Impressive!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I love these.
ReplyDeleteWow! These ornaments are certainly treasures! These are amazing. Just returned from a two day weekend OFF! Wow!
ReplyDeleteCatching up!