My Newest Heirloom Santa Carving

Remember this guy?

I started him before we moved two years ago.  Now that we are all settled in, I finished him and this is how he looks today.

You can see more pics of him HERE along with some of my other carvings in my Etsy Shop.  :)

I think my favorite Santa's are the old world Santa's. 

What are your favorite kinds of carved Santa's?

Have a great weekend everyone!  ~ Debra

My Carved Santa Featured in Zibbet's Fantastic Five!

What a great honor to have one of my Santa carvings featured in this week's Zibbet's Fantastic Five! 

Check him out here and be sure to check out all of the other items that made the Fantastic Five!

Have a great evening, everyone!  ~ Debra

Finished Carved Santa Ornament with Light Blue Hat

Here's the little guy I painted yesterday.  Remember how he looked here?

What a difference a day makes! 

This my newest hand carved Santa ornament today:

Hand Carved Santa Christmas Ornament Wood Carving, Light Blue

 

I like the way he turned out - he looks happier than he did yesterday, lol.  What do you think?

 

You can see more pics of this guy by clicking the link above or clicking my shop here.  :)

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!  ~ Debra

 

One of My Newest Santa Carvings - Carved Santa Ornament

Here is my newest Santa carving.  He's a hand carved Santa ornament and I love his long, saggy hat and curvy beard. 

I carved him yesterday morning but got distracted later in the day.  I brought him into the studio and painted him today so I'll get some pics of him tomorrow to show you all of his finishing touches but this is what he looked like when he was still out in the woodshop.

Cute, huh?

 



I carved this Santa ornament using my favorite method to carve.  No pattern!  Just doodle on the wood and start chipping away - you'll end up with a one-of-a-kind carving every single time.  :)

 

I also have a few of the wooden tool handles carved so I'll try to post some pics of those tomorrow, too.

 

Happy weekend, everyone!!!  :)  ~ Debra

 



Want to See My Santa Carvings in Their New Home???

I've been working for the past three days moving all of my hand carved Santa's to their new home.  They really LOVE their new digs!  :)

You can see them all RIGHT HERE in my ETSY SHOP.

Aren't they cute?  And they all look so happy! 

I've also been moving all of my vintage items to my Etsy shop and when I'm done moving them, I have a mountain of new items to add.  Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it all.  :)

I have some great ideas for some new ornaments so I hope you come back often to see what I'm up to.

Have a great weekend everyone!  ~ Debra

Some New Santa Carvings

Do you remember these guys?

Well, they are now finished and in my Etsy shop.

                                       Santa Ornament Hand Carved Wood, Midnight Blue

                                           Santa Ornament Hand Carved Wood, Barn Red

I really like the way they turned out, what do you think? 

If you noticed one is missing, I kept it for my tree this year.  :)

Have a great evening!  ~  Debra

My First Ugly Santa

Ok, so when I started this blog I told you that I would show you some of my ugly Santa's. 

They live in a box. 

Hidden. 

Under the stairs.

In the dark. 

But just so you can see that everyone creates an ugly carving now and then, I thought I'd show you some of mine. 

And what better place to start than with my very first Santa?  I carved this guy before 1994 so he is considered vintage (at least by Etsy's standards).  But you won't be seeing this one in my shop because, after this post, it's back in the box for him.

Here's the front view.  Yep, I drilled a hole right in his head!  Classy!!!

And this is his side view.  What was I thinking with this paint job?  His face is pink like a pig, his lower lip is white, and why did I think the trim should be primary yellow???  I do not know!

And here's his backside.  Why on earth did I feel that Santa needed me to carve him a butt crack???  I'm starting to think I had some serious issues!!!  I'm much better now.  I hope.  LOL.

So, now that I've totally embarrassed myself, the box is being sealed back up until I have the courage to show you another.  :)

And if you've been afraid to try woodcarving, c'mon, how much worse could it be???? 

Have a great evening everyone! ~ Debra

What's On My Bench This Week?

I have two projects I'm working on this week.  The first are these super simple carved Santa ornaments:

The pattern for these little guys were in the Fall issue of Woodcarving Illustrated.  In the pattern, it is a two sided ornament with a Thanksgiving turkey on one side and a Santa on the other.  I opted to change the pattern to just a Santa.  I cut out three of these guys and you can see that all three are in different stages of carving.

My other project is this guy:

He is an old world Santa and is far from being done.  He is my own design that I drew up while having my coffee.  I started him yesterday and I've only had a little time here and there to work on him.  Right now, he has a bird in one hand and a bowl of feed in the other but that could change at any minute, lol.  So, check back soon to see how he turns out.  :)

Hope you're having a great week!  ~ Debra

My Latest Santa Carving - A Mini Old World Santa

This week has been so crazy with other obligations that I haven't had a lot of carving time.

I did manage to carve up one of the blanks that were sitting on my workbench and it's always so much fun to see how they turn out.  I don't know about you but I always start out with one vision and it changes throughout the carving process and always turns out totally different than what I had originally thought I wanted.

This guy turned out really cute.  I started with the blank below that has the white arrow over his head:

And this is how he turned out:

And another:

Hope you like him!  :) ~ Debra

Finished Heirloom Style Santa Ornament

Well, he's all done and ready to decorate for Christmas.  I really love this pattern and see a lot more of these in my carving future.  :)  He reminds me of the vintage glass teardrop ornaments.  Very nice.

I painted this guy with a wash of acrylics and then antiqued him before sealing him. 

Here is my finished guy:

I listed him in my shop and my brother bought him, lol!

Hope you like him!  :)  ~ Debra

New Heirloom Style Carved Santa Ornament

Yay, it's Friday!  I finished up the Santa ornament I was carving this morning and wanted to show you some pics of it before I sanded or painted it so I took these:

The pattern I used is from a book named, "Handcarved Christmas: 36 Beloved Ornaments, Decorations, and Gifts (Best of Woodcarving Illustrated).  There are some great patterns in the book but I fell in love with this one.  :)

 

 



It looks like a vintage glass teardrop ornament!  The pattern is by a carver named Wayne Shinlever.  

I finished it up this morning after I took these quick pics.  I sanded it, painted it, antiqued it and sealed it so this little guy is drying overnight.  I'll take some pics tomorrow so you can see how he turned out.

Hope you have a great weekend!  :)

Welcome to My Santa Carvings!

Hi there from Missouri!

It's been a few years since I've been able to do any serious wood carving.  Life just has a way of interrupting our plans sometimes.

I opened my Etsy shop in January of this year and I decided to start carving again so I could add some of them to my shop. My favorite thing to carve is Santa.  If you are a carver, you know how addicting that little guy can be to carve.  I also love to carve Christmas ornaments.

I decided to start this blog to hopefully get others interested in carving.  It's such a great hobby and it is soooooo relaxing.  Honestly, when you're carving, you can't think about anything else.  All of your worries go out the window.  Why?  Because you have a sharp knife in your hand and you want to keep all of your fingers!  :)  Carving really takes you away from all of the pressures in life.

Not only is carving a great stress reliever, it is also such a wonderful creative outlet.  Just imagine the feeling of holding a block of wood in your hand and turning it into something beautiful, or funny, or useful.

It's a great high! 

I'm a self taught carver and my way of carving may not be the way other carvers do it.  Actually, I'll bet there are just as many ways to carve as there are carvers.  There are tons of books and YouTube videos that will help you with the "how to" aspect of carving.  I'll put links here as I find them for you.

Here's a good one to start with:

Carving The Simple Standing Santa by Gene Messer.  Gene is a great teacher!

See how easy it is?  Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can.  :)

Here are a few of my latest Santa's.  I'll be carving some more this week and I'll take photos to show my progress as I carve and paint them and I hope it will inspire you to try your hand at carving. 

 

                                                                        Tipsy Santa

 

                                                Santa Ornament with a Big, Colorful Hat

 

                                             Traditional Santa Ornaments - Here and Here

Just think of all of the great Christmas gifts you could make for family and friends!  Are you getting inspired yet?

I'll add some WIP's later this next week so you can see how truly easy and fun this hobby can be. 

Who knows, maybe I'll even show you some of my ugly early Santa carvings?  I don't know though, some of my early carvings are pretty darn embarrassing.  LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you come back soon!  ~ Debra (D. Back)