The adult male elk stand roughly five feet high at the shoulder, weighs nearly eleven hundred pounds and can run at speeds up to thirty-five miles per hour. Dale Power captures this powerful animal single-handedly, with wood carving tools! Discover all the techniques you'll need to "capture" a realistic looking elk of your own in wood from this book. Step-by-step instructions make carving the elk, with a combination of hand and power tools, an easy task. Over 250 color photographs illustrate each technique and tip along the way. Useful methods for changing the positioning of the elk are included. You'll also learn how to burn in the hair pattern, paint your creation in natural colors and how to mount it on a base. Patterns for two elk are included. The gallery photos provide perspectives of the animal carved and of additional elk in several poses to fire the carver's imagination.

When Tom Wolfe published his first book on Woodspirits, Tom Wolfe Carves Woodspirits and Walking Sticks, we had no idea how popular it would become. Thousands of people saw it, bought it, and asked for more. So here it is, a new collection of Woodspirits, this time done in the traditional Bavarian way. Carved from a section of a tree, the branch forms the hat. Of course Tom brings his own inimitable style to the carving, making it lively and creative. As always he takes the carver step-by-step through the carving process. There can be no pattern, because each Woodspirit springs from a unique piece of wood. But the technique and the sequence of carving can be easily learned through the step-by-step color illustrations. A gallery of several Woodspirits will give the carver many ideas about the variety and variations they can obtain when they release the Spirits from the Wood.

Some years ago Tom wrote a book called Carving the Civil War. The book met with great success, but left a hunger for more. One of the figures in the gallery was a beautiful realistic horse, and it wasn't long before requests for a horse book started coming in. Well, here it is! Tom brings his teaching and carving skills to realistic horses. This new book takes the carvers through the steps of carving a frisky colt. Using hand and power tools Tom creates the form, detail, and musculature that brings the horse to life. Included are gallery photos and patterns for the colt's sibling and sire, as well as those for several other horses. For fans of Tom Wolfe or those who have struggled to carve realistic horses, this book is a must-have for your carving library.

The idea for the cane in this book came from the author's good friend and fellow carver Claude Bolton. Both belong to the Caricature Carvers of America, and the group was looking for some way to honor a friend and supporter. Claude hit upon the idea of a cane made up of many segments to be carved by various members. In addition to Tom and Claude they include: Jack Price; Peter Ortel; Steve Prescott; Harley Schmitzen; Rich Wetherbee; Bob Travis; Dave Dunham; Dave Stetson; Keith Morrill; Joe Wannamaker; Tex Haase; Doug Raine; Marv Kaisersatt; Dave Rasmussen; Harley Refsal; Harold Enlow; Claude Bolton; Gary Batte; Desiree Hajny; Pete LeClair; and Randy Landen. In the gallery of this book you will see the results of their enormous talents. Tom Wolfe takes the reader through the process of creating a four-face segment for a cane. What you learn there can be applied to any of your caricature carving or can be used to create your own friendship cane, by yourself or in your carving club. The cane you create will be a true token of friendship and will be cherished for many years to come.

This "how to" book in woodcarving guides us through a hands on, educational journey of snowmen designs and cuttings, including "Igloo Snowman," and "Snowbank Snowman," both rich in color and full of life. Filled with numerous ideas and designs, it presents a fun and easy way to learn decorative woodcarving while perfecting your creative skills. The easy-to-follow instructions define the shape, style of arm you wish to use, traditional or elaborate face, and so on. The "saw out and glue up" technique is explained and displayed in step-by-step carving instructions. The painting techniques are fun and easy to follow and allow for imaginative designs. The finishing touches add details that you, too, will be able to make.

The cowboy was an integral part of the old west. Much of life in those times revolved around him. Not only did he act as a cow nurse, herding, driving, and branding, but he also stacked hay, and built corrals and barns. He should be remembered too for his dedicated defense of the brand he rode for, even in the face of death. The Saturday night shindigs wouldn't have been the same without him either. Most cowboys couldn't dance a lick, but as long as that little gal was in his arms, who cared what the feet were doing! These cowboys were tough men. They were independent but when needed they were there. A rare breed! To carve these qualities into a face is indeed a challenge. Bob Lundy takes the carver through three projects, The Cowboy, The Indian, and The Mountain Man. With informative instructions (laced with a good deal of humor) and clear photographs he goes from the raw wood to a finished, realistic portrayal of these characters of the old west. A gallery of 16 other figures is included to give the reader other ideas. This book is written for both the beginner, who is looking for complete how-to information from start to finish, and for the veteran, who is interested only in a tip here and there to improve their work. Lundy approaches his work with an eye for the personality of the characters. He will instill that sensitivity to the reader, giving the carver a feeling of closeness and intimacy with the people who emerge from the wood.

Pens and pencils made at the wood lathe are becoming increasingly popular. These unique writing instruments are fantastic sellers at art and craft shows, cherished treasures for family, and fabulous gifts. Kits to make a variety of styles are widely available, but the techniques to make a pen which works well and looks spectacular are harder to find. This book fills the need with 273 step-by-step color photos and helpful text. Skilled wood turner Dick Sing provides detailed instructions and a wealth of tips and techniques for twelve different styles of pens. Advice on selection of materials, set-up, turning, and finishing techniques, and tips for final assembly of the pens make this book the ultimate reference for the field.

Carving is an area of woodworking that has wide appeal and can start as simply as whittling figures with a pocket knife. Since the cost of entry is so low, many people are willing to give it a try. But some people are put off by the conflicting information about what tools to buy, how to sharpen them, and by the bewildering range of carving styles. This book, with its common-sense approach to tools and sharpening, and its broad survey of the many styles is the perfect introduction for the novice carver. The projects will help the beginner become familiar with the tools and learn skills while trying a variety of carving styles to see which suits him best. The projects range from the traditional to the contemporary and reflect the tastes of today's woodcarvers.

Woodcarving remains one of the most popular crafts in the U.S. and continues to grow in popularity. While there are many books on how to carve wood, including Taunton's popular How to Carve Wood (1985), this book provides inspiration for carvers through original patterns. Any carver knows that once the technique is mastered, the greatest challenge is finding clear, well-illustrated designs to carve. This book solves that problem by offering a wide variety of carefully detailed drawings of designs especially suited to carving.

Trained in European carving and drawing techniques, artist/author Lora Irish presents an extensive library of ornamental designs with a traditional look. Included here are classic ornamental motifs from 18th century and other period furniture as well as original designs by the author. The motifs include line designs, triangular designs, square and rectangular designs, circular and oval designs, S- and C-curve designs, mirror-image designs, and free-form designs.

The book can be used in number of ways: The drawings can be adapted to the carver's preference or used directly as patterns, easily enlarged by photocopying and transferred directly to the wood to be carved. The patterns can also be used in other woodcrafts including woodburning and woodpainting.

Of all the things that Tom Wolfe carves, none is more popular among collectors and students than his canes and walking sticks. Following the success of his fancy cane book last season, Tom is sharing some of his techniques for creating a fancy walking stick. The difference is in the size and shape of the creature. A walking stick is usually longer to provide more support for the hiker, and has a knob at the top rather than a handle. This knob provides the carver with many possibilities. In this book Tom carves a woodsman's head. He takes the reader through the process from the beginning of the carving to the attachment of the head to the shaft and the decoration of the shaft. Each step is illustrated with a color photograph and a clear explanation. The gallery give other ideas for carving the knob, and patterns are provided for several of them. A great book for new carvers and old pros.

A genuine labor of love, Loy Harrell has recognized 61 individual decoy carvers, from past to present, located around Lake Champlain. Listed alphabetically, each carver is briefly discussed and examples of their work are illustrated in 263 beautiful color photographs and 52 black and white. There are 352 decoys featured in all. Dr. Harrell has brought his enthusiasm to the reader through personal interviews with many of these accomplished carvers and adeptly portrays the true personality of decoy enthusiasts of the Lake Champlain area. This book is the first of its kind for the Lake Champlain area and pays a long awaited tribute to its carvers and the decoys they have and still are creating.

This book is the perfect start for anyone interested in learning how to carve detailed faces. Mary Finn uses her practice stick method to show you how to carve each feature - eyes, nose, closed mouth, open mouth - with step by step directions that even beginners will find easy to follow. Then she shows you how to arrange all of these pieces into one wooden egg to make a convincing head! This method has helped hundreds of Mary's students, and is a sure-fire way to get started! Egg head projects included in this book are an old man, a pirate, and the Mad Hatter. Mary shows you how to adapt her carving techniques to flatter surfaces to make jewelry (like a bolo tie project) and how to paint your pieces for maximum impact. This book is terrific for beginners, and a great way for more advanced carvers to enlarge their skills.

Follow along with master carver Jeffrey Moore to create a dramatic and lifelike representation of the striking blue wing teal drake. Jeff starts with a preshaped, duplicated wooden bird to simplify the rough carving process, then demonstrates the use of burning and high speed texturing equipment to achieve wonderful carving detail and realistic features. Once the carving is completed, the book takes the reader through each aspect of the airbrushing and brush painting steps needed to complete the teal's body, tail, head, and outstretched wing. In addition, Jeff demonstrates how to create realistic-looking sand and water for the accompanying habitat base. Throughout, detailed instructions accompany the full color photographs. This is a carving project you will treasure for many years to come.

Based on the strong response from carvers around the world, Al Streeman has drawn together a new book of Santa Claus patterns. 35 new patterns are presented along with helpful tips from Al's many years of carving experience. This book is written more for the carver who has some level of experience, but just needs some basic line drawings/patterns to get started. There are also general tips and recommendations as to wood selection, paint colors, and tools. Some of the patterns appear in their final, carved and painted form. so the reader will have 3-D references. The patterns are printed full-size. This is a valuable resource for carvers and a welcome addition to their library.

This book is the companion to Public Sculpture of Edinburgh, volume 1, 'The Old Town and South Edinburgh', extending the coverage to the First New Town and its environs, and beyond that to the former independent burgh of Leith. It provides a comprehensive and detailed account of the entire spectrum of public sculptures to be found in these parts of the city, including free-standing commemorative monuments, architectural carvings, and contemporary site-specific interventions. Based on extensive new research, the text is structured as a catalogue raisonne, with each entry comprising a detailed description of the work, an account of how it came to be commissioned, and an analysis of its cultural significance. There are also separate appendices dealing with important works that have been lost or destroyed, minor works and sculptural coats of arms. The study of public sculpture is now recognised as offering a range of new insights into the development of the urban realm. Those insights are brought together here to provide a comprehensive resource for historians, architects, urban planners and conservators, and a narrative history that will be of interest to all who care about Edinburgh, and wish to celebrate its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Using over 220 beautiful color photographs and clear, concise instructions, Ron Ransom takes the reader through all the steps necessary to carve nine of his favorite "Old World" Santas from wood. Patterns are provided for Santas holding a variety of objects, ranging from angels and Christmas trees to a golf club, messages, fishing poles, and even political emblems! Along with the carving instructions (sprinkled with Ron's unique sense of humor), general tips for painting the completed Santas are provided, as well as answers to carvers most frequently asked questions Also, a gallery of finished Santas is presented for further inspiration. Whether the carver has been working with wood for fifteen years or fifteen minutes, this book will be a new treasure.

How an eighteenth-century engraving of a slave ship became a cultural icon of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance One of the most iconic images of slavery is a schematic wood engraving depicting the human cargo hold of a slave ship. First published by British abolitionists in 1788, it exposed this widespread commercial practice for what it really was-shocking, immoral, barbaric, unimaginable. Printed as handbills and broadsides, the image Cheryl Finley has termed the "slave ship icon" was easily reproduced, and by the end of the eighteenth century it was circulating by the tens of thousands around the Atlantic rim. Committed to Memory provides the first in-depth look at how this artifact of the fight against slavery became an enduring symbol of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance. Finley traces how the slave ship icon became a powerful tool in the hands of British and American abolitionists, and how its radical potential was rediscovered in the twentieth century by Black artists, activists, writers, filmmakers, and curators. Finley offers provocative new insights into the works of Amiri Baraka, Romare Bearden, Betye Saar, and many others. She demonstrates how the icon was transformed into poetry, literature, visual art, sculpture, performance, and film-and became a medium through which diasporic Africans have reasserted their common identity and memorialized their ancestors. Beautifully illustrated, Committed to Memory features works from around the world, taking readers from the United States and England to West Africa and the Caribbean. It shows how contemporary Black artists and their allies have used this iconic eighteenth-century engraving to reflect on the trauma of slavery and come to terms with its legacy.

Soap carving is a fantastic confidence-builder for novice wood carvers, and a challenge for carving veterans who would like to explore a new medium. This fascinating book takes carvers to an advanced level, showing methods of making multiple-bar soap carvings of selected North American mammals. Beautiful color photographs and the text move step-by-step through the creation of eight animals: a bear and cub, wolf, cougar, prairie dog, harp seal, killer whale, and otter. Art, natural history, and environmental issues are integrated into the instructions to produce a super learning experience. Expert wildlife carver Lila Gilmer also makes an appearance to contribute her different approach to realistic soap carvings.

For hopelessly addicted Santa carvers, this wonderful book will spur them to new heights and depths. Here are 60 of Al Streetman's whimsical, humorous caricature patterns, bringing exciting new dimensions to Santa carving. Al takes the carver step-by-step through the carving of a Santa flying on a candy cane to deliver his goods. It is fun to carve and, from Al's experience, is a good seller at carving shows. It offers a slight but not difficult challenge, and can be executed by novices and pros alike. The book provides some tips and tricks for head and hand carving. All in all, the perfect fix for the Santa craving.

Bamboo, bemoaned by many as a runaway weed, is treasured in many cultures around the world for its strength, durability, and versatility. This book illustrates ways in which any person capable of using a saw, rasp, screwdriver, and chisel can set about to create beautiful furnishings and useful accessories for the home. Patience, practice, and the application of sharp tools, hot glue, and accurate measurements, promise to enable you to make your own creations. Illustrations and basic instructions for bamboo tables, chairs and seats, bedroom furniture, hall racks and stands, cabinets and bookcases, window blinds, and many other articles are provided, along with a thorough primer on the tools and techniques for working this fast-growing grass. Many designs are inspired by Asian models, very popular in today's decor.

Debbie Barr captures the lighter side of women's daily lives in her carvings, lives filled with triumphs and travails. Debbie takes her readers step-by-step through the process of transforming a block of basswood into a lively caricature with concise instructions, sound advice, and over 250 color illustrations. Once the carving is complete, instructions are also provided for painting the figure. Eight patterns accompany the text. A photographic gallery rounds out the presentation, displaying additional figures sure to provide inspiration and insight to every carver. This book will present satisfying challenges to beginners and will be a joy to the more advanced carvers.

All of the techniques necessary for capturing the sleek beauty and strength of dolphins and whales in wood are presented here. In direct and basic language and color photographs Dale Power takes the carver through each step in the process of creating a dolphin from basswood with a combination of hand and power tools. Once the dolphin is carved, woodburning and painting techniques are explored in detail to add life to the work. Helpful hints for mounting the finished work are included as well. Patterns for three dolphins and two whales are provided as well as a color gallery showing a variety of dolphins and whales in groupings which are sure to inspire. With full color illustrations and explicit directions, this book is invaluable to both the novice and the experienced carver.

Gargoyles are an architectural feature designed to throw rainwater clear of the walls of a building. Widely used on medieval churches, these water spouts were often richly decorated, and fashioned as serpents' heads and other fanciful shapes. Today, the term gargoyle is also popularly applied to any carved decorative head or creature high up on a building and this book is an exploration of all of these enchanting features. Written by an academic and stonecarver, it is the perfect introduction to this fascinating subject.
"Gargoyles" aims to provide a concise introduction to the stone carvings often found on religious and secular buildings in Britain from the medieval period to the modern. It will explore the typical imagery, some of the theories put forward to explain them, as well as consider the carvings within their architectural and social contexts. Incorporating recent and current research, the book will nevertheless be accessible to the general reader.

The native American face has long fascinated artists in every medium. Its strong features and deep character present a challenge and an opportunity for visual expression. In this new book, Terry Kramer offers the wood carver a method for creating realistic native American faces in wood. From layout to finish, Terry takes the carver step-by-step through the process. Each step is illustrated in full color and clearly described. A gallery of several carved faces gives the reader an idea of the variations that are possible, as well as guidelines for future carving projects.

This book grows out of many requests we have received for animal carving books in general, and for Tom Wolfe animals in particular. His raccoons and hounds have graced the pages of his previous books. His bears, in their original form and as reproductions, have found their way into the hearts of people across the nation. Beginning with a plain block of bass wood or white pine Tom creates a menagerie of characters. Bunnies and bears are the epitome of "cuddly," and are a favorite of children and adults alike. These projects are perfect for the person who carves for relaxation. After bandsawing the patterns, they can be completed with the simplest of tools-a knife, a gouge, a veiner, and nailset. Tom helps the less experienced reader with the basic skills required for carving. Those who are more experienced will value a few of the secrets and shortcuts he has learned over the years. The projects can be adapted so that your bear or bunny will take on a different character through its size, position, and/or color. Your imagination is all that is necessary to make the changes.