After moving some gravel around and pouring some concrete today, I managed some time in the shop and progressed the owls along. Moe, is the one shown in the photo below. Curly, and Larry, (the names should be familiar) are close behind. The detail on the owls is on the back since this is the side that will face the front of the finished project. The front of the owls are fairly simple, with no feather detailing. I will rely on the final paint job to add a little detail to the front side. 

My current project was influenced by my working with the local carving group. Owls are popular in the carving world right now. The last couple of shows I attended had many owls entered. My challenge was to make something that moved of course. There is a Gary Larsen Farside cartoon of two owls sitting in a tree and one is doing the classic tap on the others shoulder. Having recently rediscovered the cartoon it becam the focus of my new design.

So here a couple of photos of an owl in progress.

After a day full of automata Saturday a fairly mild Sunday led to starting to groom the garden railroad. While the ground is still frozen it's a good time for an initial raking followed by some serious leaf blowing. It's problematic as the railroad is built under a bunch of cedar trees. The "needles" on cedars are notorious difficult to gather and remove. I have to admit that I have even used a vacuum.

There still is some ice around!

I did not take this piece to the show last weekend, but since many stopped by to ask about getting started, and I had a simple single raving fan with me I've posted this photo of two raving fans that was requested by a client. It features carved heads instead of simple cut ones assembled from several pieces.

Thanks to all of you that stopped in to the Conquergood Creative table at the Quinte Carving Show yesterday. It is always fun to display the craft of automata making and talk with folks. It gave me a chance to unveil my latest piece "A Horse of a Different Colour" which was well received. It is always a busy day with lots of cranking and conversation.

I always hope that I might have tempted someone to leap into the craft.

In my mind the Quinte show is one of the best collections of bird carving to be seen around these parts. There were lots of lovely carvings. It even includes a category for the judging of look and behaviours of decoys floating in water.

Here's a photo of our little collection of pieces we took to the show.  

Again, hello and thanks to our many visitors.

Al

The image of image of yourself sitting on a deck in the dog days of summer seems to appeal to a lot of folks - particularly cottagers. I have a client who has commissioned me build them a customized version of my automata "Cottage Cabernet". So here is the new character in progress sitting in a "Muskoka" or "Adirondack"chair, depending on your residency!

On April the 11th I'll be headed off to the Quinte Woodcarvers Show in Belleville Ontario with some other members from the Bobcaygeon Carving Group. I will have a table to display some of my recently completed automata pieces. It is a great chance to see some excellent carvings and chit-chat with folks who love to work with wood.

If you are in the area I encourage you to drop in and say hello! The show is from 9:30 to 4:30 at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre at 265 Cannifton Road.

After what seemed like an eternity the Horse of a Different Colour automata is done. I've added a few new pages to the website about it. Check it out. Hope you like it.

In the end, one of the last things I did was to carve a new head for Buckshot, the farm dog.  The previous one was just to small and to "wolfish" for me.