Scrooge and Marley

I’m still cranking out pieces for a show that is coming up the first week in November, so today I’m going to pull another photo out of the archives to post. I promise that as soon as I have something new to show for my recent efforts, I’ll post it here.

This is a pair of carvings that I did a couple of years ago and is the beginning of an entire set of A Christmas Carol caricatures.  Scrooge is about 10" tall and Marley about 8".

I guess the most notable feature is that each figure was carved from a single block of wood. Well, as I think about it I guess that is not completely correct, because Scrooge’s cane and the junk around Marley’s neck are separate pieces. But the basic figure and its base were carved from one piece.

Now-a-days, at the advice of many, I typically carve the head separately so that:

1) the head is out of the way simplifying the carving of the rest of the body,
2) a “mis-carved” head can be discarded if it doesn’t quite measure up to my standards and
3) you can add a lot more personality if you can rotate or cock the head slightly when you glue it on. Its pretty obvious that these guys are just a bit “stiff” and would have benefited from a separately carved head.

I was discussing with Sally, one of the members of my carving club, where I might find a good chain for Marley. She said she had just the thing. She went into her house and returned with a necklace that she didn’t want any more...just a spritz of black spray paint and viola an old, heavy metal chain. I carved a few small locks, ledger books and a cash box to complete the figure.

I hope to some day add at least Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.

One from the Bench:

The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.

'Til next time...Keep makin' chips!