Winter's Artistry

Wind and Snow created something amazing on my skylight last night!

Gearing Up For War!

My family is becoming concerned with my growing battle hammer collection. I have no answer for them.  I'm compelled to make things that don't make sense. Sensible is boring..and paralyzing. I'm still working on making bows. Also, since seeing the new Hobbit movie I want to make that giant crossbow that shoots steel spears. I can't find a picture of it though and I forget the name. I'll have to skim through the book to see what it's called. Anyway, the top hammer and the small one in the middle are my latest ones, the way they came out pleases me. No matter what anyone thinks I'm going to keep moving along this path to see where it takes me.

Karstens Ridge on Denali

I snapped this picture in 1993 on the north side of Mount McKinley.

A New Kind Of Superhero!

A man who dances to the beat of a different drum. His drum is the planet....and he beats this drum with his fists....not in anger but in celebration. Summoning all the forest dwellers.....the furred and the feathered...his kin. Turning himself into an owl he soars or a lowly scum turtle scrubbing under the leaves for a worm. His fist still beating Earth Mother, rekindling her core with the happiness of fire and burning. Then....transforming into Wind....he is gone.

ramblings.....

Nighttime down in my bunker. Alone. Can't seem to shake the feeling of not belonging on this planet. At least not in this time period. I wish they would send me back from whence I came.....the mid 1800s......I think. I'm not sure though. The only thing for certain is I'm not from this era. If I'm to stay, here in the present, a revolution needs to happen. A renaissance of sorts. A time of art and music, good bread, and heavy cast iron power tools from the 1950s. Beards and pocket watches, pretty dresses, old Colt pistols, and Boraxo hand soap. I want a fucking pocket watch! I want a day without a text message.  Just breathing in the sunshine. How about a day skipping rocks with Andy Griffith?

Rainy Saturday with Lou

 It's a cold and rainy Saturday.....dreary. Everyone in the house is sick. I've been working on this Lou Costello sculpt for a while now. Sometimes I'm happy with it, other times I want to flatten it. I may make a trek out and get a coffee then head over to Home Depot for some battle hammer material. I'm going to put a steel (Valerian Steel) handle on the next one.

haiku

bitter cold darkness
old Waylon Jennings record
a glass of bourbon

Happy New Year

My kindred spirit Marty Stouffer sent me this photo with the message to have a Wild New Year. I say to you Marty....I will sir....I will, and thank you for the inspiring photo. Just looking at it raises the spirits and inspires one to not just sit and run out the clock that is your life. If you are not LIVING this photo, why are you here.

Abbott and Costello sculpture continued

Nothing like listening to Native American flute on the headphones while sculpting these two guys. All while my kids are playing Bobby Rydell albums in the background.

Smaug!

Lou Costello Sculpture

Sculpting a tiny Lou Costello head is turning out to be a lot harder than I thought.

Merry Christmas from the Edge of Reason

 

I know deep down that she's not real. I choose not to dwell "deep down". That's where the pain lives. 

   As we speak me and my glass of Makers are trying to sculpt a tiny Lou Costello bust. I can not explain why. At this point in my life why do I need a tiny Costello head. Maybe it's just the challenge. I'm having a hard time of it. Also my wife got me a bottle of Makers 46 for Christmas in support of my new hobby, drinking bourbon. I've developed a love for the original Makers Mark. This stuff is a bit stronger, you get kind of a nostril clearing before each taste. Still it has the super drinkability of the original, which tastes like they bottled Merle Haggards voice. I'm pretty sure I'll stick to original Makers once I finish this bottle. I'm not much of a drinker so this should last me a month or two.

Walter!!

Fantastic shot of my Buff Orpington rooster. He is pure gloriousness.

The Longbow

I have my first longbow pretty much finished. I shot it over the weekend and it,to my surprise, did not shatter in my face. I don't have a target so I was shooting at one of my wife's lawn chairs. The arrows fishtailed or more correctly porpoised wildly and missed the mark by a good four feet. After adjusting where I gripped the bow(the arrow rests on my hand) and where I nocked the arrow things went a little better. I need to get the correct arrows and a real target to really fine tune the bow. I did finally put one into the chair though. Huge learning curve going from a girly store bought bow to one born out of the forest and crafted with my own paws. In the picture above I have the next bow I'm working on. It's maple with a hickory backing. I just started getting it to bend.

Building the Longbow

This is the oak longbow that I'm building. It's pretty much at the fine tuning stage now. I built this tillering board last night. It's a jig used to make sure each limb is bending correctly.  I'm sure that the only way to learn if it's bending correctly is to have a few break on you. Then you can get a feel for right bend.  Anyway....I can wait to shoot this! I need to order some bow strings soon.