The carving is in full swing! And the supplies need to be replenished. I was able to get these items last week during the slow work week to add to my stock – new gesso, gloss varnish, new colors and of course more balsa which I still need for the regular sized Citizens! I thought it would be a change to try several different brands of supplies from my usual.
And I think it’s exciting to see what comes out from the new colors especially the solid bronze. Stay tuned.
Three weeks ago (before the laparoscopic surgery) on a hot Sunday morning, the carving began. This latest Monument is different from the earlier pieces in many ways, the most obvious being the choice of wood – Meranti versus balsa. Then it’s the characters on the totem pole.
Previous pieces have different species of Citizens stacked up. This piece has only one species, looking the same yet different in their expressions. And it wasn’t easy to execute because being a denser wood, it was quite a challenge to shape the smaller area of curves and crevices. Definitely different from shaping a single big Citizen.
Patience is the key I guess. And at the height of this excitement, I overlooked having a platform like the others for this new piece. Oh well. Every piece is unique in its own way.
The carving experiments have taken shape and color! Citizen on a Tree is looking good despite the flat head. The flat head Gnome was painted much earlier and two nights ago, I finally painted up the Citizen.
These few days, carving has been slow because I had to work late, an unusual busy run which is good and I shouldn’t complain.
I hope this weekend, all the queued up pieces will take shape too. Can’t wait for the weekend.
Suddenly, the balsa and the little Citizens of Gigglesville are forgotten with so much focus on the Meranti wood and Gnomes.
Feeling guilty, I decided to go back to the balsa. And you know what? I found myself unable to hold it properly. It’s so tiny! How did I ever managed to carve up a village of Citizens, Superheroes and all?
Working with the harder Meranti, my carving strength is so different. I had to reprogram myself to dealing with the soft balsa again. It wasn’t quick work as it used to be but I managed and after its completion, I jumped back to the Meranti.
Even though the big block is glued (two big pieces and two smaller pieces), it’s easier to shape and a new species came long. I think this has potential to be little Citizens. We shall see…
There are now seven Gnomes, all in different heights and sizes, unlike the Citizens of Gigglesville where everyone is about the same size and height. To call the hamlet, “Gnomie-wood” is getting more and more appealing at this point.
The Gnomes currently ‘live’ in a tupperware (whereas the Citizens of Gigglesville live in trays). And with all their hats painted red, one evening I mistook them for being watermelons from the corner of my eyes. Just because we had watermelons a day before. Even M2 thought they were watermelons! Hahaha…
Don’t they look like mouth-watering watermelons from this perspective?
The box of Meranti is proving to be very fun and challenging. There are so many pieces and sizes to pick and choose. Soon after the flat head Citizen and Gnome, I immediately started on the glued two piece to carve another Giant Gnome. And in tandem another single piece Gnome, albeit smaller and shorter.
The Gnome population suddenly is booming! Maybe they should have their own hamlet instead of crowding Gigglesville.
Gnomie-wood? Hahaha….
After the completion of the Giant Gnome, I began experimenting with the new Meranti wood. And I find its density to be in between the balsa and basswood that I have been working with all this time. It is rather nice and different.
The balsa, despite being too soft and porous, and sometimes comes off easily in chunks if I apply a little bit more strength, has its plus points I must say. After all there wouldn’t be 128 Citizens of Gigglesville, a handful of Superheroes, Gnomes and Monuments to show.
As for the basswood, it is rather hard and needs more effort to carve and shape. So far, I have only three finished pieces with this wood type: Halloween Owl, Dinky the Dinosaur and Giant Gnome.
Now the Meranti wood is something else. Soft yet not too soft, and hard but not so, it is rather easy to work with. Within one hot Sunday afternoon at home, I carved up two familiar characters but with slight variations. A Citizen perched on a tree and a Gnome with a super tall cap. The only thing with this wood is the depth. The width is fine but lacking depth, so the two finished pieces have rather flat heads. That’s why it’s an experiment.
Next project in the pipeline is glueing two Meranti pieces together to give it depth and let’s see how this will turn out! Another Gnome in the making before I plan what new species or character to come out with. With the workbench in place, I don’t mind a drop in my social life as I stay at home nightly to work on my carvings.
It took me awhile to figure out what should I carve out of the four inch basswood block and finally I decided it should be a Gnome, a Giant Gnome. I felt that to do a Citizen, on this big scale, it would be a ‘waste’ as most of the wood would be shaved off to shape a Citizen.
Citizens generally are shorter, averaging about 26mm, compared to a Gnome that is about 50mm except for Gnome 2 who is 43mm. The Gnome’s height especially the cap is determined by how much balsa wood is left without wasting any of the wood upon carving.
If I had a 50mm piece left, it is better to carve a Gnome than to carve two 25mm Citizens because it’s just too short and hard to hold. So in essence, Gnomes came about because I did not want to waste my precious balsa wood.
This chunky short adorable fella definitely stands out from the other three Gnomes.
And Gnomes will also grow in numbers like the Citizens of Gigglesville. Maybe they should have their own hamlet. Gnomesville? Hmm…
It is awesome when my Aunty gave me a box full of Meranti (Shorea, Parashorea) wood pieces, excess or rather off-cut pieces from her factory. It’s more like a box of happiness. Imagine the carvings that I can do with all of them!
All the more reason to get that workbench. I went to the store, Ace Hardware to check out the Black & Decker WM225 model that I have identified but decided to order it online instead because the online price is a better deal. So over the weekend, the order was made. Yay.
My box of happiness awaits the new workbench. This is the beginning of something new. The Citizens of Gigglesville are now seeing a new growth, in size besides the numbers.
News headlines generally suck, world news suck and local news are no different. It is as though there are no positive news to update humanity. So it is better not to read the news than to learn what is going on around us to keep sane.
For this reason, I like to stay in my little bubble, away from all the shenanigans of the world for as long as I can manage.
So I carve. And I carve and carve.
After Monument 5 came about to kickstart the carving mood, everything fell into place. Within a few days, Monument 6, six Citizens and another Gnome were added to the population count of Gigglesville. No news is good news if this is the result.
Angieneering 
Remarks