It looks like the flavor of the month has changed. In April, I was carving up Gnomes, this May it’s Monuments that I am doing. And they are getting bigger in size too.
Excited with the result of the 3-Citizen Meranti Monument without a platform, I went on to carve another Meranti piece but with four Citizens. And in between painting it up, I started an even bigger 3-Citizen piece. Soon the house will be full of Monuments!
The latest and biggest Monument
Comparing the height of all the Monuments
The Gnomes of Gnomie-wood are taking over my life! Citizens of Gigglesville took a back seat last month as I found myself carving up Gnomes instead. With so much Meranti wood at my disposal, I was glueing pieces to make big blocks to carve into giant Gnomes.
And each one gets bigger than the previous. With the latest Gnome 10, standing at 5.5 inches tall, I now have 10 Gnomes in Gnomie-wood! But Gnome 10 is not the tallest; it comes in second. Gnome 9, a two-piece Meranti stands the tallest at 7 inches, while Gnome 2, carved from balsa, is the smallest and shortest among the lot at 43mm tall.
It’s been so addictive and fun. More Gnomes to come is all I can say!
Family group shot
Gnome 10 before the paint job
The beginning of Gnome 10
Now that I am carving bigger pieces with the Meranti wood from Aunty Dearest, I am unsure how to categorize them. As you know, there are the Citizens, Superheroes, Monuments and Friends of Gigglesville, and each piece is labeled and recorded. Those who leave Gigglesville are granted passports to enable the migration.
Then there are the Gnomes who have grown in numbers and are now in their own hamlet, Gnomie-wood. Certain pieces like the Superheroes and Monuments stay put but I am still undecided whether the Gnomes can leave, I like them too much. We shall see.
Now these pieces, the giant Citizens are putting me in a bind. They look like the Citizens of Gigglesville but they are not Citizens because of their size nor are they Monuments because they are single pieces, not stacked up. See my predicament?
Maybe I should create another new category. Besides these differences, they also have a felt cloth underneath, making them more like paper weights than anything else!
Hmm… I have to sort this out soon.
Last week, I took a big plunge and attempted my biggest piece ever! All these while, the biggest I have done are four-inch tall carvings, Halloween Owl, Dinky and the first giant Gnome, from ready sizes of the basswood.
Now this chunk is two pieces of Meranti glued together to become a towering 7.5 inch block. An ugly block to begin with but it’s not stopping me, even with the outline drawn and redrawn for a better proportion.
Within three days, I managed to complete the piece and the biggest Gnome ever in Gnomie-wood was ‘born’. It’s seven inches tall after sanding down and towers over the rest. It’s just simply adorable. Love it.
When the O&G doctor came this morning and with a clear mind, I now understand what the mess was.
The appendix that was removed dinosaur years ago left a void in its place and over time (I am a dinosaur so it’s a very long time), my intestines decided to ‘park’ themselves there! Haish… my funny intestines.
And over the years they got comfy and created a close-knit village there, all stuck together! On a more serious note, the technical term of this problem is adhesions whereby internal organs are stuck together when they are not supposed to at a place they’re not supposed to be at. This can happen if one had an open surgery before.
I guess we can conclude that all the problems started with the removal of the appendix and the recent Endometriosis and Cyst escalated the situation. The Infectious Colitis was not even part of the act but a side wanna-be.
The good news is I am being discharged later today to rest at home with my Citizens and Gnomes! Yay. But I still need to monitor my cramps closely to see if they do occur again.
If they do, I then have to go on a six-month treatment. Let’s cross the fingers and hope for the better.
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.
Angieneering 
Remarks