The whale carving deviation has taken off really well. So much so, Citizens, Gnomes, Gnome Homes, Monuments and Superheroes of Gigglesville have taken a back seat. On top of the big whales that double up as smart phone holders, I have also carved up baby whales to add to the pod.
Now these babies don’t just exist for the sake of existing. They double up as name card holders, making themselves just as useful as their mummy whales. Clever, isn’t it? I feel so proud of this latest direction.
The trays that I use to house all the Citizens of Gigglesville look so empty these days despite a population of 170. Well, when so many of them migrate, 90 to be exact I am bound to have empty nests. I need to step it up to fill the void.
Forget the big Meranti pieces for the time being, just focus on the Citizens and I shouldn’t have any problems to fill up the trays again.
The Giant Citizens, Superheroes and Baby Whales decided to take one tray to fill the void
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’s inevitable for every storyline that has happy giggling citizens living harmoniously and superheroes maintaining peace to have a nemesis who does nothing but wreck havoc and create fear. Hence, Gigglesville has EB to content with. EB as in Evil Buster.
So who is EB? He’s obviously an evil one with a name as such and he brings glum to the citizens, taking away their giggles and happiness.
Now all I need is to create the whole township! Carving has never been this fun!
I got so engrossed in this carving activity, I spawned off another batch of carvings, this time a line of superheroes and call them ‘Defenders of Earth’! These fellas are kinda like Avengers, a group of super beings that protect Earth from evil and what nots.
And unlike the citizens who only has serial numbers, these superheroes have names because they are well, superheroes and for practical reasons. Imagine rattling off a series of number to announce their arrival? Not very hip.
We have SuperOwl and his sidekick, SuperOink and they report to Lord Bubba. Together in their ‘O’Mobile, they traverse Gigglesville, Earth and the universe to maintain laughter and happiness.
Honestly, it’s quite fun to carve and build the story along…
When M1 was young, we outsourced her to a baby sitter while we worked. And every evening, she would wait by the front door, around the time when we would arrive to fetch her home. At such a tender age (hardly two), she seems to know when to station herself there. Upon hearing the car pull up at the gate, she would then run off to the kitchen yelling, “My Angie Lee is here!!!!!” to report our arrival.
Years later, M1 would not be calling me by my name but variations. When “Oh Mother dearest…” is uttered, I know she wants to buy something and would be at her best in manners to make her case. However, when “Eh! You know…” leaves her mouth and is quite often, I would shoot back with “Eh?? A?! B?! Excuuuuuse me!!!” and the proper address will fall into place. It’s a jovial banter that I don’t recall doing with my mother in my younger days.
Unlike her elder sibling, M2 has summoned me “Sup Philaf!” (albeit a short stint only) during the Captain Underpants years. But she has also decided to give me a superhero name. She claims all moms are like superheroes and as the name “Angie” is so “nyeh”, I need a more heroic sounding name. So my superhero alter-ego is called……
Linda. Smack you if you laughed.
Angieneering 
Remarks