Since I’m just coming back from a long “offline” vacation to the online world, it’s taking me a minute to get used to wordpress again.
If you read my post from this morning, then you know that THIS is the post I was referring to. All the images are finally uploaded and ALL the duplicates have been deleted. Wasn’t that fun!
Now, back to last night.
Last Night Turned Out Fantastic
I went to bed not feeling well. My head hurt. My back (specifically the center of my spine) was killing me. Then, a tooth started bugging me.
So I got up.
Not wanting to disturb anyone, I grabbed my knife and a block of wood I’d previously drawn out an idea on. The idea isn’t mine, I just wanted to see if I could carve it.

The Funky One In The Middle
You see that block of wood to your left? The one between the bear climbing a tree and the funny looking fella?
Yes, that’s the one I grabbed.
The design idea came from somewhere on the internet. I’d seen a couple of them along these lines and wanted to take a crack at carving it.
Usually, if I can draw it, I can carve it.
The Carving Itself Is Easy – Here’s The Challenge
Carving out a wood spirit isn’t all that difficult. There’s some excellent tutorials on the subject available free on YouTube. If you’re not a whittler or wood carver, and want to get started, then the wood spirit is a good place to begin.
In the picture to your right (if you’re on a computer) shows the beginning stages of this particular project.
Because the hands and nose are the highest points, that’s where I began.
Once the hands and nose are located, it becomes a matter of layers.
Layer one is the hair, eyebrows and mustache because these are the next highest points.
Then it’s the eyes, mouth and so-on.

It’s really just a fun little puzzle. Instead of a box full of pieces, you get a block of wood and a knife. Same thing.
Anyways, below is the finished piece. Total time took about 2.5 hours. Most of that time was deciding how to proceed next, and then testing the cuts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken too much off.
Go ahead, click on any of the images and it’ll bring up a bigger image.
So that’s my first Wood Spirit post. You’ll see more. And I’ll put up some intructional files (pdf, video, articles) as this site grows.
Go ahead, leave a comment and follow me around on social media.