Carving MS Tod

At the end of 2010 I declared my red fox finished. Actually, Diana examined Ms Tod and declared her finished. She was named Miss Tod by Cousin Kini which means red fox in old English.

It seems I was too hasty in declaring her finished. Well, actually, she was finished .…at the time. I was happy. But, my interest in detail won’t let me leave things alone. Apparently a carving is never finished as long as it is in my possession. No base but she really did not need one. She was sitting on rocks and I had even placed grass between in the spaces.

Then tthree things happened; Philip and Connie consulted my “wish list” and sent me a “third hand” device (3 alligator clips on a bar make the tool almost infinitely adjustable); Diana had placed the carving on the entertainment center in front of my recliner; and I found a piece of cedar that I thought added to the carved Ms Tod as a base.

Every day, I looked at the carving and resisted my impulse to just make a couple of small changes ….for a while! Finally, I could no longer stand the realization that I had declared it finished by compromising my ultimate goal with laziness (I got tired of putting grass on there and decided to simply put enough in there to be OK).

Besides, I owed it to the kids to try out their gift….didn’t I? It is much easier to make the new clumps of grass and put them in place; only requires a little knife work. Well, except for having to paint each piece of grass, glue it up into a clump, cut a hole in the rocks, put it in there, epoxy it in place and then paint to cover the base. Besides, …..shouldn’t there be a little more grass down near the bottom? …..since I have the paints out anyhow, might as well do a little more dry brushing here and there! …...never was satisfied with the amount of Crystal Kote on the eyes! …..if I had grass down near the bottom, this carving really should have a base, …..shouldn’t it?

So, Miss Tod went back on my work table officially, once more, unfinished ....making me wonder; as long as I have one of my carvings ….is it ever truly finished?

Last Christmas, Philip & Connie gave us a bunch of specialty items (candied ginger and such) as our gift. Connie had used wood excelsior to spruce things up a bit. We brought everything back home (from Dallas) and Diana was putting things away. She was holding the excelsior in her hands and said, “do you have any use for this?”

I tore myself away from my novel long enough to look up and say, “No just toss it in the wood stove; but be careful ….that stuff will explode like it was soaked with gasoline!” I happily returned to reading where I was following Dana Stabenow’s latest “bad guy”, who was being pursued across the Alaska wilderness (in the interest of justice) by dective heroine “Kate Shugak”, who was being pursued anywhere in Alaska (ardently, but definitely not for judicial interests) by Alaskan Trooper “ ‘Chopper Jim’ Chopin ”.

It vaguely came through to me that Diana was still talking to ,,..well, OK ….now at me. She had the wood stove door open and was maneuvering for the toss when Kate commented, with Diana’s voice, “I thought you might be able to use it for your wood carving”.

“Hmph.” I responded, “what the hell do you know? You’re a detective, not a woodcarver!” To which Diana/Kate , observed, “It looks just like that grass you have been making.” I had been shaving off pieces of bamboo skewer for the blades of grass ….one little sliver at a time.

Fortunately, to paraphrase Hercule Poirot, the little gray cells became excited ….Alaska snow gave way to wooden grass. My screams at Diana of, “Wait! Wait! Don't burn it!” were startling but not too late.

That stuff is perfect for grass. Just cut it up with a pair of scissors, paint it, clump it together with the aid of my “third hand” and some artist’s paste , then place it on the carving using more artist paste and paint the base to look like dirt. Tedious but effective.

Finally, I asked my number one judge for a critique. Diana examined Ms Tod (with base) and said, “You put tracks on the back of the bear carving. You should put some fox tracks on the base of this one.” Damn they look good on there!

And so ends my work on Ms Tod and this epistle from Paul.