Another Turtle

This turtle is a bit different because it has about 10 medium-size ball bearings in the head, and there is a 3” x 3/8” bolt on the far side of the neck that serves as both a counterbalance and center balance.  I made it very heavy so that the motion of the head is really slow motion and sustained for quite sometime. The ball bearings in the head also make it possible to attract the movement of the head sideways if you conceal a small magnet in your hand.  This is used to pretend that the turtle favors your hand over someone else’s who doesn’t have a magnet in their hand!  The shell is a maranka gourd from Pumpkin Hollow Gourds, Piggot, AR.  The head and neck is a banana gourd.  All of the wood is black walnut.

                                                                               

Captive Apples

These four young ladies (dried apples) were quarantined because of a fruit-fly infestation, but they began to complain about the living conditions.  So I put them in a comparment where they could look out, but they were still unhappy!

Coaster Set

Set of six coasters and holder made of exotic hardwoods.  Each piece is made with a mixture of black walnut, purpleheart, cocobolo, and cherry.  Three coasters have a top of purpleheart and the other three have tops of cocobolo.  Each coaster is designed with a slot through so that a regular napkin can be folded once and passed through the slot.  Each coaster has rubber feet to prevent the marring of furniture.

Killer Whale

This female killer whale (Orca) was made from a gourd that I grew.  The tongue, dorsal fin, flippers, and tail fluke was made with gourd parts.  The teeth were made from a 1/8″ wooden dowel.  The length is 24 inches.  The stand is made of black walnut.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

 

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 47 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Gourd Crow

It took me some time to decide on making a crow out of gourd parts.  After well into the process, I thought many times that it was a bad decision.  I was happier with all the details of feathers that took me many hours to burn, but the final black concealed most of that work.  Anyway, the body, wings, head, and tail were made with gourd parts; the bill is a piece of cedar; the legs are walnut dowels; the feet are of rosewood, and the claws were made from a brass rod.  The butterfly and flower parts in the background are made of gourd parts also.

Snakelizurtle

This creature represents a snake, a lizard, and a turtle.  A maranka gourd was cut in half and one half retained the curled end that was made into a snake plus the shell of the turtle.  The head was made from several jewelry gourds and sealed with some ball bearings as counterweights.  The tongues are made of purple heart wood from Africa and the legs and feet are made of black walnut.  The action is governed by precisely balancing the head for bobbing and side-to-side movement.  It gives a very eerie effect as if the head were really alive!  The other turtle up front is the other half of the gourd that was sawed in nearly half.  Its head bobs up, down, and side to side.

Turtle with bobbing head

This is the second turtle I’ve made using a maranka gourd for the shell.  Now I believe I know the most effective way to make the bobbing head which truly is eerie when done correctly.  The head was made with a small banana gourd and the feet were made of walnut.  This one was made so that the bottom can be removed in case something happens to the suspension system.

 

Miss Cardashian

This young lady was made with a pear-shaped gourd for the upper torso and head; the skirt was made with a small gourd.  The shoes were made by splitting a jewelry gourd in half and using walnut for the shoe soles and heels.  I used wooden dowels for the arms and legs.  By the way, her name is Miss  Cardashian. 

Dazed Hummingbird

This young lady wandered in my garage and became disoriented.  Sadly she flew into the window and suddenly fell to the floor.  I picked her up and headed in the house to get my camera, but of course my memory card was in the computer which added more time, plus I had to load the camera with one hand while holding the bird.  I managed to do all of this while she was still in a daze; so on the porch I got the camera ready, extended my arm and opened my hand.  She was still dazed as I clicked the shutter.  I wanted to get a second picture, but the camera was flashing “no space!”  At that moment she took off like a bullet, and I think she will be just fine.