a newfound love

A spontaneous, brisk, early morning walk with the whole family(and dog), led us across the river and into a lovely park, and right up close and personal with the

 Salem Riverfront Carousel,

 where we fell head over heels in love with wood carving. Tylor and I have been taking the volunteer carving class, every week for a few months now and have enjoyed every minute of it. Our projects are coming along nicely, and soon we will begin carving one of the new menagerie animals, (my fingers are crossed for the sheep) there will be twelve.

This is the first project everyone is given when they begin the class. It is a length of bass wood, in which the first requirement is to create a chain. In the beginning it was a little awkward holding the tools and the wood, figuring out which was the best way to remove the material that "wasn't chain".

After a while, it really became second hand and the more technical, ball in a cage was the next step. I originally began with three balls, but in the end only one remained, the others were too small and fell through the sides. Once the chain and ball and cage are completed, the rest of the wood is up to you, so I thought I'd give a spinning ring a try.

The center ring below the cage is the one that spins

In the last section, I have created four panels, each one depicting the life cycle of the

Oregon Swallowtail butterfly. I had fun researching, learning which plants they lay eggs on, which plants the caterpillars eat, and what their chrysalis looks like. I just love butterflies anyway,

 and swallowtails have always been a favorite,

 so getting familiar with our native state butterfly was awesome. 

The first panel pictured below, is the single egg on a stalk of wild tarragon, it's still in progress.

The other three are just line drawings now, Caterpillar,chrysalis, and butterfly.

Classes are held throughout the week, if you're local, come on down and check it out

new volunteers are always welcome!