Uncle Archie

Uncle Archie’s figure will be a challenge to transfer the picture to a block of basswood.
Uncle Archie Cole was quite a character.  I’ve heard a few stories about his antics plus he was a peanut and citrus farmer down in the Texas Valley area in the 1930's.

For you Genealogy buffs, Archie Cole comes from the Cole line which dates back to William Cole, the governor’s Council (1675–1692) and as secretary of the Virginia colony (1690–1692), founders of William and Mary College.

I’m not the greatest artist in the world so the drawing will be rough.

 Remove the excess wood using a band saw or coping saw. I used a coping saw to remove the excess wood from the side view just to show you that a band saw isn’t really needed.  Yes, it takes more work and time but, for some objects the coping saw is preferred because of the small size of an object. In future projects I’ll show you how to use the scroll saw.

 Now the carving fun begins:

Start carving the hat and face. Make sure you are wearing your safety glove and thumb guard when using the carving knife.

Quiz Time:  What is the most used item in a wood carvers workshop?
Answer: The band aid. Yep…there isn’t a wood carver out there who hasn’t cut themselves with their carving knife or a carving tool.

In this picture I’m using a small gouge to make some very small detail cuts.  Typically, the glove isn’t needed, however, make sure you wear the glove if you decide to make larger cuts where the gouge could slide off the figure and into your fingers or hand.

 Eventually, once the figure is painted it will be joined with the Gas Pump to complete the project.

I use mostly Ceramcoat Acrylics by Delta Creative and Duncan Bisq-Stain Opaque Acrylics.  I typically find Ceramcoat at Hobby Lobby at a much more reasonable price than ordering them on-line.  I prefer Ceramcoat because the colors appear to be of a finer blend and all of the colors mix well when I’m creating alternative shades.

I create a wash of my colors using 1 part color and 4 – 6 parts water.  I usually start with a darker base color in each area such as the shirt or pants then add white to the base color to dry-brush a high over the area.  Lastly, I dry-brush white over an area to create the aged effect.

After painting the basic areas, step back and take a long hard look at the figure.  If you don’t like what you see then you can start over by just painting over it.

 Paint the eyes and add any miscellaneous hardware.

Brush-on the antiquing mixture, 10 parts Boiled Linseed Oil and 1 part Burnt Umber or Minwax American Walnut stain.  Brush off the excess after several minutes the discard the rags in a sealed container.

 Create the base and paint it.

 Join the Gas Pump and Figure to the base using SuperGlue gell.

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