Hello again,
I am going to have a little winge today as I was recently hurt by a comment by someone that didn't know me or my circumstances. It surprised me just how much it hurt reading it and it stayed with me for many days. So I decided to write some things down.
Firstly please, don't judge a book by its cover. I am glad that some people like my work, but I am definitely NOT a professional earning enough money to live on. This is a hobby which has evolved & started from wanting to achieve something whilst dealing with a long term health problem and now I have a online shop and selling some of the items that I create.
It is easier for me to have a website with an online shop as sadly I can’t attend local markets because of my chronic illnesses. And YES, I have several! Together they prevent me from holding down employment and doing many of the things I used to love. Staying positive is difficult at times, creating & selling helps me focus on the here and now and a little bit in the future.
I picked up wood carving because I love working with wood & creating things. It has become a way to help me cope with my pain & an ever changing myriad of other symptoms which can change with each passing day.
I would be totally lost without creating something and wood carving has now because a bit of a passion.
I have limited energy and this restricts my time on doing many things. Everyday things that you take for granted, like working, housework, shopping, meal preparation, & outdoor activities.
I once had boundless energy to complete all of these tasks & more.... each day if necessary!!
Now, some days, I am lucky if I can do just one task! Prioritising has become my norm! Which task is more important for the day and can I do it today!
I am fortunate to be able to create for 2-3 hours some days, other days its not even half of that!
I sell my work because even though I like the project that I have made, my house is full enough!
Yes, I get a buzz if people buy my creations and it's a bonus if someone likes my work enough to actually buy it. I also don't want to undervalue my abilities or my creations, but its hard to know just how much to sell an item for when you have put so much of your energy (which I greatly need) into completing a project.
What is classified as normal, is demanding & draining for me. Do I add all that into the equation of pricing my items. I don't think any would sell.
As much as I would love to attend local markets my chronic illnesses prevent this, for many reasons that I won't go into.
So my only way to reduce the number of projects that I create is by selling online.
Anyway, enough of all that!
What have I achieved apart from getting out of bed and making it to the next day?
Well, I was asked to make four more of these gumleaf shaped dishes. And boy haven't they turned out well! I was so happy with how well the painting if them turned out. Sometimes I really do surprise myself!
The magpies that I finished painting turned out great too and even had a good photo shoot!
This one is available from my store
I had an order to really personalise some of my Christmas rocking horses. I had to start from beginning and carve them all.
Then 3 had to be stained a Chestnut colour & 3 a Bay colour- brown body with a black mane & tail.
I had never stained my rocking horses before and found a good method of stopping the stain bleeding into the rocker by using the pyrography tool to burn a groove to act as a stopper. It worked quite well. I will have to remember it for next time.
I did find it a little difficult to get the right colour for the chestnut tail. But visiting the local op-shop I found some wool that was tightly twisted that ended up being the right colour.
Once all put together I then had to add some names to the base of the of the rocker using the pyrography tool to burn them.
They looked great sitting together and I was very happy with the likeness of the colours.
If you want something like this please feel free to contact me.
Well... this was certainly a different custom order than what I am used to!!
These heads were carved from reclaimed timber of unknown origin. However, it turned out to be the best type of wood to carve these little heads. Once carved they didn't require a lot of sanding to finish them up, which meant less tedious work for me.
The customer wanted to paint them up and I believe use them as fishing lures. I would love to see them all painted up & finished as they will look totally different from how they look here unpainted.
If you want something unique feel free to contact me.
Just the other day I was asked to create a cross which was adorned with wattle as a gift to remember a special person who recently died.
I am still in the painting process of this one. But it is coming up way better than expected. Even though I am not religious, I may carve another just to have it in my shop as I enjoyed creating it so much.
Just a little free standing birthday sign in cut out and painted recently
Finally to wrap this update up.
The weather here is starting to warm up, and so is the wildlife that live at Derrymore.
I had a close encounter with this bearded dragon the other day.
I was trying to find a nice spot outside to place my chair to do some carving and watch the goat eat his dinner. When I nearly stepped on this little fella sunning himself in the shorter grass. As you can see by this photo he wasn't that happy to get his photo taken! And YES!!!!! It frightened the life out if me when he did that, before he scuttled away into the long grass.
Well, that's all from me here
Keep on creating
Theresa 🌸
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