New wooden owls

Here are my latest hand carved wooden owls.   I made them from reclaimed wood using various carving tools and painted them with acrylics. They are finished in a thin coat of wood wax (not shown) Tomorrow I will take these up to Edison, WA.

My latest wood carved owls. 

This owl had a sideways view

This is the largest of the bunch. 

This one has eyes like a barn owl. The design of the owl is inspired by European, Northwest Native American,  and Oaxaca design motifs. 

These wooden owls look afraid of the sander....

I paint acrylic in light washes so that it stains the surface of the wood, then I go back over them in thicker paint to add details.

Here are the owls while being carved.  I draw what I want to do in charcoal.  I use hatchets and chisels to shape the pieces.  Recently I switched t a rubber mallet, because the wooden one tears up the handles of the chisels.  I'm self taught at woodcarving so sometimes I learn through trial and error.  

Owl in progress with flannel and clog selfie.  Some of the chisels once belonged to my great grandfather Frank Swanberg SR., a Tacoma carpenter.

Pieces of wood ready for carving into whittle owls

Various pieces of wood that I have collected for carving.  The ones on the left are "whittle" owls

Here I have placed them outside , before applying the beeswax wood oil coating.  It will darken the surface of the wood and protect it from splitting.  The smaller carved owl on the left is decorated using a torch burning process.