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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Finding Time to Whittle

As I cruise around the web, reading what other whittlers/carvers post, I'm jealous of the prolific whittlers. I'm not one of them, I'm lucky to create a dozen items a year, some folks out there can turn that out overnight. (Note these are the people who don't necessarily have jobs, doesn't matter I'm still jealous).

Making time to whittle is a problem for me, for a couple of reasons. There are things I should do instead- my job, take care of the house and family....

At the end of the day when I sit down for a couple hours I'm often under motivated to make a mess and then clean it up. TV and a refreshing beverage just seem like the better choice.

So lately I've been whittling over my second cup of coffee in the morning. I always have two, after that I either start my job or get my butt up and get to work on something cosmically more important and less selfish than whittling. I suppose if I was getting paid to whittle it would move up the scale of cosmic importance, but that seems as far out of reach as getting paid to nap. Not gonna happen anytime soon. Like any other project, even a few minutes a day results in progress, and the little things I like to whittle get finished pretty quickly. My office is hardwood floor, and needs to be swept daily anyway, so that all works out pretty well for me.

You don't need a lot of time, there's no need to start and finish something in one sitting. I probably have an hour into the little dog in the photo, over two days, one more day like that and he should be done.

So make the time, one way or another. Leave your knife and a piece of wood where you can see them daily. Carry your knife in your pocket. You may find yourself whittling while hubby goes into Home Depot, or while wifey cruised the mall. I have a friend who whittles every time he finds himself in a line- waiting for dinner reservations or whatever. Make your mess out on the porch, or make your kids sweep up your mess. I actually cheat and dump the chips into the nearest houseplant rather than walk to the garbage can across the room, it hasn't died yet. I know one whittler keeps her knife and wood in a plastic shoe box and keeps all the shavings inside until the project is done (I don't know why).

The more I pick up a knife the easier it is for me to find time to do it again, especially when I have a Work In Progress (WIP).


Chips are not born, they need to be made. Happy Whittling - BfloBif

2 comments:

  1. I like your little bottlestopper pup! Do those stoppers you use under your carving sink all the way down into the bottle so the pup sits right on the lip of it? I'm just curious.

    Marcia.

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  2. Hi Marcia. The stoppers DO sink all the way into the botle, I posted a pic on the Whittler's Porch of both the rose and the hound dog on top of a bottle.

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