A Naturally Twisted Walking Cane with Scrimshaw Art on Elephant Ivory of a Black Labrador Dog

Mark, you really impressed my wife with this one. Because of the Lab. We have a lab and a labadoodle, she loves them both, I called her over to look at it and told her it was drawn on ivory. She said oh my gosh won’t he get in trouble, I explained you bought it from a museum. But she loved the drawing, if it would have been a horse she would’nt have looked twice. She loved the piece though. buds, mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

That is one great stick. Your canes are always top quality.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Mark. Where has this gen been hiding. A great job and a perfect story to tell about it.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

thanks Dennis and Karson. Not hiding, just lost in the masses. This project posting library is getting crazy these days. Remember when we used to post and for about a week, our project was in the first page? Not anymore, you get a few hours. I knew the site would be popular, and it is starting to really grow some traffic. Everytime I get in the site, I find projects I can’t believe I missed, and the blogs are just way out of control!!

cool.

My walking canes have been getting a lot of google traffic for the past 60 days. I don’t know what this is from, either Christmas gift searching, or I finally was discovered by google with the walking canes. But, I have been watching all of my LJ posted walking canes just go crazy with views, and driving folks over to my website. So, for my carved face cane posting, I recently built a display stand for it, and also took some better photos of it to post tonight.

I think the carved 4-Face cane would have scored better in the judging that it has been in over the past year if it would have had a display stand to hold it up. For the judging, it just laid on the table, while other canes had stands to hold them up.

This is something I will be doing on all of the special canes that I make that I take to competitions, as well as brass name tags, which seems to be the standard nowadays for gallery items. Small things seem to make a difference in judging. The first time I showed the 4-Face Cane in a competition it took 2nd to an expertly carved replication of a project straight out of Woodcarving Illustrated, and I know that since I read the article. This cane was an original idea of mine, but the judge thought that I had glued the faces onto the staff. Next time I do a fancy cane, I will make sure it is obvious to the judges that it is all out of one block of wood. I retired the 4-Face cane from competitions, but I still take it regularly to art shows. I need to work up another one, just haven’t had the time to devote that much effort to a speculative sale lately.

This naturally twisted cane was so special because it had a special stick. The stick was too short, and a little misshapen for a good cane, so I whittled it together, matched it up with a longer bottom section, and made it impossible to tell that it had been altered. Can’t believe I’m exposing it now. The wood was a little past prime in a couple of areas, so I hardened it up with CA glue, and filled any voids with epoxy. It is a very stable cane now, and one of my favorites. I’d love to have a pickup load of sticks like this one was. I’m building two walnut Maloof-Inspired rocking chairs for the customer of this walking cane. I did a knife for them also last year. It is so cool when someone wants something again, and each time is a bigger project.

Thanks again guys, thanks for your comments.
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

I thought I’d seen all the projects.. but missed this one.
Or maybe I’m just more aware of what I like now and this natural wood design definitely catches my attention!!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

What a great enhancement of mother nature Mark.

After seeing it today, I remembered it, but for some reason, I guess I forgot to make a comment, so I beg your pardon.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

It is a mark of the “old” days of Lumberjocks that a project like this would only get one comment. Now days it would have gotten a lot more feed back.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Right on Dennis, I think we were all kind of on the shy side, back then.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Thanks Debbie, Dick, & Dennis. You are always encouraging to me.

I post these projects with the hope that prospective customers will find them in internet searches. It is much easier to post on LJ than on my own website, and the LJ site has a lot more traffic. The LJ member comments are the icing on the cake. So, if they get one, or none, or lots of comments, I am thrilled, but not dependent on it for all of my ego building. Mostly, I’m looking for “checks” to pay bills with. But, even after nearly 2 years of posting, I can only count one handful of orders that came from the internet. Word-of-mouth, art shows, & gallery stores seem to be the only ways I find any “checks”. I’m hopeful though that it will change as the years go by. Everyone else seems to be making millions on their dotcom business.

Thanks for your thoughtfulness,
Mark

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

Where can i get some of this twisted juniper, I would love to get some sticks or small branches
say 1” – 5” wide and 24” – 50” long, would need to get it shipped to michigan lewiston

-- Doug Cedar Log Furniture, www.cedar-stuff.com

I do almost all my sales on the internet, placment is the key if your site can’t be found you can’t sell.
have agreat day
doug

-- Doug Cedar Log Furniture, www.cedar-stuff.com