Looking Back – Unnamed Cowboy And His Pal Squint!

Here’s a couple of wranglers I carved back in November, 2007. I’ve mentioned before that, during our small woodcarving group meetings down at the Senior Center each Tuesday, I can generally roughout a carved head so doing these small busts is a quick way to dispose of the “head overflow” that occurs on my workbench. They are a popular article with the collector so between the jokes and political arguments at our gatherings I can sometimes make a few dollars.

I’ve also attached a few other Busts and Bottle Stoppers I carved back then. Here’s that post!

“While I was painting the fella on the right, his Bunkhouse buddy Squint dropped by so I thought I’d just put them together to wrap up this post. You’re might be wondering why I always seem to have a tailor-made dangling off the lower lip? Well, remember that my Cowboy characters are set in the period of about 1860-1930. I would venture to say that most if not all members of a cattle crew lit up back then. That, plus the fact that it gives a lot of “character” to the character even though it might be a bad habit are two good reasons to do that little detail. You will also note that those cigarillos have a slight bent look to them. If you’ve ever rolled your own you’ll recognize that no matter how hard you try you’ll never get that “factory” look to your product.

I mounted these two wranglers on oak bases with a pony shoe. That’s a perfect size for the scale I work in. If I had carved an entire body a full sized shoe would work. For the larger shoe I like to use the shoes the Farrier removes from our horses when he gives them a retread. Funny, up in Dayton there was a guy eyeballing one of my figures mounted this way but he said he didn’t like the “used” shoe on the piece. I told him it was from my horse Boomer and that that worn look was from the good times the two of us had had roaming around the hills of Oklahoma. I thought it added a much more personal touch than if I’d tacked on a new one. Evidently he didn’t agree as he looked a little longer and then wandered off. His loss, not mine!

It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow and we hope you all have a good one. It will be a quiet one for us with just my Mom coming over. But, as she just turned 92 that’s probably the best thing we could be thankful for. Our two sons will be home for Christmas this year so we’re thankful for that too.

Don’t overload on the Turkey!!!”

Hope you liked those fellas! If so, drop me a comment! It’s always great to see who’s stopping by. And don’t forget to subscribe!