Skip to content
  • Services
  • Sculpture Gallery
    • Stump Carvings
    • Wildlife Sculpture
      • Land Animals
        • Bears
        • Dogs
      • Birds
      • Sea Creatures
      • Misc. Design
    • Figurative
    • Architectural
    • Furniture
  • Sign Gallery
  • Current Work
  • Videos
  • Shop
  • Carving Resources
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • About Us
    • In the Media

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,988 other subscribers

Archives

Custom Sculpture & Sign Co.

127 Wampler St.
Nickelsville, VA 24271
276-479-0388 - Sign Shop
Hours are not fixed. Please call before you visit the shop.

Instagram Images

Had a nice visit with Mountain Mike Ayers #mountainmikeswhetstonewoodworks and Kyle Thomas #redrabbitwoodcarving in Maggie Valley North Carolina. They have a great location with lots of tourists, a store full of amazing work, and a large and comfortable place to carve. Check them out if you’re in the Pigeon Forge area.
This was a restoration of a 9 ft oak mustang carved by Dennis Beach back in 2013. It had been re-oiled only 2 or 3 times. I had to cut out bad wood in 3 places- half the face, half the front leg and part of the tail. New oak was installed and carved to match. The whole piece was sanded and cracks were filled and a fresh coat of oil applied. In four days, the beauty of the wood is radiant once again and all of Dennis’s artistry can be appreciated. Thanks for looking! Can you believe all of that scaffolding breaks down and fits into my van?! No need for a trailer!
Applying the wood preservative, Benjamin Moore Arborcoat 326-10 natural, as well as black jack roofing cement tar to the top of the base. I ran out of sun, but was able to finish up.
Day 2 on this mustang restoration. Replaced half of the face and half of the front leg with new pieces of oak. Thankfully my friend and fellow carver, Paul Waclo, lives nearby so he had some oak cutoffs I could use. I’m sanding and filling 1/16” cracks with minwax cherry wood filler, 1/8-1/4” cracks with bondo tinted brown with concrete stain, and larger cracks with wood shims. Tomorrow I will finish sanding and filling and be able to apply the wood preservative- Benjamin Moore Arborcoat oil 326-10 Natural. Thanks for looking.
I have the honor of restoring this horse carving carved by the legendary Dennis Beach back in 2013. It’s at a school in Hanover PA
Working on a custom bulldog this week. Thanks for looking.
A fresh canvas is so inspiring. I love that feeling of drawing onto a fresh piece of wood as you anticipate your first few cuts. Facing the unknowns of how the carving will unfold with faith and courage as you go from one cut to the next. It never gets old amazingly. I still feel the excitement even after 17 years of carving. I’m so grateful.
Framed out the front porch today!
Here are some pictures of our exterior wall application. We used a superior timberframe insulation product called hempcrete. It combines industrial hemp chips with a lime binder and water to create an unbroken thermal mass around the whole house that is 9” thick, breathable, fireproof, R19 insulation value, mold resistant, rodent resistant , sound dampening and more! Please check out Cameron at #americhanvre for more info on this amazing building insulation. Thanks for looking!
Red oak stump carving at a residence near Logan Ohio. The base texture was created with a #manpatools 3” round multicutter. The finish is #benjaminmoore Arborcoat Natural 326-10 oil wood preservative. I made a crack filling video on this carving that demonstrates a new, fast, permanent technique. Stay tuned! Thanks for looking!
Day 3, almost ready for the oil wood preservative. Just a few minor details. I should have finish pics tomorrow. Thanks for looking.
Day 2 on a red oak frog near Landon Ohio
Carving a red oak stump on site near Logan Ohio. Look at how steep the incline is around this stump! Feels good to be carving wood again. I have to say out of all the materials I experiment with, carving wood is still my favorite. Along with clay, clay sculpture is so enjoyable too.
Here are some pics of our timberframe house raising and roof build. I’m so grateful for the many friends who came to help.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on our timberframe home project. We ordered nearly 80 locally harvested poplar logs and milled them to size with a wood Mizer. Next, we laid out all the mortise and tenon joinery and used chisels, a large saw and a chain mortiser to cut out the joints. Finally, we laid out all the timbers after a light sanding and oiled them in preparation for our house raising!! Stay tuned for more pics!!
I promise this will be the last post of this piece! I’m sorry!
This 8 ft. paisley bear is carved out of a giant block of 3 lb. density EPS foam, covered with 3/4” thick layer of epoxy putty ( free form air), then relief carved with Dremels and saburr tooth bits and painted with Modern Masters bronze paint. Next, some folks in Ohio will be mounting it on a metal base and shipping it to a restaurant in Miami. Thanks for looking!
Painting the bronze finish…
I put a base coat of dark brown. Then a dark bronze glaze over the recessed areas, then a brighter bronze for the raised areas. Here you can see the different painting layers.
I had to speed up the video a little to be under a minute. That’s why my voice sounds so rushed. No, I don’t usually talk that fast!
  • Land Animals
  • Birds
  • Sea Creatures
  • Misc. Design
  • Figurative
  • Architectural
  • Signs
  • Furniture
Custom Sculpture & Sign Company

Custom Sculpture & Sign Company

Custom Sculpture, Carved Signs and Fine Crafts

  • Services
  • Sculpture Gallery
    • Stump Carvings
    • Wildlife Sculpture
      • Land Animals
        • Bears
        • Dogs
      • Birds
      • Sea Creatures
      • Misc. Design
    • Figurative
    • Architectural
    • Furniture
  • Sign Gallery
  • Current Work
  • Videos
  • Shop
  • Carving Resources
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • About Us
    • In the Media
  • Figurative
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos

How to make something look like cast bronze – Finishing technique

Custom Sculpture & Sign Co. January 30, 2019 3 Comments

Watch this video to learn this great finishing technique!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...
CategoriesFigurative, Uncategorized, Videos
Tagshow to do a bronze finish, how to make something look like bronze
Previous
Mahoney’s Walnut Oil Review
December 12, 2018
Next
Custom Portrait Bust – Andrew Hawkins Former NFL player
March 20, 2019

3 Comments

  1. Dawn January 30, 2019 at 9:33 am

    Love it ,Kris! It is neat to see the bust in its finished state.

    Loading...

    Reply

  2. marcia edwards January 30, 2019 at 11:23 am

    Very cool.

    Loading...

    Reply

  3. David Fowler July 19, 2021 at 10:23 am

    If it’s waxy, then there is no top coat to go over it, right? Beautiful work.

    Loading...

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

  • Land Animals
  • Birds
  • Sea Creatures
  • Misc. Design
  • Figurative
  • Architectural
  • Signs
  • Furniture
  • Services
  • Sculpture Gallery
  • Sign Gallery
  • Current Work
  • Videos
  • Shop
  • Carving Resources
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • About Us
A WordPress.com Website.
%d bloggers like this: