Carved Wood

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For years I've been attracted to tiny figures. I like them in all kinds of material, but I find myself really tempted by small hand carved wooden pieces.

In going through the things in the house, I've run across some of my favorites. They're quite tiny so I may keep them, but in any case, I decided to post pictures of them here. This way, no matter what I decide, I'll have a record.

I took most of these pictures with a penny included for scale.

This first piece is one of my favorites.
While not really hand carved,
it is hand assembled.

Apparently this was made
as a good luck piece,
way back in 1936.

These next two pieces are really fascinating
because they are so tiny.
This is a slim pencil.
Can you imagine the time it took to carve this?

This Mountie is a souvenir from Canada

I love the old hand made souvenirs
(but that's another blog).
He's not a pencil,
but some kind of stirrer perhaps?

These next pieces are considered
Primitive Art,
Folk Art,
or sometimes
Tramp Art.

This little guy is carved
from an unusual piece of wood,
lots of different colors.
It looks like he was made to have eyes,
but if they were ever there,
they got lost a long time
before I found him.

A pair of tiny hound dogs.

Most of these kinds of pieces
were raw wood,
but this guy had some kind
of coating applied.

This little guy has a glass eye.
I think it's supposed to be a card holder.

This piece is not very detailed,

but still the carving
captures a small squirrel perfectly.

I believe this tiny creche
is made from olive wood.

Look how small this Madonna is,
then see how detailed the face.
I think she's beautiful.

This next piece is really cool.
Those of you who've been
inside Cholula Red
might remember that I have
a small collection
of early 20th century
Japanese bobble head dolls.

These always amaze me,
they are so teensy,
yet so detailed.
All hand painted
and beautifully decorated.
I think they're quite amazing.

Can anyone tell me
what the writing on the front says?

And notice the tiny woman
drawn on the bottom.

Simply stunning.

This piece will join the others
in the rig.

You can click on any of these if you want to see them in a larger format. That said, some of these pictures are about life size here on the blog, while others are already larger.

I took a lot more pictures today
and will be posting more for my memories.
I do love looking at these.