I "Carve Out" Independence, Satisfaction, and a Respectable Living

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Next, get out your acrylics and that No. 5 brush and prepare to paint the rooster. (Remember, you can mix the red, yellow, and blue acrylics to obtain any color you wish. For instance, a blend of red and yellow will produce orange, blue and yellow make green, etc. To soften the colors and make them cover better, I suggest you add a little white to each hue.)

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to paint the raised surface of the design itself. All you have to do is hold the brush almost parallel with the board and pull it over the grooves and edges: The coating of acrylic will skip all the low spots and stick to just the rooster! (Note: More than one coat may be necessary to completely cover the darkly stained wood.)

Allow the paint to dry completely and then varnish the sign. I use Deft Clear wood finish: It seals everything—wood, paint, and stain—and leaves a matte (rather than a gloss) finish. And do make sure your brush has no water in it, or you'll smear the paint job.

HANG IT UP

Once the varnish dries on your sign, you can prepare the piece of work for display. Simply [1] cut off a six-inch piece of picture-hanging wire, [2] twist the ends into loops, and [3] thumb-tack the loops to the back of the plaque near its top.

Sign your John Henry to the completed "work of art" and hang it on the wall, give it away, or sell it. You're an artisan!

LEARN TO DIVERSIFY

The same techniques used in the construction of simple flat signs and plaques can be employed to create designs in anything made of wood: doors, cupboards, beams, etc. And—since you probably won't do anything more than stain and varnish such carvings—you'll be able to attempt much more intricate designs.

If you add a miter box to your equipment, you can even fabricate your own picture frames from 1" X 1-1/2 to 3" pine stock. It may take you longer to carve frames than signs (particularly when you're trying to achieve a complex interweaving of leaves and vines), but they're richly satisfying to construct and quite impressive when finished.

You may also want to carve woodcuts and/or linoleum blocks with which you can then make prints and greeting cards. (Linoleum is especially interesting to cut into sinceunlike wood—it has so much "give".) Of course, to do this you'd have to add a brayer—that is, an ink roller—and some printing ink to your growing stock of supplies . . . but the roller and ink can quickly pay- for themselves in satisfaction (if not Christmas and greeting card sales).

The more you expand your product line, then, the more you can add to your sense of accomplishment—and gross sales—as a carver-craftsman. So let your imagination roam! And diversify!

HOW TO SELL YOUR WARES

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