Another roadside sale

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Ax-man

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I am going to get brave again and post pics of my carvings for a recent roadside sale for our towns annual end of September local festival .

I did OK ,sold just about everything in the pictures including that black bear with the welcome sign that I did last year and two of those welcome signs. I am my own worst critic or so my wife tells me because I am never happy with what I do but people buy my stuff and a few are collecting them. I don't go overboard with the details like I have seen in other peoples work but the markets I sell at won't justify the time and I just don't have any artistic talent to speak of.

The highlight of this years carving for this sale was that painted eagle. I have tried so many times to make a decent eagle and this is the first one I felt comfortable with to sell. I know I can do better to get a better looking head and claws and legs to make it a little more realistic but I was happy. It didn't last long before it flew away in someone's truck to adorn a flag pole some where .

Other highlights were those two racoons , I don't really have a way to paint a racoon but the black paint over the eyes did the trick. The 2x4 bench that seemed easy enough to make but didn't sell mainly because it is too big to haul away unless someone had a truck verses the SUV,s most people drive. Two of my better welcome bears didn't make the pics because they sold before I had time to take pictures of them. The two welcome bears in the pics were made from Doug Fir which is a new wood for me to work with. I like the color of the wood and it seems stable compared to other woods for checking but peoples taste varies and didn't quite have the appeal I thought it would. People, especially women shop for different coloring , what kind of wood it is doesn't seem to matter. I think I need to refine my finishing and carving skills a little on this type of wood and the results may be different .

Another comment,at this sale I had a table with cheap lathe turned items like bowls , little mushrooms and other small knick knacks . I have tried to sell this type of stuff in the past and it just doesn't sell ,maybe a few pieces will sell but nothing to get excited about but it is just nice to have a few cheap pieces around just to get someone to spend a few bucks.

Here are some pics feel free to comment. DSCN1964.JPG DSCN1958.JPG DSCN1957.JPG DSCN1960.JPG DSCN1965.JPG DSCN1967.JPG DSCN1968.JPG DSCN1962.JPG DSCN1961.JPG
 
Nice carves man, and sounds like it turned out to be a profitable event for ya!
I hear ya about putting too much time into the details. I'm finding out real quick that my carves I put the most time and effort into end up sticking around the longest, while most folks are just as happy with a basic saw cut design for details. I just have a hard time changing the way I like to do them myself, but it may be time to come up with a few quicker and simpler pieces that will sell easier.
Congrats on your sales!
 
Thanks, You hit it right ,most people are happy with the basic stuff and details doesn't seem to really matter, a few people made that same comment to me . The guy that bought my last three bears said that also . I was going to knock a few bucks off just to get rid of them but he paid me full price . This was late Saturday afternoon when it was about time to close up shop, heck of a way to end the day. He was happy and so was I.
 

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