I was a busy little carver in December. I had foolishly committed to making gifts for my family. I ended up making four more pinecones for my mom and each of my sisters, a “Frosty” refrigerator magnet for my brother, and four other snowman magnets for my nieces and nephews. I also created a Santa tree ornament for a friend of ours.

The pinecone and the two magnets are approximately three inches tall.  The Santa ornament is six inches tall, and about an inch in diameter.

I’m pretty happy with my progress with the carving, but my painting needs some work.  It turns out that there’s more to painting than just slopping some color onto the wood.  Fortunately, the paint doesn’t look quite so bad in normal light. The flash is particularly unfriendly.

My painting improved quite a bit when I mounted Debra’s lighted magnifier (that she uses for intricate cross stitch work) at my workstation. It’s amazing how much better I can see things with adequate lighting and a little magnification.