Tappy-Tap-Tappers

This is Axel again. About a month and a half ago Terah and I were out on a date and we stopped by this wood carving store. It is something I have always wanted to learn, as my dad used to do it and he claimed his grandfather used to do it as well back when he was a kid living in SLC during WWII. It always seemed too hard for me.

But talking to this guy I decided what the heck and asked him if he could teach me. He agreed, and we set up some time to do it at night.

Om, My Mr. Miyagi

I did that with him for about three weeks and finally gave up. It was too hard to get away at night (something always made me stay late at work the nights we agreed I would come), he wanted me to sit on the floor like they do and it was always in bad light.

When Asa got sick and we took him to the scary clinic, across the road as we were waiting I met Manish at another woodcarving shop. His work was really good and after talking him up a bit, I asked him if he could come to my house in the morning to teach me. He agreed and he now comes three times a week for an hour a time and gets a whopping 4.50 an hour for doing so.

I can't tell you how great it is to do it in the light, in the morning (he comes at 7 and is gone by 8) and we sit in a chair. The chisels they use here are just strips of metal beat out into different shapes. 21 of them cost me 30 bucks. Terah made the really sweet carrying thing for them.

Manish teaching me how to do it.

Whenever I work on something and show it to him he always says 'Hmmm, this is a little bit good' and proceeds to clean it up. I get ticked off when my Nepali staff just tell me what they think I want to hear, but somehow with Manish I don't mind it. I am working to hear him drop the 'a little bit'.

You can see my new Lady Amherst pheasant in the background.

My first picture frame I worked on. This leaf is something very Nepali. They say if you can make the leaf and the flower you can make anything.

My first big project. It is a Tibetan Buddhist design. It was a real pain to get all that wood out but very fun.

How the frame will look when it is done.

Just something I tried out. I want to do a bamboo picture like the leaves here. The flower was something different too.

My first dragon head and a few flowers.

A flower design I wasn't too passionate about, but it taught me some good techniques.

Another design for a picture frame I want to do. It is much harder than the flowers but pretty cool looking.

I always say wherever you go and wherever you live there is going to be something uniquely cool about it and uniquely awful about it. Wood carving is something Nepalis know. While I want to learn their style, I really wanted to do some Celtic carvings. So I made this dragon design:

I ultimately want to make a four post bed for Terah and I. But in addition there are some other great Nepali things they carve I also want to learn. More to come.