Some times people surprise me with their enthusiasm for the home team. In this case it was the Wisconsin badgers.  A Wisconsin fan Jim Keene was surfing the net for wood carvings. He stumbled across Jordan’s Custom my main website for shopping, bio, and the gallery.

He asked me if I could carve a Wisconsin badger for his porch.  I said that it would take some time for an exact copy with the scaling involved for a 4 foot Wisconsin badger, but It can be done.  He said lets do it, so I started and gave him progress photos of the wood carving in stages. I think it was a good choice to leave some of it unpainted.  “It appears that anything is possible when you put some effort into it” said Jim.  He really liked it.  I think its funny because I am a die hard Minnesota Gophers fan.  I never thought in my wildest dreams I would be doing a “badger”.  It was fun though.  It gave me a challenge for the winter.  I shipped it out to him today actually!

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I have carved mostly wildlife over the past couple of years. I think it is mainly because I am inspired by their mystique. I recently had someone custom order a portrait of his two pooches!  I said I had never carved a canine before but I would love the challenge of carving his two dogs, a Newfoundland, and an ole Lab.  I few weeks went by before I could get started.  Then I found a couple pieces of spruce that would work out perfect for the dog project.  Jeff gave me a few pictures of his dog to work with, so this definitely helped with the dog carving process.  Sometimes you never can guess what kind of carving someone is looking for.  the pictures Jeff gave me really helped me capture the feeling the dogs portrayed.   If you put your imagination to work sometimes the feeling just comes without thinking!

I suprised myself with this one, but I have the confidence to do more dog portraits and carvings!

Jordan Anderson

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www.jordancarving.com

Bird wood carvings are prety fun to work on.  I got an order to do a approaching golden eagle carving for the Alaska Wild Bird Rehab Center out there in Palmer this July.

I think the guy who set me up with that job was  Keith.  Real fun.  I had a good time carving that golden eagle statue.  That turned out to be one of the best days this summer.  It was sunny, hot, no wind at all, and people were coming from all over stopping by my property out there in Indian, AK.  People were admiring all the chainsaw carvings I had.  Fish carvings, bear carvings, moose carvings, you name it.  It was a great day.  And for anyone who was in Alaska this summer we did not get many sunny pleasant days.

I loved sculpting that eagle carving though.  I think I have perfected them.  Some things I can just capture witheagle I can’t explain it…

The eyes.  You have to have realistic eyes for you eagle carving to look right.  You can make the best sculpture in the world but without the eyes it looks lifeless.  I found out about a place in Germany that makes the most detail oriented eyes I could find.  You can even see the veins.  When I put them on the eagle it comes to life.  It gives them that deep dark stare that eagles are known for.

Now unlike some of my other carvings with eagle or any bird sculptures I try to carve within the wood grain as much as possible to minimize breakage/maximize duribility.  I use my chainsaw to carve the bulk of the body but thats as far as it goes with that.  You have to use to smaller tools to do the rest.  That’s why they take so long.  The talons, beak, and wings are extremely fragile and if you use the chainsaw they have the tendency to break while you are working.  So I end up mainly using the chisel.  It especially takes some time to do each feather on the wings.  I love wood carvings that challenge me and I have to be detail oriented to make them work.  Eagles are definitely one of them.

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www.jordancarving.com

These are some of the bear wood carvings I did this summer.  They ranged from short little bears people use to open up their bottles, called “Beer Bears”, to large 8 ft tall bears that look like they are about to lunge out at you.  Bears and moose carvings are the most popular.  Everyone wants those.  They are nice editions to anyone’s front porch.  If you have any special requests please contact me and tell me what you have in mind.  Lately I have been experimenting with other animals, like frogs and owls, but bear carvings will always be my most popular.

503-739-2832

www.jordancarving.com