Wood carving gets under way

I had planned on trying wine cork carving too, but I found some small blocks of cedar from a carpentry project I hired done a while back, in the course of tracking down my tools.  That "hired done" weird construction is, I now realize, exactly like the Greek middle voice.  In classical Greek there's active, passive and middle, in case you were anxious to know this. No? oh well, moving on..

I wasn't able to lay hands on the penknife I'd hoped for, in Handsome Son's "longterm storage" his term, translation: can't find it.  He lent me a couple of small tools instead, and that reminded me that I had a set of them myself.  

I unearthed a cigar box full of useful tools, xacto handles, blades, gouges, and my old engraver, and my beloved old ballpeen hammer.  And some emery boards, just the ticket for sanding in very narrow areas, no need for emery paper.

This wasn't an attempt at an artwork, just practice in carving and a bit of gouging, and some lovely hitting with the hammer.  Very satisfying.  My hands aren't up to doing this for long, but I was happy with what I'd learned anyway.  Corks will be easier, but now I have embarked on this.

Long time since I did any carving, and the old memories came back of how to do it and what might work, and what definitely won't. And just messing about with no particular goal for the piece is a good thing to do.  As you see, I didn't draw a design first or anything like that.  I rarely do, preferring the alla prima approach, posh term meaning you let the materials tell you what to do, instead of telling them what you plan.

Listened to an ancient radio serial on YouTube, a Temple detective series, which would have been better if some of the episodes hadn't been missing, including the last ones!  Probably lost long ago by the BBC.