Jude's Page
January, 2006
This page is an update on Larry's carved walking sticks. You first saw them on the September 2002 Jude's Page (link below). At that time Larry was in the process of carving the stick below called "Rattler." The stick is now finished and it looks like a beauty! Larry said this stick was very tedious to carve, as you might guess, looking at all those ribs. He said it was carved from a woody vine that he found. It was Larry's 9th carving and was finished in November, 2002. |
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Jude found this photo in a group of family mementos. It looks like it might have been the inspiration for "Rattler," carved many years later. Larry said he has no recollection of the photo. |
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This is the back of the above photo. It was written by brother Tom, who was on a family vacation to South Dakota in 1969, and sent to Larry, who had stayed home. |
| This stick is called "Great Dane." It was carved for a friend in honor of the friend's own beloved dog. The wood is cottonwood. It was Larry's 11th carving, finished in May, 2003. |  |
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| The stick below is called "Bugs." It is Larry's 21st creation in this series and was completed in July, 2005. It is the only stick that was not carved, but only painted. The type of wood is unknown. Larry said it had such a beautiful grain that he didn't want to cut it. All the bugs are painted gold except for the silverfish, which is silver. |
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| The stick below is one that Larry likes very much. It is called "Christmas 2004" and was Larry's gift to his wife Laura on that date. It is carved of from a willow branch and was finished in November, 2004. Larry said he could have called the stick "Laura" because on it he has carved or painted all things that she likes: a bear, a sunset, the Holy Spirit, the color dark brown, symbols for Faith, Hope, and Love. |
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This carving of Santa holding a snowman is called "Friendship." It is one of three non-stick carvings that Larry has made. It was carved from a pine 2 x 4 and completed in January, 2003. It was Larry's 10th carving. He made it for a friend. |
| The stick below is called "Ghost." It was carved from Larry's family Christmas tree of 2002. It was completed in July, 2005. The original plan was much different from the finished design. Larry said he had intended to carve many ghosts around the stick but after carving the first one, he liked its look and decided to leave the stick with just one ghost. It was a relatively simple stick to carve and was finished in only 2 weeks. This one is finished with clear lacquer, which Larry said gives the stick a rich satin sheen rather than the more stark shine of the latex polyurethane finish used on his earlier sticks. "Ghost" was Larry's 20th carving. |
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| The stick below is called "Jack O'Lantern." |
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"Jack O'Lantern" was started in Michigan in July, 2004, while Larry was there for a 3 week class. Laura had suggested Larry bring a stick to work on in his spare time. The stick is made of pine and was finished in October, 2004. It is Larry's 15th carving. The faces are painted such that they glow in the dark. The stick has a clear lacquer top coat. |
| The stick below is called "Joker." Larry said the stick was fun to make, not too difficult, and it turned out cool. Larry believes the wood may have been cottonwood or possibly wild cherry, which carves well. The stick was completed in June, 2005 with a clear lacquer finish. This was Larry's 19th carving. |
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| The stick to the right and below is called "Purple Haze." Larry calls it a whimsical stick with different colors and shapes of mushrooms carved all around. The stick has a psychedelic swirly pattern carved into it in the purple areas that is not easily visible in these pictures. The wood is wild cherry and the stick was finished in April, 2004. It was Larry's 14th carving. |  |
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| The stick below is called "Sacred Heart." It was Larry's 17th carving, completed in March, 2005. The wood is pine. The stick was painted to look like marble. Larry said the figure of Jesus is similar to one on the altar at Sacred Heart church in Florissant. On back of the stick is carved the words, "He opened the 7th seal...," from Revelations. When He opened it, 7 angels appeared with 7 trumpets heralding the end of the world. At the top of the stick are the 7 angels with their trumpets. Carved around the stick near the bottom are the words, "Feed My Sheep." Below these words are the sheep. |
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| The stick below is called "Train Wreck." It was Larry's 18th carving, finished in April, 2005. It consists of a steam engine and 5 cars, the caboose coming out of a tunnel. The stick was made from a cedar landscaping timber. Larry bought it because he wanted a straight piece of wood that could be shaped into the train. It was the only wood that Larry has purchased for his carvings. The rest have all been of found wood. While making this piece, Larry discovered that he was allergic to the cedar dust and could only work on it periodically. As a result, the stick took 2 years to complete. Larry said while carving he discovered that the wood was composed of blocks or sections that allowed him to pop pieces out, enabling him to make the spaces between the rails and in the RR ties under the cars. The spaces between the cars was made using a small saw. The numbers and letters painted on the train cars are combinations of initials and dates of birth of members of Larry's family. The stick was named "Train Wreck" because Larry was in an automobile accident in August 2004 which caused the stick to break into 10 pieces. Larry was able to put the stick back together and continue carving. This stick is the last one finished using Larry's older method of topcoating with latex polyurethane. |
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| The stick below is called "What's Left." It was Larry's 12th carving, finished in May, 2003. It depicts a woman's left hand, left arm, left leg, and left foot. Larry thought a woman's parts would be more interesting because of her jewelry. The stick is the natural color of the cottonwood, it has not been stained. |
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| The stick below, called "Snowmen," was just finished on January 30, 2006. The wood is pine. The blue areas and the red cap on the top snowman are stained, not painted. The whole stick is covered with a topcoat of clear lacquer. Larry said he started carving the stick while at his daughter Angie's house in Wisconsin in early August, 2005. So the stick took a full 6 months to carve. Larry said he will usually carve an easier stick after carving a more difficult one, such as this one, to keep the carving process from becoming tiresome. |
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This stick is called, "Angels." Larry said it didn't originate from any special inspiration. "Often when I doodle I make little pictures of the same thing, like shells, fish, beetles, angels, all the same except different patterns and colors. I developed a design for little angels I liked and wanted a relatively easy carving to do after doing the Snowman stick." He says the wood is wild cherry. It took about two or three months to make. It is finished with a two-step blue background. The topcoat is clear lacquer. The halos glow in the dark. |
This stick, finished in June, 2006, Larry calls "Frogs." It is made of pine wood. The frogs' colors and patterns are modeled after real poison dart frogs. It is finished with clear lacquer. The frogs have two coats of polyurethane to make them look shiny (slimy), as a frog should. Larry said the stick took just three months to complete and was much easier to make than he expected. |
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Larry says he is currently working on a stick called "The Prisoner." The next stick will be a whimsical gross-out stick called "Organs." I can't wait to see both of them! |
| That's all for now, Folks. Check out Page 1 of Larry's sticks (link below) to see more of these amazing creations. |