1-28-2012- this is the tin man from the wizard of oz carving i did on about jan. 2010 for the fun of it. this is the largest carving i have done to date, standing over 6 foot tall  even with the tin man seated and weighs over 600 lbs. . visions of the tin man sitting in the forest along the yellow brick road flooded my memory for years as i once played the tin man in the wizard of oz  when i was in the 4 th grade. can remember going  down into the basement at school where the boilers were , and spray painting cardboard silver to make my costume. now thoughts of painting in closed in area with natural gas flames glowing in the fireboxes as they heated the hot water circulating at school scare the daylights out of me. but school was different in those days and  naive best describes.  it was warm down there and the janitor treated it as his own special place as he showed me around the underbelly of the old school building seldom seen by most students and i felt glad to be allowed  there. well the night of the play , they made up my face in silver makeup and with lasting words of encouragement from the teacher to dorothy and myself. saying to us.
     " now brenda (dorothy ) and kevin (myself the tin man ) , i want you to really kiss when you say goodbye at the end of the play. you will never see each other again , lay one on here , donrt be shy".
     now talk about stage fright , i was shivering under the lights at the thought of kissing dorothy, or fiery red haired  brenda under the lights in front of mom and the rest of the packed crowd . well the play went off fairly smooth and we were having some laughs and though i couldn't really see anyone out there i knew my family was there and the big moment was coming. and then it was there and i never had a chance to be timid as dorothy just grabbed me and planted a big one right on my lips hard and long.

    wow no wonder i want to relive that moment time and again the rest of my life. a kiss i would never forget. dont really know what happened to brenda, but my memories are still intact and after watching the wizard of oz a hundred and thirty six times in my life . i feel qualified in at least giving a good try at carving the tin man.

      i had been wanting to carve the tin man for quite awhile , but finding a piece of wood suitable was hard. i happened to be going by a neighbors house and saw this huge log out there and so i made some deals and acquired the log and brought it home in several pieces on the front of the tractor and it was all it could handle to lift it up. the wood had been laying awhile since and before i got it and i knew it was dry.  the prior pictures are as i started carving it. he was totally carved out of one log , including the axe handle.

      i had tried to simulate the tin look when painting him. the white pine makes a good contrast to the colors i used . after painting i sealed him with spar urethane in a matte finish and it kind of gave him a darker more real finish. i had decided that i wanted place him at the end of the lane where we live for the neighbors and friends to enjoy , hoping the size of him would keep would be thieves from attempting to steal him. this wasn't the case, and will wait till tomorrow night to tell that story as it is a long one. neighbors and friends offered many compliments as to the sculpture and in round the bout ways word got back to me it was a good thing i had done. i could have tried to sell it and was offered considerable money for it but it is hard to fix a fair price and so many people that i would have to explain to about where it went, that i just decided to leave for now and if i do move it will donate to a wilderness center or something such as that. i truly believe he needs to be sitting in a woods somewhere. as he was in the wizard of oz as dorothy had found him.
     well for now he sits at the end of the lane as he looks like he did in last picture. tomorrow i will recount how i came home to find four youths trying to steal my statue.