The Yam Yankee: & Other Veggie Carving Projects (Schiffer Book for Carvers)

Rating:
Summary: A Great way to start out Carving!
Review: When I first learned to carve, three years back, I was shown how on a Yam, and shown the cover of this book.

It is a great book to learn carving! Tom takes you step by step through three different faces. The photos really show the cuts well.

Only after carving for some time did the variety of techniques he used hit me. He used several different methods for creating faces between the three examples... different ways of depicting eyes, starting noses and such. He also used a combination of knife and gouge techniques.

It's easy, and inexpensive to experiment. The tools necessary are VERY cheap. I usually use either an old carving knife, or a favorite exacto-knife, and a set of the cheapest gouges since yams carve so easily. You can get really good prices on yams as the fall and winter holidays approach.

I carved a couple dozen yams for christmas ornaments that year.

Then I went out and found a wood carving club and made the jump to woodcarving.

But I still go back to the fun of Yam carving every so often. It's easy on my hands, and it's fun to get a whole face done in about one half hour. Then wait to see how it comes out when dry!

I recommend giving the yams a spray of 'Lysol' every so often as they dry, to keep them from molding, or use a food dehydrator to speed the drying up!

A great book to start carving with!

-Bob

Rating:
Summary: A Great way to start out Carving!
Review: When I first learned to carve, three years back, I was shown how on a Yam, and shown the cover of this book.

It is a great book to learn carving! Tom takes you step by step through three different faces. The photos really show the cuts well.

Only after carving for some time did the variety of techniques he used hit me. He used several different methods for creating faces between the three examples... different ways of depicting eyes, starting noses and such. He also used a combination of knife and gouge techniques.

It's easy, and inexpensive to experiment. The tools necessary are VERY cheap. I usually use either an old carving knife, or a favorite exacto-knife, and a set of the cheapest gouges since yams carve so easily. You can get really good prices on yams as the fall and winter holidays approach.

I carved a couple dozen yams for christmas ornaments that year.

Then I went out and found a wood carving club and made the jump to woodcarving.

But I still go back to the fun of Yam carving every so often. It's easy on my hands, and it's fun to get a whole face done in about one half hour. Then wait to see how it comes out when dry!

I recommend giving the yams a spray of 'Lysol' every so often as they dry, to keep them from molding, or use a food dehydrator to speed the drying up!

A great book to start carving with!

-Bob