Wednesday 13 April 2011

White Finger

Time for more of the white knuckle ride that is......working in my shed! Well, not quite white knuckle this week but white finger. No, not a new Bond villain but an industrial disease. Vibration White Finger (VBF) is caused by prolonged use of vibrating tools (No not those) like hammer drills and chainsaws. VBF is on my radar because when I turn my carvings into boxes I use a hand held electric drill and often end up with tingling finger tips by the end of the day. This is not an ideal situation when it comes to carving intricate models for a living but at least the symptoms are only temporary and normal service is resumed the next day.
 I first became aware of VBF when I watched a documentary on Canadian lumberjacks who used chainsaws every day. Their hands shook uncontrollably and they could barely even hold mugs of tea. New careers as surgeons or Bomb disposal experts would be clearly inadvisable....cocktail shaker maybe. I'm thinking of buying Andrea a Dremmel for her birthday......there again......


I've blogged about several subjects now but have yet to mention any carving.......time to put that right.
I'm always on the lookout for odd or weird creatures to sculpt and this one fits the bill nicely....the Sphynx Cat. These cats appear hairless but their odd appearance doesn't stop them from being very desirable. They are quite high maintainance and I'm not sure I'd want one as a pet but as the kittens sell for between $1000 and $2000 I can see the attraction for breeding them!
Recently I carved a tattooed pig as a joke about our fondness for tattoos but what did I find when I googled "sphynx cats".....yes..some owners had tattooed their cats...makes you proud to be human. My Sphynx is crouched like a Sphinx....sorry couldn't resist it.

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