Carving & Painting Christmas Ornaments: Easy Techniques for 23 Patterns in Wood

When I buy a new carving book, I usually only find a few projects that I like well enough to justify the time and effort required. Not so in this case. Almost every design is a winner and well worth the effort of carving. When I purchased this book, I was looking for quick and easy ornaments that I could make in multiples of 3 and in different sizes, but that would be cute and sophisticated enough to adorn our carving club's Christmas trees and wreaths; that was a tall order but this book was a great choice. So far I have made multiples of 6 different ornaments from the book and they have all turned out well. One of my favorites is the Christmas stocking which I have made in 2 different sizes. I also love the star and have made it in 3 different sizes and then gold-leafed it as suggested. She has a unique technique in that some of the designs, such as the reindeer and the polar bear, are cut in halves and then joined after the carving is mostly complete. This has the advantage of avoiding the tedious business of taking the wood out from between the animals' legs as in traditional animal carving. So far, I have completed the reindeer and the joint is not discernible once the ornament is glued together. Once I finish the club ornaments, I plan to try some of the more involved projects for gifts, such as the polar bear and to attempt her oil painting techniques that appear to result in heirloom quality ornaments. But even if you don't want to tackle the oil paints, the patterns alone are well worth the purchase.

Excellent. Covers not only full color step by step for most projects, but also patterns, colors used and painting/color mixing techniques. Purchased several similar books and this was by far one of the best.

There is very little detail for actually carving the projects in the magazine.I had seen at least one project in a copy of the 2014 Holiday edition of Woodcarvers Illustrated. The carving had very little detail and suggested getting this magazine in the article to see more. To me, it was promoting this magazine to get the details for the carving.This magazine for that actual piece showed even less detail than what was in Woodcarvers Illustrated.But on the plus side, it is full of some very great ideas. If you can fill in the blanks for yourself and are just looking for carving ideas, this is the magazine for you.​

It seems as if the author was trying to be very ethnically or religiously correct. You will not find a Santa or Christian symbols. Even a polar bear replaces a reindeer. There are elfs, and even one with a white beard. This is not a complaint just an observation. What does trouble me are the patterns. All have the expected front and side view and the details of the patterns is good. The problem is that they do not match up. As an example, in the side view of the elf on the left side of the cover, the mustache is very large, on the front view it is much smaller. If you align the nose, then the bottom and hat don't line up. The same problem exists in every pattern I tried. On another point, the ornaments are large. Too large for my tree. Many of the patters say to enlarge for table top, but most are already that size. I really like the patterns, but I will be needing to do a considerable amount of redrawing to use them.

The painting techniques with the layering is something hard to find. This book does an amazing job on the painting and the ornaments are great. My favorite ornament book, it has lots of details and many how to carve pictures on more than one project. Has a reindeer, several snowmen, the polar bear, elf, house, angel that is very pretty, and several others. If you are into carving ornaments this is a good book to have on hand even if its just to take your painting to the next level!

This is a great book for beginners to advanced. The author includes step by step guides for many of the projects as well as other tips and instructions. If you struggle with getting good paint finishes there is a section on that as well. This is one of the best carving books I have seen. I will use the information obtained for years to come and this book will remain in my collection.

They shipped very quickly!!!! The book was just what I was hoping for. Love her work!!!!

I am always looking for Christmas Ornament carving books and I think this one is the best I have ever acquired. It has many great looking projects from beginner to advanced, some of which will get done very quickly, yet still look great. This is a must have for your library if you are into Christmas carvings.

Purchased as a present. Instructions are good & clear. Lots of ideas in this book. Would recommend to others.

the illustrations and text are very informative

This book is really useful to all beginner carvers. The section on painting techniques has some brilliant information which is very good.

Good book and the person who received it liked it.

New to carving, book bought for inspiration for a beginner