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Village Squire, 1977-09, Page 16Taylor's days as a hunter (he now only hunts rabbits) and gifts from other people as well. The room is also adorned with guns --most of which Mr. Taylor has niade himself and a rocker --made out of grapevine. Grapevine is soft and easy to bend. You can bend it right around, Mr. Taylor explained. In this room also there is a carving of an eagle perched a top the world and the raised carving of the different countries are easily distinguishable. Mr. Taylor who also seems to be interested in Indian lore has made some peace pipes --which he actually smokes. In his workshop things are much the same. Almost every tool that he uses to do his woodcarving he has made himself and if he suddenly discovers a need for a new tool, he'll make it. If you don't have something that you need, then make it, seems to be his philosophy. Of course not everybody can have the skills of a blacksmith and a welder in order to help them with their woodcarving and Mr. Taylor admits that his background in these things have helped him with his work. "It helps you to know what things look like," Mr. Taylor said. Mr. Taylor gets the wood he needs from farmers around the area or if somebody is cutting down a tree they might think of him and bring him a piece of wood, Mr. Taylor said. And he uses almost any kind of wood including red cedar, pine, basswood, and sumac. If he needs planks he goes to the planing mill. Woodcarving is not an easy task but once again, Mr. Taylor's philosophy is working. "None of it is easy, but it's not hard if you like it," he said. He said that he always finds it hard to carve a person's hands but that doesn't stop him. If he's stuck he studies pictures of the thing he's having difficulty with. Mr. Taylor uses patterns for his woodcarving with a front view and a side view of everything and he keeps these patterns so that he can use them again if he wants to and then using the patterns he carves out the wood. "The whole thing is, it's sort of a gift. It's not a trace you learn little by little," he said. You really don't know how to do something until you get partway through what it's going to look like and then when you have it figured out in your mind that's what you do, he said. Mr. Taylor sometimes thinks he's trying to do too many things at once. Aside from his woodcarving he also builds model steam engines as well as mounting animal heads, and at times he finds himself working on three things at once. He also has his two sports of hunting and fishing. "I think you get more ambition then power. Maybe you get through mounting a deer head, then you're back carving an eagle. Making too many things keeps you run out," he said. Outside there is more evidence of Mr. Taylor's talent with his hands in the form of a wooden water pump which has been made and painted into a totem pole and there is another even larger totem pole. And although it seems like something like this would take a long time to make, Mr. Taylor said he had the larger totem pole completed in about a month. A month is about the longest period of time, Mr. Taylor takes for any of his work. Mr. Taylor has been interested in woodcarving since longer than 1950 though. "Right from the time I was a youngster, I liked fooling around with wood. There's two things I like --wood and leather," he said. He likes wood because, "It's nature -made. It's not man-made stuff," he said. When he carves something, Mr. Taylor strives for perfection "When I want to carve anything I want to make it almost perfect --as lifelike as possible," he said. One of his future ambitions is to carve a lifesize eagle and with Mr. Taylor's gift and his ambition, it shouldn't be long before his ambition is a realization. ■ 14, VILLAGE SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1977. SHOP EARLY FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS RINGS. WATCHES, JEWELLERY AND GIFT WARE. Take advantage of our convenient Lav-Awav Plan. STANFORD JEWELLERS 187 Main St. W., Listowel 291-4561 Before you begin planning your new kitchen, plan on getting some / r-' • things free. Visit our show- room to get an idea of colour, design, and materials. On a complete new kitchen or bathroom. FREE DESIGN PLANS!! Of the most convenient kitchen layout yours to keep.