This is a weird little item, created from a bit of walnut I had no idea how to use: I friend gave me some duck body and head blanks. As I'm not a carver, I'm still figuring out how to use these. For one duck head, however, I decided it was a nice shape for a business card holder. I made this for a colleague who transferred to a new job. As we work for NOAA's National Ocean Service, it occurred to me that the duck head shape had a bit of an ocean wave flare to it. So that's what I hope it evokes.
Here's the starting point: a duck head blank. In the background, you can see the bodies I have yet to decide what I should do with.The duckhead was a bit too thin for a stable card holder, I reckoned. So I added walnut strips to the front and back. It adds a bit of complexity, but I was determined to make this work.Cutting the notch for the cards was just a matter of eyeballing it.And cleaning it up with some chisel work.I added a nice bottom wavy curve.And sawed it out. The final shaping was with my files.Here's a view of the final card holder. I got ahold of a lapel pin from the place where we work, cut off the back, then cut out a hole to fit it nicely.Here's the front view with some sample cards. I think it turned out quite well!
