Flip Flop walking stick

The latest piece I have been working on was one I have never been asked to do. A customer recently spent some time at a friends beach house. He calls his beach house "flip flop" because of the laid back atmosphere he likes to keep there. So I was approached with the request of carving a pair of flip flops onto a walking stick, to present to the beach house owner in thanks for the stay.

First, I sought out a good piece of wood and found this piece of poplar. Its thirty seven inches long and about three inches in diameter. I first debarked the poplar then I decided to carve twists all the way down the stick as the flip flop carving wouldn't take up too much room on the walking stick and I wanted the stick to have more on it than just that.




Carving the flip flops was strange as I had never done that before, so I looked at a pair lying on the floor and started carving.




Once the carving was completed I used a wood burner to outline the edges of the shoes, so that they would stand out when completed. I had to sand the piece by hand as there were far to many cracks and crevices for the hand sander to reach.



I used a standard dark stain for the stick and a light stain for the flip flop carving, then coated the entire piece in varnish.



I hope the owner of the beach house enjoys his gift as much as the customer enjoyed their stay at his place...