Whittling

I picked up a stick at the beach while vacationing in Maine, and I decided to try my hand at whittling, inspired by pictures I remembered seeing of Oneironaught's awesome work. I figured I would jump into the deep end, as I usually do, and try to make a single link of chain.

Here it is when I got back from the beach:
http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/phot...34930_3569.jpg

Here I've managed to break through:
http://photos-f.ak.facebook.com/phot...34901_5432.jpg

I had a very difficult time breaking through the wood connecting the inner top parts of the links, because I didn't leave myself much room to work in. However, I eventually succeeded in breaking the wood in two without breaking it apart!
http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/phot...35063_2957.jpg

Why stop there? Whittling is extremely fun and peaceful, I've discovered, so I decided to keep going. I've made a little border pattern and a figure of the geico gecko above one link:
http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/phot...36281_8102.jpg

I'm quite proud of my little whimsey so far, it's great to make something with just a piece of wood and a pocket knife. I wanted to thank Oneironaught for inspiring me to try this out, and hopefully get some other DV members to try their hands. Just be careful, I've already cut myself making this (my pocketknife doesn't lock and snapped shut on my index).

Oh, and is there any chance someone could identify the type of wood I'm using? I think the bark was pretty plain, and I had to cut off a lot of little branches.

Wow, thats cool. How long did it take you to make that?

The chain links were made over the course of about three days, and I started the gecko yesterday. It's really fun!