Last month, I attended GOW - a Gathering Of Woodcarvers. I learned (among other things, and I taught some things as well) how to carve "gnome houses". A friendship cane was carved and raffled off during the event. A friendship cane is a collaborative art project where several carvers each create a carving in an agreed-upon format (in this case, starting with a basswood goose egg with a 5/8 inch hole through it) and then all the carvings are threaded onto a dowel to make one big cane. My contribution was (as usual for me in these situations) based on what I had just learned - i.e. a gnome house. Enjoy.