Two three day classes in Whittle-Carving were held at the Burchfield Nature and Art Center in West Seneca, NY April 20 through 25. Twelve students made up the first three day class and thirteen students made up the second three day class. Read the rest of this entry »
The River Valley Wood Carvers hosted a three day carving seminar in Taylor Mill, KY on April 12, 13 and 14. The eight Survivor Students pictured are (left to right) Gitta Wahrenburn, Rick Bissonnette, Bill Wright, Don Potter, David Chadwick, Dick Middleton, Bud Miller and Suzanne Millay. Read the rest of this entry »
Five students gathered at the Woodcraft Store in Centerville, OH on March 24, 2012 for a class on the subject of Egg Noggins. Survivor students in the photograph are (left to right) Edgar Brumbaugh, Andy Zinmeister, Leonard Ballard, Wendy Beck and Jeannette Hamilton.
Egg Noggins are faces carved out of a basswood hen egg using only a knife to shape the wood. Whittle-Carving exercises prepared the students to carve a face in the wooden egg using slicing cuts with the knife. These exercises included shaping practice blocks of wood with a series of notch cuts to lay in the landmarks of the face using the Rule of Three of Facial Proportions with a notch cut at the hairline, followed by a notch cut at the eye brow area, followed by a notch cut for bottom of nose nostrils and finally the bottom of the chin. Slicing angled cuts shaped the planes and angles of the face in order to provide a good foundation to receive the detail cuts for eyes, nose, mouth, smile line and ears. The Three Version Face Study Stick was used for the first exercise. Read the rest of this entry »
Fifteen students survived a two day Whittle-Carving class preceding the Sauder Village Woodcarving Show in Northwest Ohio the last week end in October, 2011. Students in the photograph are Jim Bodette, Jim Dupont, Bettye Jo Hansbarger, Ronald Hathaway, Gene Johnson, Carol Kent, Dot Kohl, Ken Kohl, Gwen Kuenzli, Chris Martin, Roger Martin, Jean McDonald, Kurt Reuynolds, Sanford Taylor, and Frank Yanko. Read the rest of this entry »
Conewago Carvers of East Berlin, PA hosted a three day class with thirteen students who survived a Whittle-Carving experience taught by the WOOD BEE CARVER July 8, 9 & 10. Pictured in the photo are (left to right front row) Dave Parker, Joan Hiser, Rose Huth, Jim Hiser, John Huth (back row left to right) Adam Ciemniechi, Jake Deery, Ed Otto, Gerald Smith, Tom Borecki, Ralph Buruick, Bob Hershey and Bruce Stake. Read the rest of this entry »
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Charles and Doris Leverett hosted a three day class, June 17, 18 and 19 at their rural Northeast, Alabama carving studio. Seven students survived the rigors of learning about the A-B-C’s of Face Carving. Those pictured are (front row right to left): Hugh O’Neal, Bob Zenoble, Mike Lancaster, Doris Leverett, (back row, left to right) Joe Cernut, Murrel Mc Curley, David Wilson and Charles Leverett. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mystic Carvers Club hosted a three day seminar with three Caricature Carvers of America members over the Memorial Day weekend. It is called a CCA Carve-A-Long East for carvers living in the Northeast. It was held at the beautiful W. Alton Jones environmental camp of the University of Rhode Island. Students rotate among the three instructor for a one day class with each instructor. This year the instructors were Mitch Cartledge of North Carolina, Bruce Henn of Ohio and Don Mertz of Ohio.
The class I taught was the A-B-C’s of Face carving with a choice of subjects between a shelf squatter, a bust or an egg noggin. As part of the instruction the “Three Version Face Stick” was central to learning about opening up a block of wood to carve a face. Using only a knife to make slicing cuts each student learned a new appreciation for the knife as a carving tool. A one day class is always intense with so much to learn in such a small amount of time that goes so fast and yet each student survived. Read the rest of this entry »
Nine members of the River Valley Wood Carvers participated in a Whittle-Carving class in Taylor Mill, KY April 14, 15 and 16, 2011 becoming the latest group of Survivor Students of the WOOD BEE CARVER’s approach to carving only with a knife and a square block of basswood. Pictured in the photograph are ( front row left to right): Mickey Huston, Ed Stover, Bob Manning (second row) Don Potter, Bill Wright, Dick Middleton (third row) Barry Pennington, Jim Clear and Rob Witzke.
During the three day class the students learned the A-B-C’s of Face Carving through the exercise of carving a Three Version Face Study Stick (as is described by that title under “Cool Links”) and by carving a full figure of choice from the variety of Go-By examples of clowns, hobos, old geezers, cowpokes, Civil War soldier, sea captian or a cowpoke bust.
Each student stayed right up to the end to receive the recognition of being a SURVIVOR STUDENT of Whittle-Carving adhering to the WOOD BEE CARVER’S motto: “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood.”