The motto of the WOOD BEE CARVER  “Would be carvers would be carvers if they would carve wood,” was coined in the mid 1970’s to imply that wood carvers are always learning.  Carving is learned primarily by carving with the experience that the more one carves the better one carves.  Simply thinking about carving, reading carving magazines, carving books or watching instructional videos while day dreaming about carving is not the same as actually using a cutting tool to shape a piece of wood.  It is that familiar experience of using the cutting tool slicing through the wood in the carving process that becomes the best learning experience.

Learning to carve is an ongoing process that grows with each time one carves.  The growth in learning by doing is enhanced the more often one carves.  One who carves every day will grow in learning more than carving only once a week or once a month or the next carving seminar.  If one is not familiar with the various cuts the cutting tool can do in shaping a block on wood, then one struggles with making any cuts.  That struggle is handcuffed by being afraid of making a wrong cut because one has not yet learned the various cuts that can be made.  That struggle becomes more difficult from the lack of practice of shaping the wood by impeding the ability to see or imagine a cut before it is made.  Looking and studying a completed carving either as a model go by or a photo of a carving without imaging how the cuts were made to shape the carving will confuse the occasional carver.  Practice, practice, practice is only advised because it works and if one practices doing nothing one gets pretty good at doing nothing.  On the other hand, if one carves more, one learns and becomes a better carver in that kind of practice. Read the rest of this entry »