The WOOD BEE CARVER has discovered over the years of carving a creative tension that is both “agony” and “ecstasy.” Experiencing this tension almost every time with any new carving project led me to come up with the following rule: “CARVING IS AGONY AND ECSTASY, BUT ECSTASY ALWAYS FOLLOWS THE AGONY .”
Because wood carving is a “learn by and while doing” and one’s subconscious is at work in the creative process, there is a certain amount of tension (as in the stretching of a rubber band and an inner power as the rubber band is released and returns to its former state) and in this tension there is a certain inner power at work. This creative tension can be called the “agony and ecstasy” of the carving process. Read the rest of this entry »
Once a woodcarving friend, Ron Turpin, upon referring to one of my carvings, said, “Don carved that right out of his own head and has enough wood left over to carve another one.”
So where do carving ideas come from? From the block of wood we call our head, from a rough out of another carver’s idea, from a pattern in a book or from the observation of life and objects around us? Carving ideas come from all of these and even from word association. Most carvers are on the look out for carving ideas, Sometime inspiration comes out of one’s creative soul and other times we carvers borrow someone else’s idea in hopes that the more we carve we will be able to develop more of our own ideas of creativity. Read the rest of this entry »
The WOOD BEE CARVER has been carving seriously since 1975 as a hobby carver who has dedicated himself to always be an amateur carver. “Amateur” means one who does what one does for the love of doing it while also learning by doing and improving one’s skills, abilities and interests while doing what one loves to do.
In the same frame of understanding, my philosophy developed to say, “Would be carvers would be carver if they would carve wood,” which implies the “amateur” ever learning and ever growing aspect of the carving experience. Wood carving is using the trial and error method of learning while doing with the assumption being that the more one carves, the better one becomes since so much of the carving experience is “practice, practice, practice.” Read the rest of this entry »
One of the side effects of wood carving is to be afflicted with an ailment of accumulating carving tools. With that ailment comes the need for a place for tool storage and a way to carry carving tools to club meetings, carving shows or to another location other than the home base used for carving. Every carver has their own system and is always on the look out for another idea. One advantage of taking carving classes is to see what tools other carvers are using and what kind of box, bag or storage unit they have. Read the rest of this entry »
Every carver has an inner anxiousness about making a mistake while carving but when you boil it down there really are no mistakes in carving, only learning experiences. A wit once said “Nothing in life is ever a complete failure because it can always serve as a negative example,” which is a lot more truth than humor. David Sabol of the Caricature Carvers of America often says in his carving instructions that carvers should treat each carving project as a “practice” piece by which he implies that each carving project is a learning experience, so relax and have fun and if you mess up the carving, you can learn how to make adjustments. Read the rest of this entry »
There is an old wise saying: “Life is full of endings, but it is never The End for with every ending there is always a new beginning.” Such a wise observation fits every experience of life if only we resolve to “begin again.”
The WOOD BEE CARVER has as one of his sayings: “Woodcarving is more the journey than the destination,” which means that satisfaction does not come at the end with the completed carving. Satisfaction comes while doing the carving project so when the carver comes to the end with a completed carving there is the eager anticipation to “begin again“ with another carving project. Read the rest of this entry »
The WOOD BEE CARVER offers a tip for making an inexpensive Tool Caddy to receive twenty three palm carving tools made out of a 4 X 6 Index Box that can be purchased from Staples for under $7.00. The “WOOD BEE CARVER TOOL CADDY – Photo Trail” photos are a visual path beginning with photo one showing the Tool Caddy holding 23 palm tools.
Photo two shows eighteen tools at home in the Tool Caddy with five tools in front waiting to be placed in their respective holes. The five tools in front have had their handles dipped in Plastic Dip to create non-slip handles. Read the rest of this entry »
“WOULD BE CARVERS WOULD BE CARVERS IF THEY WOULD CARVE WOOD.”
The WOOD BEE CARVER, Donald K. Mertz has used the statement above as his philosophy for the experience of carving wood. A part of this philosophy’s meaning is that one is always learning, always a “would be” in the process of growing and becoming.
The experience of wood carving, like so many other activities is learned primarily in the doing and the more one does the more one learns. It is like the old saying, “Turning the soil over in your mind will not plow the field.” Good intentions do not become good until the intention is acted upon. So it is with wood carving, or anything else one does and for that matter, living life to its fullest each day, it is in the living and the doing that we become. Read the rest of this entry »
Once a woodcarving friend, Ron Turpin, upon referring to one of my carvings, said, “Don carved that right out of his own head and has enough wood left over to carve another one.”
