Thirteen carvers gathered for a three day carving seminar (September 13, 14 and 15) at Tannerhill State Park, near Birmingham, AL to learn to Whittle-Carve using only a knife.

Carl Wiggins organized the class that included Mike Davis, Bob Trussell, Phil Pugh, Dean Irving, Howard Weaver, Frank Connery, Roy Melton, Bib Moore, Wayne Thaggard, Phil Crider, David Courington, and Donald Maddox.  The photographs show students busy at their carving projects and having a good time. Read the rest of this entry »

Members of the Lexington Woodcarvers Guild participated in a three day class April 11, 12 and 13 at the workshop of Ken and Beverly Taylor in Paris, KY.  Pictured above are Don Dziubakowski, Doris Rapp, Joan Whitman, Dick Mathy, Debbie Ross, Jerry Bennett, Calvin Grant, Ken Taylor, Doug Chute, Bryan Taylor and Gary Bryant  (not in picture). Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured to the left are the Survivor Students of the Whittle-Carving Class taught in Camdenton, MO (Lake of the Ozarks region) August 3-5, 2012.  Included in the photo are Jim Wilson, Ray Fisk, Wally Norman, Jim Long, Brad Welch, Bonita Richards, Carolyn Curtis, Tom Wyrink, John Sejod, Barry Gentile, Tom Leaset, Marilyn Peck, Ken Gossage and Bud Murray.

Students learned in the knife carving class the basics for using a knife in a slicing action to make notch cuts and three cut triangular cuts to open up a block of wood for additional cuts to shape the project to its basic form.  These cuts fall into the mantra that “one cut is not a cut to end all cuts,” but only an opening so that additional cuts can be made.  To accomplish these lessons a three version face study stick was carved as the beginning project to not only practice the slicing cuts but also to learn about the Rule of Three of Facial Proportions. Read the rest of this entry »

Charles and Doris Leverett  hosted a fourth – three day carving seminar on June 8, 9 and 10, 2012 in their Northeast Alabama carving studio.  Eight Students survived the rigors of Whittle-Carving using only a knife to make the necessary slicing cuts to shape a block of wood.  Pictured is the photo are Bob and Lynn Zenoble, Hugh O’Neal, Ann Armstrong, David Wilson, Cherie Cornelius, Charles Leverett, Greg Douglas,  and Joe Cernut.   Read the rest of this entry »

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 »