Survivor Students of WHITTLE FOLK ART class in Whittle-Carving a Whittle Folk Monk met on Saturday August 23, 2008 at the carving studio of Sam Slagle. In addition to Sam the other students were Karen Christian, Nancy Stevens, Brian Hasinger, Greg Thurston, Alan L. Wurstner, Mary Rose McCrate, Terry Borger, Ed Johnson, Jerry Kalifoot and Joe Lehman. The class began with Whittling Exercise ABC’s of carving a ball on the end of a square stick to learn the basic “slicing cuts” and “knoch cuts” by carving a ball which became a means of learning how to design and carve a human head that can be turned to be looking right or left, be looking up or down or having the head tilted slightly. The rest of the one day class was carving a three inch by one inch square block of basswood into a Whittle Folk Monk. With good humor and intense work each student learned the fine art of “Whittling away time,” while having fun learning together.
Whittle Folk Monks were subject of the one day class.
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“Santa carving a Santa” has been a subject carved several times and is being carved again as indicated by the two in the beginning stages of being carved to the basic form. Serving as a back drop are photographs of earlier editions of the same subject and the one in the middle was carved in 1999. The very first one was carved in the mid 90’s as a commission but sad to say there is no photograph of the very first one. Read the rest of this entry »
“The Inventor of the TOOTH BRUSH” was inspired by a humorous story that the “tooth brush” was invented in _________ (a state noted for hillbillies) and as everybody knows, hillbillies have very few teeth. With this caricature carving, this hillbilly pointing to a tooth brush with a one tooth grin on his face indicating his pride in himself for inventing the “tooth brush.” If it was invented anywhere else it would have been called a “Teeth Brush.” This story is an illustration of how funny common things are named which does not always fit the actual description as in, “Why do we drive on a parkway and park in the drive way?” Such play on words often give inspiration to a carving idea. This carving was whittle-carved with only a knife out of a one inch square by five inch tall basswood blank and was colored using the “painting softly” method described elsewhere in this blog.
HOG HEAVEN PIG SEED was first created as a whittling exercise to see how small one could carve a pig. The first miniature pig was carved in 1982 becoming a pig seed by the accident of humor. The WOOD BEE CARVER was showing and demonstrating his carvings at an outside show at a restored log cabin-ed village called Pioneer Village close to Caesar’s Creek Lake near Harveysburg, Ohio. School children visited on a field trip and as part of the demonstration for the visitors I would ask the children if they had ever seen a “pig seed” and then showed them the carved wooden pig explaining that this pig would grow into a big hog by using one’s imagination. Most of the children realized that I was just kidding them but then the fun part of humor is exaggeration. Read the rest of this entry »
The photo at the left shows the brave survivors of another Whittle-Carving class taught in Newark, Ohio, July 19 and 20. In a two day class these students learned about carving only with a knife. The class project was learning to carve a three inch tall Whittle Folk Monk. Those participating were: Harry Limings, Bob Morrison, Tammi Crowell, Rich Murphy, Mary Kishler, Bob Green, Joe Hardesty, Lonnie Larsen, John Niggemeyer, Greg Lombardo, Bill Stroud, Thelma Lanwasser, and front and center, Don Mertz, the WOOD BEE CARVER (the instructor) and Leigh Sherman, in whose carving studio the class was held. Notice that they are all smiling indicating that we all had fun expanding the horizons of carving by “whittling away time” together.
Whittling is the art of shaping a hand held piece of wood with a knife using various cutting strokes. The most efficient cut is a slicing cut since the cutting edge of the knife blade is made up of very small teeth very similar to saw teeth. Think of trying to cut a slice of bread. If the knife is laid across the loaf and pressure forces the blade straight down with a wedge cut, the bread will be cut eventually but will be squashed before the blade is forced through the bread. If, however, the knife is used in a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to separate the fibers of the baked bread then a slice is possible with a smooth cut with little squashing of the bread. The same happens when whittling by using a slicing action allowing the cutting teeth of the blade to do what it is intended to do without forcing the blade into the wood. The key is to learn to develop a slicing action as often as possible to create clean and crisp cuts. Read the rest of this entry »
Survivor Students of WHITTLE FOLK ART class in Whittle-Carving a Whittle Folk Monk met on Saturday August 23, 2008 at the carving studio of Sam Slagle. In addition to Sam the other students were Karen Christian, Nancy Stevens, Brian Hasinger, Greg Thurston, Alan L. Wurstner, Mary Rose McCrate, Terry Borger, Ed Johnson, Jerry Kalifoot and Joe Lehman. The class began with Whittling Exercise ABC’s of carving a ball on the end of a square stick to learn the basic “slicing cuts” and “knoch cuts” by carving a ball which became a means of learning how to design and carve a human head that can be turned to be looking right or left, be looking up or down or having the head tilted slightly. The rest of the one day class was carving a three inch by one inch square block of basswood into a Whittle Folk Monk. With good humor and intense work each student learned the fine art of “Whittling away time,” while having fun learning together.
