Ryan Olsen, a fellow CCA Member and a carving friend had an unfortunate accident earlier this year in that he dropped a carving knife while putting his tools in the passenger seat of the car. That dropped knife wedged itself between the seat and back of the driver’s seat. Unbeknownst to him, Ryan sat down in the seat whereby the point of the carving knife was driven into his buttock. The puncture wound healed quickly but the mental picture of such an accident could not go unpunished in that Ryan became the “butt of a joke” with a humorous carving given to him at the Annual Meeting of the CCA. The “Achilles Heel” in Ryan’s armor is depicted in the position of the knife working its way between the armor and coat of mail.  Ryan is a good sport and champions the humor in an accident that gave him a point of reference about safely transporting carving tools.  Thanks Ryan for your good humor.

A Whittle Doodle Mini is smaller versions of whittle-carving in a small block of basswood, in this case an inch and an eighth square by an inch and seven eighths tall. While the block of wood is smaller so are the carvings that embellish the four sides and top of the block. Doodling with a knife allows for the imagination to take the carver into the adventure of creativity with a serendipity result. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a Whittle Doodle carved as a segment for a walking stick used as a fund raiser for the Buckeye Round Up in July. Once again it is an example of a variety of intentional doodling with a knife in a block of wood an inch and half square by three inches tall. The visual study of each photo will tell the “rest of the story.” Read the rest of this entry »

Carole Williams created a composite photo of the various views of the CCA Whittle Doodle Trade Piece. The way that she combined the various views has emphasized the multiple faces carved into a block of basswood. She is a true artist with the computer and Photo Shop wizardry. Thank you Carole.

Each year at the Annual Meeting of the Caricature Carvers of America each active member participates in trading a carving with each other using a scheduled formula.  The WOOD BEE CARVER carved a Whittle Doodle as his 2015 Trade Piece.  Read the rest of this entry »

Stropping by hand on a leather strop impregnated with an abrasive compound of choice is all that is needed to keep any of the WOOD BEE CARVER Signature Series knives made by HELVIE KNIVES tuned up and ready to carve. Read the rest of this entry »

Nine members of the East Fork Carvers gathered at the Clermont Seniors Center in the Union Township Civic Center, Batavia, Ohio for a two day Whittle-Carving class, August 7 and 8.  Those in the photograph are (first row left to right) Ann Olsen, John Dotson, C. G. Uebel and Gwen Provin (second row left to right) Ed Handy, Pablo Gonzalez, Bill Wright, Mickey Huston and Hugh Cooley.

These Survivor Students learned about the efficiency of making slicing cuts with the knife’s cutting edge while making the opening up cuts of a notch cut (ditch or trough) as well as the three cut triangular cuts to create another kind of opening. These opening cuts begin the process of shaping the carving in its various stair stepped levels with the realization that “one cut is not the end to all cuts, rather it is just a beginning for making further cuts”. Following the exercises in making the notch and triangular cuts, each student chose a six inch, five inch or three inch figure as a go – by to guide in carving a figure under the guidance and demonstration of the instructor. Carving subjects chosen included a Gabby Hayes cowboy, hillbilly with jug wizard, cowboy with rifle, ogre, hobbit, sea captain with pipe, sea captain and hillbilly with jug.

Each carving project served as a “learning piece” that became evident as each student progressed throughout the two days of shaping the carving to the basic form in order to have a good foundation to apply the detail carving features. Whittle by whittle each carving began to take shape while being refined in the overall design. The purpose of a carving class is to learn and each student learned new ways of approaching a carving project. To supplement the continued learning process, each student was given a folder of a variety of instructional material that included three learning projects along with necessary blocks of wood in order to learn on their own at a time of their choosing.

With good humor, good eats, good conversation and the opportunity to carve together, these nine Survivor Students survived to carve another day and many more days ahead with the encouragement to do a “twenty minute a day workout” to keep the creative juices flowing. We all learn to carve by carving and the more one carves the better one carves.  These East Fork Carvers are becoming better carvers and are good friends as well ~ and that is what was experienced ~  good friends carving together.

The see what Survivor Students receive a part of their instructions, go to CATEGORIES and click on “To-Tor-Plus”  ~ then “Tutorials” and also, all the postings in the BEE HIVE located in the middle of the right column on the home page.