MERRY CHRISTMAS – 2009. The Santa and Snowman carving is encircled in a green wreath.  The green wreath has been a symbol of the Gift of Love that is an unending circle and ever green with its continuous cycle of bringing New Life and Hope to all who discover being in the Circle of Love. CHRISTMAS is the celebration of the Gift of Love in Jesus Christ who is the continuous Love of God encircling all humanity.  Christmas is a celebration of the Gift of Love in family and friends that continues to encircle us everyday.

Christmas is a celebration of Memories, timeless and yet ever circling with the newness of remembering love and friendship in all our relationships.

Christmas is a celebration of having our hearts carved with a lasting tribute of the gift of creativity, be it carving, be it making friendships  or be it in giving love as we have been loved – the art of drawing a circle.

As Edwin Markham said, “He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout But love and I had the wit to win; We drew a circle that took him in.”

A commission by a friend to carve a realistic likeness of his daughter and son from a photograph presented a challenge.  But then, if any carver is to grow and stretch in ability, then that carver musters up courage to tap into the reserve of carving experience to try to carve a reasonable likeness.  Such a challenge goes back to what Dave Sabol once said in a class when he stated that every carving project is a practice piece and is a learning experience, so relax and and do the best you can. Read the rest of this entry »

Cameron Proctor, better know as “HOBO” carved this likeness of the WOOD BEE CARVER and made me look better than I really am.  That is what carving friends do, make us look better because of the common kinship we have through wood carving.  I have never met Hobo face to face and yet he is like a long lost relative as we share a common bond of interests.  We met through the Message Board on Woodcarving Illustrated web site and have talked on the telephone.  Hobo lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina and carves in the tradition of such carvers as Tom Wolfe,  David Boone, Mitch Cartledge and the Wade Brothers Read the rest of this entry »

Steve Cotton is a carving friend who shares the journey of wood carving with me.  We first met when he was a student in one of my classes and over the years has kept me informed through photographs of his carving excellence.  The Santa Ornamnent was a gift that my wife France and I cherish as we do his friendship.  Below is a biographical sketch prepared for the showing of some of his carvings in a gallery in West Virginia: Read the rest of this entry »

Don Stephenson, an artist, wood burner and carver, wood burned this likeness of me in the act of whittle-carving along with a likeness of a Whittle Folk Monk.  Stephenson is a member of the Dayton Carvers Guild who also takes numerous photographs at guild meetings.  He often sits beside me at the carving meeting with sketch pad and pencil drawing what ever comes to the surface of his creative spirit.  While some people doodle non-sensible pencil scratches with paper and pencil, Stephenson doodles seriously with a drawing that is astounding.  Read the rest of this entry »

Totem Poles have a fascination of mystery surrounding their appearance as an unique form of art and carved beauty.  A Totem is not a religious symbol nor an object of worship.  Rather, a Totem is a carved diary or family story of symbols that tells what is very important to the people who carved and erected the Totem Pole.  A Totem proclaims a clan’s or tribes status and is a symbol of the clan’s mythological history, familiar legends or notable events.  The animals carved into the pole from top to bottom represents the characteristics of each animal as a guide throughout life.  A Totem is an entity, such as an animal that watches over or assists a tribe or family as a spirit guide representative of the symbolic relationship between nature and human kinship. Read the rest of this entry »

The three knives pictured to the left have  an upsweep or scimitar blade shape that were made by Ralph E. Long.  They are pictured here to represent the blade shape that I have come to utilize in ninety nine percent of my carving with a knife.  That was not always the case as my journey of knife carving has taken several revolutions in the evolution of discovering what blade shape works best for me.

As a boy growing up on a farm three miles south of Poneto, Indiana in the early 1950’s, a pocket knife was a constant companion for whittling and making many of my toys.  When the “carving bug” bit me in the early 1970’s in a serious way, the pocket knife was my first choice and repeated choice while learning to carve.

The photograph  above contains four  representatives of more than can be counted pocket knives rescued at flea markets, junk stores and garage sales over the years.  The top knife in the photo is one that combined the blades from one knife  transplanted into the body of another with tiger maple wood strips inserted into the handle.  The third from the top is a “favorite” knife from 1966 that started me on the road of wood carving before I knew what I was doing.  The blades were sharpened by trial and error the best way I could at the time while still not knowing what I was doing.  These experiences were the beginning of the journey of “Accidental Learning,” which continues today and will continue in the days ahead because so much of learning is accidental.

Accidental Learning begins with the first photo of two old pocket knives that have survived repeated sharpening by previous owners.  The large blade in each is a “spear point” and the smaller blade in each is a “pen blade” which was a miniature of the spear point shape.  Over the years of repeated sharpening on a whet stone the cutting edge became straight almost to the shape of a “wharncliffe blade” shape.  It is the “wharncliffe” or “straight cutting edge” blade that is most commonly called the “carving knife blade” or “bench knife.”  The most popular and commonly used carving knives all have a straight cutting edge. Read the rest of this entry »