Charles Simpson, a carver and knife maker of Guntersville, Alabama has been making carving knives for many years.  He is an active member of the Huntsville Carving Club and sells his knives at their show and other shows in the Alabama area.

I first became aware of his knives while I was teaching a class at Charles Leverett’s studio and one of the students, David Wilson gave me a couple of Charles Simpson knives.  Those two knives cut like a dream and I was intrigued that Charles makes them out of Personna floor scrapper blades.  Since then I have purchased three more that are pictured along with the two previous knives received as a gift. Read the rest of this entry »

The Three Amigos are grown up versions of Whittle Folk ‘Pokes in that they are carved from a one and a half inch square block six inches tall and were carved using traditional carving tools while Whittle Folk ‘Pokes are carved using only a knife and are only four inches tall by three quarters of an inch square. Read the rest of this entry »

Harry Limings is a carver the carving world needs to know about and to see his carvings in person whenever he participates in a carving show in Ohio.  This photo was taken at the October 2009 Cincinnati Woodcarving Show and Harry will be at the Artistry in Wood Show November 14 and 15 in the Dayton Airport Exposition Center.  The photograph journey that follows gives a introduction into his unique art and creativity. Read the rest of this entry »

Ernie Hill of Killingworth, CT. received a CCA Merit Award at the October 2009 Dollywood Woodcarving Showcase.  Presenting the award to Ernie are CCA Members Gary Falin, David Boone, Bruce Henn and Don Mertz.  Ernie’s wife, Iris, is pictured in the background of this photo and is pictured in the next photo as she is carving.

Iris, Ernie’s wife, is pictured behind their carving display table as she is carving on a project.  She has been carving for a little over six months and has a good eye for carving that guides her carving skills. Being married to Ernie for forty years has contributed to her learning to carve so well.  She participated in the whittling contest along with Ernie and both of their carvings were beautiful.

“Congratulations” to Ernie and Iris for being recognized for their gifts of wood carving creativity and for uplifting caricature carving to an art form.

A very great and humbling honor was bestowed upon me when the members of the Caricature Carvers of America elected me along with Mitchell Cartledge of North Carolina as the 2009 new Members into CCA  at their Annual Meeting in  Branson, Missouri the week end of September 26, 2009.

CCA came into existence to encourage caricature carving as well as showcase caricature carving as  ART within the woodcarving genre.  This is accomplished through sponsoring an annual mail-in caricature carving competition, seminars in various locations across the nation,  publication of CCA carving projects, awarding Merit Award Certificate and Ribbon to deserving carvers of caricatures at wood carving shows and each member of CCA being an ambassador of caricature carving.

A more detailed description of CCA is described at their web site:  http://www.cca-carvers.org/

At the 2006 Artistry in Wood Show in Dayton, Ohio these Pumpkin Heads in the photograph at the left were part of Jon Nelson’s display.  A clever carving idea to try was filed in the back of my own wooden head.  A year later I had the opportunity to take a caricature carving class from Bob Stadtlander and one of his subjects was Pumpkin Heads.

As with many carving ideas and carving subjects which incubate in the carver’s creative muse, carving more of these Pumpkin Heads came knocking on my wooden head (i.e. ‘block head’).  The result being what I call “Pumpkin Noggins” as the word “noggin” means head.   So what follows is a photo journey of “Pumpkin Noggins” on parade. Read the rest of this entry »

The Gunslinger Caricature was carved out of a basswood block seven inches tall by three inches square.  The original design was done by Chris Hammack who carved the caricature and its photo became the front of a greeting card.  A wood carving friend shared the photo with me.  The unusual posture of the gunslinger presented a challenge to carve.  Carving gouges were used to carve the basic form with knives used for the detail carving. Read the rest of this entry »