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:

Steve Cotton took up woodcarving in 2005 and has quickly become a sought-after “Christmas Carver.” His father, Glenn, was a 4-H woodworking instructor in their Northern Michigan hometown of Kalkaska, and taught Steve the basics at a young age. The pair has built several tables and other pieces of furniture among their projects together over the years. When his dad added carving to his woodworking repertoire after he retired a few years ago, Steve grabbed a knife and gave it a try, “whittling” a cowboy boot as his first project. Caricature figures are his favorite subjects and Steve has taken classes from some of the foremost caricature carvers in America including Don Mertz, Harley Refsal, Floyd Rhadigan and Phil and Vicky Bishop. Both Steve and Glenn typically carve Father Christmas figures for Steve’s mother, Norma, each Christmas, and Santas, ornaments and other holiday carvings have come to be his most popular works among collectors.All of Steve’s figures are completely hand carved with a variety of knives, chisels and gouges. He typically uses Northern basswood for his carvings and colors them with acrylic paints thinned to a translucent stain, treats them with a boiled linseed oil solution to enhance the depth of the colors, then seals the carvings with several coats of hand-rubbed lacquer.Steve’s day job is as the radio play-by-play announcer for Marshall University athletics. The “Voice of the Herd” has been broadcasting Marshall sports since 1993 and has been honored seven times as the West Virginia Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

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October and November,  2010 recent ornament carvings by Steve.

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