During the International Woodcarving Congress in Maquoketa, Iowa, eleven students survived a five day class of Whittle-Carving using only a knife to learn the ABC’s of Face Carving. The Survivor Students in the photo above are [ left to right – front row] Gen Kreylin; Kathryn Overcash; Diane Guntzel; Linda Medhus; Don Mertz (WOOD BEE CARVER) [second row –  left to right] Tim Johnson; Tom Kreylin; Jim Pinkerton; Ron Gumm; Fred Doern; Hugh Babcock and Marc Featherly.

The first day of the five day class the students learned the Rule of Three of Facial proportions, the angles and planes of the face and the basic slicing knife cuts for opening up a block of wood with slicing notch cuts and three cut triangular cuts in a variety of carving exercises. The second day the students carved a head and face in a basswood hen egg using what was learned in the first day’s exercises. The instructor continuously repeated key phrases like “Slice the Baloney,” / “one cut is not a cut to end all cuts but the beginning for making additional cuts,” and “use baseball measurements, which means ‘in the ballpark.’” As each student carved on their own project, the instructor would carve a demonstration project with each student on a rotating basis.

The third day embarked on carving a bust in a three inch tall by an inch and half square block of basswood using a variety of go-by models for each student to use as a guide for carving their own project. Days four and five the carving project was learning to carve a full figured character in a six inch by an inch and half square block of basswood.

On the lighter side as an informal break from the seriousness of carving, each student shared in a “show and tell” time of learning the variety of creative interests each student does. Some showed their carvings including a chained sawed turtle, wire art, knife making, and telling and describing their carving interests. The informal photos below are of the show and tell session.

The WOOD BEE CARVER is a knife carver who has never met a knife that he did not like, so it was natural for him to purchase a couple of knives made by student Hugh Babcock as in the photo below. The other photo showing the one knife is a knife made by Denny Neubauer (who taught a one day class on knife making) that he made from a wrench and handled with dried cactus and epoxy resin.

The seminar classes at Congress are in conjunction with the completion show that hosts entries from across the nation and other countries. The show is open to the public Thursday through Sunday.

The 2016 International Woodcarving Congress Classes and Competition Show will be the 50^th Anniversary ~June 12 through 19 in Maquoketa, IA. The International Woodcarvers Congress is sponsored by Affiliated Wood Carvers, Limited http://www.awcltd.org/