Fifteen students survived a two day Whittle-Carving class preceding the Sauder Village Woodcarving Show  in Northwest Ohio the last week end in October, 2011.  Students in the photograph are Jim Bodette, Jim Dupont, Bettye Jo Hansbarger, Ronald Hathaway, Gene Johnson, Carol Kent, Dot Kohl, Ken Kohl, Gwen Kuenzli, Chris Martin, Roger Martin, Jean McDonald, Kurt Reuynolds, Sanford Taylor, and Frank Yanko.

The A-B-C’s of Face Carving  was the theme of the class that learned about the basic how-to method of carving a face using only a knife and a square block of wood.  Each student learned about the  Rule of Three of Facial Proportions  while carving a Three Version Face Stick.   The primary project was carving a three inch tall by inch square block of basswood into a Whittle Folk Monk.  Additional learning projects included learning to carve the nose, smile line and mouth mound in a practice pyramid basswood block and a Whittle Dwarf.  A larger project was also chosen to begin carving a face in either a basswood hen egg or a shelf squatter blank.

The purpose of the class was to teach the methods for seeing with imagination the major landmarks of the human face and to carve to form the basic foundation of a face.  The various guided exercises and printed material were intended to give each student enough experience to complete their projects at home and to begin new projects with what they had learned.

With good humor and patient endurance each student survived the class with an appreciation for new friendships developed along with learned carving skills.  The random photographs that follow show some of the students hard at work on their carving projects.  It was a fun time with serious learning taking place to carry each carver along the road of carving experience.

One student, Kurt Reynolds,  sent pictures of  carvings he completed at home complete with painted carvings as displayed in the following photographs.