Two three day classes in Whittle-Carving were held at the Burchfield Nature and Art Center in West Seneca, NY April 20 through 25.  Twelve students made up the first three day class and thirteen students made up the second three day class.

Those attending the first class and pictured in the first photograph below are Mark Dobrzenski, Lyle Morgan, Rob Lucci, Rich Ralthel, Don Arnett, Paul Yaeger, Joe Bublinski, Joe Reimers, Angelo Partlato, Jim Gardon and Leon Standish.

The second photograph  below is of the second class which included Paul Yarrows, Bob Longyear, Doug Bathke, Jeremiah, Bill Kushner, Bonnie Powell, Ken Kohl, Dot Kohl, Rich Reimers, Bill Sager, Mary Vanderbosch, Larry Bishop and Bob Chaffee.

The central theme of each class was learning face carving using only a knife to shape the wood using the Rule of Three of Facial Proportions as the overall guideline.  Several carving exercises were introduced to learn to slice with the cutting edge while making  notch cuts and three cut triangular cuts in order to open up the block of wood to begin shaping into the angles and planes of the face while rounding square corners and flattening round surfaces.  Students chose a major carving project in which to apply the lessons learned during the various exercises.  Many chose a human figure from among the variety of carved go-bys that were used as models in carving a similar project.  Students were very intent upon learning while the time passed all too rapidly as the end of the third day came too soon.  All students agreed that they learned much especially how to survive carving only with a knife.

The WOOD BEE CARVER made new friends in the wood carving family of carvers in Western New York.  Making new and lasting friends is perhaps the most important thing about participating in a carving seminar making us all “survivors” to carve another day.

Thanks to Ken Kohn and wife Dot for organizing these classes and hosting me in their home.  Below are a series of photographs depicting the instructor’s demonstrations with each student.