Read about the role carving clubs played in others' carving journey.
Howdy !
Once again, I received some good responses to last week’s question about journeys to chip carving. While some folks started with other types of carving, others jumped right in without any experience! However, I found that there was one common theme – carving clubs!
One person was already very experienced with relief
carving but had difficulty finding the right way to grip a chip carving knife until ‘…a fella in our carving group who was an excellent chip carver decided to have a class and I decided to give it one more try. I went and I learned how to properly hold and move the knife and now I do love chip carving.’
Another took a chip carving class at a Scandinavian festival and now, years later, is leading the way in establishing a carving club. You can read more about this
journey later on in today’s newsletter. 😉
Then there was Doris, who ‘saw a notice on my library’s bulletin board about a woodcarving display from a local woodcarving club. I went and was astounded at the beautiful carvings and thought I would like to try. The members of the club (Piedmont Woodcarvers Carvers Club) talked me into attending a meeting…so I went…No knives or knowledge but a lot of interest. I’m not sure how long ago that was but it’s been years and many
carvings later. Now I help out at our library displays and have helped recruit new members. Our club’s members are so kind and generous with their time and talent and I am so lucky to have them as friends and mentors.’
The last line sounded familiar to me. 🤔 I can’t recall how many times I’ve heard other carvers mention what a generous, talented, and helpful group of people make up the carving community. I was able to experience this type of community during February’s
Platinum Member webinar on carving a border. Throughout the webinar, there were questions, comments, and suggestions on different ways to carve and adjust the pattern, resulting in some pretty creative patterns!
I appreciate all the knowledge and experience everyone is willing to share with me ... and all of you!
My journey started back in 2000 or 2001 when I attended a Scandinavian Culture Day in Jamestown, NY which had a very large Swedish immigrant population. My wife is part Swedish, so we thought it would be fun to learn
about Scandinavian Culture. Our young son went along and instantly took to woodcarving with an instructor there. Not wanting to do the same thing, I went to a session on chip carving taught by Gunnard 'Gunny' Erickson who learned through lessons at the Vesterheim in Decorah, Iowa. I fell in love with chip carving! Gunny since passed away, and now I took over the reins of leading the chip carving group at the Culture Days. We meet once a month from October through
May and also demonstrate at the Scandinavian Festival held every July or August in Jamestown.
At our gathering this month, we invited the public to help us form a new carving club, which we've named the Scandinavian Woodcarvers. We started out with 16 charter members and will explore all forms of woodcarving, not just chip carving. It should be an exciting endeavor.
Of course, I'll focus my efforts on chip carving and one of our other members (and a chip
carver as well) will lead the effort on other forms of carving.
We're hoping this will also help reinvigorate the Scandinavian Studies program, as attendance has been waning in recent years due to so many older participants have been passing away.
Best regards, and keep up the great work on My Chip Carving!
Don
Here are some of Don's carvings over the years. Enjoy!
Hello Don,
Thank you for your email! It sounds like a wonderful event! Being 50% Norwegian I love hearing about anything Scandinavian. 😀 It's great to hear about your new carving club. I hope it continues to grow. Your carvings are absolutely beautiful!
