Last week was spent playing with wood and hanging out with my granddaughter, a combination of two very enjoyable activities. The John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina has an Intergenerational Week every summer when parents or grandparents can share a class with a child aged 12 to 17. I’ve been taking classes there for years by myself and my granddaughter was very excited to learn that she could come with me as soon as she was 12. She chose the wood carving class so we set off to learn how to handle sharp blades without cutting ourselves. Here is a photographic overview of the class.
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- The beginning. My rough cut wood with the model goose in background.
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- “Go-by” goose that acts as a model for my carving
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- My finished goose
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- My mouse and finished “go-by” mouse hanging out
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- Goose, mouse (with tail) and egg
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- Granddaughter working on cat
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- Granddaughter working on cat
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- Mouse after being dipped in linseed oil, with broken tail
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- Egg with flower mostly carved
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- My gnome with two “go-bys”
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- Granddaughter’s gnome, just beginning
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- My gnome in progress
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- My gnome and egg/daisy
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- Granddaughter’s gnome, in progress
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- Granddaughter’s gnome, finished and painted
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- Granddaughter’s finished goose and cat
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- Finished, more or less
The entire class started with the goose so that the instructor could take us through all the different stages of carving. Once we had finished the goose, we were able to chose the next project from the many blanks that the instructor provided. I chose a mouse in western red cedar. My granddaughter chose the cat in redwood. Both of these woods proved to be a bit of a challenge for beginning carvers, but we were happy with the results. My third project was my own design. I put a flower, maybe a daisy or coneflower or black-eyed Susan, on top of an egg-shaped blank, wrapped the flower stem around the egg and put three small ladybugs on the stem. I’m still playing with it and tweaking the design. I don’t know exactly how I’ll finish it, but I had fun and learned a lot with the carving.
As our last project, both granddaughter and I chose to make gnome heads. She did a large one and I did a little one. Both were re-engineered from Santa heads! For both of us, these last projects were a very successful conclusion as they felt as if we had some command of the project rather than having the wood rule.
My puzzle over the next six months is how to incorporate the wood into my books and if I really like carving enough to spend the necessary time and effort. Stay tuned!
I’ll be back to working on my books and marbled paper soon and may even be taking another class on marbling.
Your granddaughter’s carving is quite good!!
I thought so, but then I’m the proud grandma.
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Do you sell any of you wood carvings?
No. I only took one very beginning level class for fun!
Nancy