It's September

Yes it's time to start the fall routine and that means we meet this Saturday at 10 AM at the Seniors Centre on Cyril Street. It will be good to meet with friends and find out what they did this summer. See you there.

Summer

Remember how when you went back to school in September a teacher invariably asked you to write about what you did over the Summer Holidays?  They were just preparing you for your future. No not English writing but socializing with your friends about what you did. So what are you going to do that will be worth talking about. If it's not worth talking about with your friends than is it worth doing? I always ask myself those questions before I set out on my adventures. It does not always work out exactly as you plan but if you enjoy it that is the main thing.  I have some grand plans for this summer and I hope to have some positive stories to tell in the fall. Stay tuned as the saga continues.....

Princeton 600 km

President's Challenge

May is Show month. I challenge you all to enter a carving in the show. All I can promise is a good time and maybe you win a ribbon to. You have about two weeks to get those carvings finished to show standard. Whatever that is. Ask a judge. But not when he or she is judging your piece.  Best of luck to all.

Rick Wiebe Carving Courses

Rick Wiebe   

Woodcarver Rick Wiebe was born in Saskatchewan, but spent all his childhood and youth in British Columbia. Since high school he has lived in Saskatchewan and Ontario as well as BC which has been home since 1977. He has a wife, Helen, and two adult children.

Rick has been whittling and carving for as long as he can remember, (Some 45 plus years), and is mostly self-taught. He credits his father with getting him started. Though his dad was not a carver, he did have the conviction that men and boys should carry a pocketknife and know how to use it safely to make many of the items that people want and need.

Rick's first projects were toys such as canoes, boats, peashooters and the like. Later, wooden chains and totem like dolls were produced. Still later decorative sculptures, waterfowl decoys and realistic wildlife carvings were successfully attempted. More recently, he has continued to produce waterfowl decoys and wildlife, but has also been at work on rocking and carousel horses as well as cowboy caricatures, which reflect his love of the outdoors and the western lifestyle. In the last few years he has also been developing a very unique style of carving fan-feathered birds out of one piece of wood.  Lately he has been getting involved with chainsaw carving and large log carvings. 

Rick has been carving for sale since 1984. His carvings are in private collections in Canada, USA, Japan, Europe, Australia and at least four countries of South America.

He has been teaching carving since 1987 in schools (both public and private) and through recreation departments in British Columbia and Alberta.

Within the last few years Rick has started to write some instructional booklets.  His first two are:  Carving A Walking Stick With Personality and Learn To Whittle Fan-Feathered Birds.   Adventures in Fan Carving (published in September 2005) is an expansion of the latter. 

The Central Fraser Valley Wood Carvers will be having their annual Carving Show and Sale open to the public on May 5, 2012 from 11AM to 5 PM at Heritage Park in Chilliwack,  B.C. Rick Wiebe will be our feature carver this year and will be at the show to judge and man his carving booth with his usual demos and carving and sharpening tips.


There are two carving courses during the same week as the show. The first course will be on May 2-3, 2012 in Chilliwack B.C. The second course will be May 7-8, 2012  also in Chilliwack, B.C. To inquire or sign up for these courses please email radb@telus.net or phone 604-824-9891 for details. Time is short but don't delay as these courses will fill very fast!!

Things To Do

Northwest Carving Academy

Kittitas County Fairgrounds

A/C Event Center

Ellensburg, WA

July 9-13, 2012

2012 Instructors and Media

Pat Moore Dragon w/Roughout

Bob Travis Caricature - Hobo

Pete LeClair Caricature - Bust & Faces

Wayne Barton Chip Carving - Lidded Box

Harley Refsal Flat Plane Caricature

Tom Duke Native American Flute

Lonnie Accord Tlingit Style Mask

Jerry Simchuck Power - Goldfinch

Desi Hajny Power - Group of Bears

Joshua Guge Power - Reel fish & habitat

Jeff Harkness Realistic Busts

Fred &

Elaine Stenman Relief— Wood burned

Charley Phillips Floral Relief

Chris Hammack Caricature - Figures

Cindy Jeffery Painting Classes

For additional information or to register please go to

http://www.nwcarvingacademy.com/

That is one long list of impressive instructors. Any class that you could still get into would be well worth your while. The members of the board are all great people to get along with to. If you want to stay close to Abbotsford and learn to carve there is a  free carving course for the next three weeks for absolute beginners. It is almost full but there might be a few spots left. to find out more about that contact me  at radb@telus.net 

Club Minutes March

CENTRAL FRASER VALLEY WOODCARVING

Meeting Minutes

March 2, 2012

Rick opened the meeting at 10:03 am

• Mike Rachon motioned that the minutes from the last meeting be adopted. Bill Poch 2^nd, motioned carried

• Joany gave the librarians report. There is $xx.xx in the library account.

If anyone has any ideas for a book purchase contact Joany.

• Rick reported that KMS Tools will now be carrying Fox Chapel Books

• Wednesday night carving group at the school may be disrupted due to the teachers strike. If so we will do our best to let you know before Wednesday.

• Interest about setting up booths at our upcoming show are beginning to come in.

• Rolf has sent out 90 invitations to the show via email.

• Registration forms for the show have gone out

• Next meeting of the show committee will be end of March/early April

• We will be getting a new server for the web page as Rolph has been having problems with the current one. The new one will cost $120.00 per year but will accommodate everything we want to do. Motion to go ahead with this by Larry, 2^nd by Darrel, all in favour, motion carried.

• Rick brought forth the idea of having another carving night open to out members. This would be in Chilliwack so that those that do not want to drive to Abby can still enjoy the benefits of carving as a club. Rick is going to check into this further regarding space, cost, and interest. Wednesday night in Abbotsford still remains open to out members. We will simply be broadening our horizons and increasing accessibility. Rick will be in touch with Chilliwack arts council.

• The club is looking at getting a new club crest design. Time for a little updating. We will have a competition for all club members to design a new logo. The chosen crest to win a prize yet to be determined. Have your designs in by the April general meeting. Make your crest design no more than 6” x 6”.

• New Business, there is a $2000 gaming grant from the arts council that the club can apply for. The executive will be pursuing the proper forms and channels.

• Last moths president’s challenge was to complete a carving that fits in an Altoids tin. Some remarkable entries were on display.

• Next months president’s challenge. Carve some “hair”. Human or animal.

• Larry also showed how to fit a whole carving kit into an Altoids tin. Amazing, in that little can was a handle, gouges, knives, pocket knife, and bandaids.  Great job, thanks.

• Rick mentioned that if anyone wants spoon carving instructions etc just check out http://www.pinewoodforge.com/

• 50-50 draw came to a grand total of $23.00. The lucky winner of $11.50 was Brian Pinkerton.

• Everyone who brought a carving to show and tell received a draw ticket for one of 3 prizes.

Winners were;

Jean – hand carved name tag by Rick

Darrel – a very nice rough out

Stu – a coveted pencil by www.branding-irons.biz  He is taking it with him to Hawaii as he is very proud of it.

• The club is planning on running an ad in the local paper advertising beginners carving classes on Wed nights. 

• Meeting closed at 12 noon.

Get Out of My Hair!

Sometimes you get so busy that you don't have time to do all the things you have taken on. As a result the quality of your output suffers a little or a lot depending how many balls you have up in the air. Than you want to tell a few people to Get Out of Your Hair if you still have it! As usual I waited till the last minute to tell you that next month for the April Presidents challenge I would like you to carve some hair on the end or side of a piece of scrap wood. It can be any kind of hair human or animal. The rest of the face is optional. This will challenge you to perfect Getting out your Hair.  Had enough yet? Just Google carving hair and you'll find lots of links.