Carving Season!

Well at least on Wednesday's I can leave the mess that is my shop and go carve at the school with all the club members. Yes we are at it once again now that school is on and things are running again. See you next Wednesday at 6:30 PM till as late as 9. Also the Annual General Meeting is in two weeks. I sent out an email so check that if you are a member. If you are not and would like to become one than send me an email at radb@telus.net and I will give you a shout about where to go.

Carving

So now is the time to start planning what you are going to carve starting in September. Is it going to be a big project or a number of small ones. Are you going to finish up all those carvings you started so long ago and never did pick up again?

I think that some of the carvings I put down and did not start again were put down because I did not have the skills to accomplish what I had set out to do. As I keep taking courses I find that when I pick up some of the old unfinished carvings it is easier now to finish them, if in fact I have not made some real grave error and gone beyond where the piece can be saved.

If the carving can't be saved make something smaller out of it or use it to heat the shop and roast up some marshmallows with the Grandkids.

How Was Your Summer?

I hope you a all had a reasonable Summer. Only about a month left of school's out and than the more experienced people have the parks and holiday spots to themselves. Although in British Columbia the teachers are planning to extend the kids Summer break with continuing job action. Speaking of school, some our club members went down to Ellensburg, Washington for the Annual NorthWest Carving Academy. In total 8 of our club members went down to partake in various courses. To find out more about this school go to http://www.nwcarvingacademy.com  The website should answer all your questions. This is the first year that I actually completed a carving from start to finish. It took a little extra work but it was worth the effort. Next year there is a whole new slate of things to do. My plan is to take another course from CCA Instructor Bob Travis and this is the carving that he plans to teach.

There are other instructors that will be attending in various styles. So check out the website and and plan next years vacation early.

Dayton Ohio. Artistry in Wood.

  This a great show to take in. Have you thought about going?

The Latest Club News

Hi Rick,

Could you please forward this email to the club members.  It is the results of the Curling Rock competition at the Men’s Brier in Kamloops.  Also attached is pictures of the displays at the Curling Rink.  Hopefully some of the carvings will be at our show!   The Brier is on TSN and I’m sure they will show the displays.

Congratulations to Ken Smorang!!!  He won People’s Choice!

Ken put in two “rocks”.  The Canadian Loonie is a beautiful creation.  The Boston Cream one (looked good enough to eat!) isn’t in the pictures; it’s being glued again.  Reminder that carvings are not really toys!

My rocks didn’t win, but they are part of the display.  The green one with a face and a red handle (“Happy”) and the Curling Puck with Handle are my entries.  It was a fun challenge and I’m glad Kathy extended the deadline, so that I could participate!

Kamloops always supports our show, so it was nice that they got entries from our Club too.

Thanks,

Joany

In The News

For those of you that read your carving magazines as I do you may have noticed that one of our club members made the news in a good way. Check out the January February issue of Chip Chats and you will find an article on the 5th North West Carving Academy last summer. Page 25.  An artist at work.

Pete Leclair Caricature Carver

At Artistry in Wood Show in Dayton, Ohio, the Caricature Carvers of America displayed their 1930's street scene. It was about 24 feet long with buildings and many caricatures to go along with them. For a better look at the street scene go to http://www.cca-carvers.org and look up the various buildings. Some of them are still for sale if you are interested. Pete Leclair carved a number of the caricatures in the street scene. 

 

Pete Leclair put on a one and a half hour Seminar on carving a face on the corner of a 1 and3/4 inch square piece of Basswood. He than handed out 20 DVDs with the contents of his talk and demo to various club members across the US and Canada. This information was to be passed on freely to all the clubs and persons who are interested.

If you are interested in this info please contact radb@telus.net