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March 2021 WOM Update

by Matt Kelley
March 22nd, 2021

 

Welcome to Woodcarver Online Magazine

March 2021 Update

 

From the Edi­tor -

As you all know, Covid 19 have dra­mat­i­cal­ly changed our world.  For wood­carvers, Covid caused the can­ce­la­tion of almost all carv­ing shows, com­pe­ti­tions and instruc­tion events.   Para­dox­i­cal­ly, how­ev­er, lock­down time com­bined with a dra­mat­ic increase in video stream­ing instruc­tion seems to be increas­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in our favorite craft and art.   What lies ahead for carv­ing in gen­er­al and Wood­carv­er Online Mag­a­zine?  Only time will tell. 

On a hap­pi­er note, after a year-long hia­tus, the World Wide Wood­carv­er Exchanges Secret Pal exchange has restart­ed!  Click on the W3E menu link and select Secret Pal Exchange from the pull­down.   Come join the longest run­ning carv­ing exchange on the ‘net. 

As always, we wel­come your feed­back, ideas for arti­cles, etc.  Please use the con­tact form on the About page in the menu bar above.  Please sup­port our spon­sors;  just click any of the links in the right menu bar.

Carve On and Stay Safe!!

Matt-IWC14

Pho­to by Marc Feath­er­ly at IWC ’14

Matt Kel­ley

Editor/Owner

Categories Editor, WOM

March-April 2020 WOM

by Matt Kelley
February 25th, 2020

Welcome to Woodcarver Online Magazine

Wait­ing by Julio Mar­tinez — Cedar Rapids, IA

2019 Inter­na­tion­al Wood­carvers Congress 

1st in Group S — Minia­ture — Size Max 3″ x 3″ x 3″ Cube

1st in Class 1001 — Animal/s 

 

From the Edi­tor -

Wel­come to the 24th year of Wood­carv­er Online Mag­a­zine.  WOM is, as far as we know, the longest run­ning online mag­a­zine for and by wood­carvers.  It has been and will remain free to all.   Like any oth­er pub­li­ca­tion, we can always use help with arti­cle ideas, show reports and pho­tos, etc.   Because WOM is a free mag­a­zine, there is not much in the way of mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion, but there is great sat­is­fac­tion is spread­ing the word about our art and craft. 

In this issue:

  • 2019 Inter­na­tion­al Wood­carvers Con­gress Pho­to Galleries
  • Pete LeClair: Granville
  • Ol’ Don’s Draw­ing Table
  • Update to Events, Hap­pen­ings and Goings-On

As always, we wel­come your feed­back, ideas for arti­cles, etc.  Please use the con­tact form on the About page in the menu bar above.  Please sup­port our spon­sors;  just click any of the links in the right menu bar.

Enjoy!

Matt-IWC14

Pho­to by Marc Feath­er­ly at IWC ’14

Matt Kel­ley

Editor/Owner

Categories Editor, WOM

International Woodcarvers Congress 2019 Winner Galleries

by Matt Kelley
February 25th, 2020

Detail from Steel Life by Fred­er­ick H. Cogelow — Will­mar, MN

International Woodcarvers Congress 2019 — Best of Show 

Judge’s Choice — Neil Cox 

1st in Group B — Relief Carving

Best of Group B

1st in Class 203 — Peo­ple Involvement

 

As always, assem­bling the pho­to gallery for the Inter­na­tion­al Wood­carv­er Con­gress Win­ners is the great­est amount of work of any sin­gle arti­cle in WOM.  The 2019 IWC Gallery was no excep­tion.   In the win­ner gal­leries you’ll find 130 of pho­tog­ra­ph­er Marc Feath­er­ly’s excel­lent stu­dio pho­tos of the win­ners at IWC 2019, includ­ing more pho­tos of the Best of Show winner.

In addi­tion to the gallery of the prize-win­ning carv­ings, you’ll also find Mar­c’s can­did pho­tos from the Class­es, Award Ban­quet, the Judges, and oth­er pho­tos around and about dur­ing Congress.

As always, the thumb­nail pho­tos in the win­ner’s gallery are click­able, and when clicked will take you to much larg­er ver­sions of these great carv­ings.  The large pho­tos will afford you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to real­ly look at the win­ners in detail.

To vis­it the gal­leries, in the menu bar above click on WOM, then on The Gal­leries menu item, or click HERE.   Enjoy!

Categories Competitions, Photo Gallery

From Pete LeClair — Grenville

by Pete LeClair
February 25th, 2020

 

Pete LeClair

Pete LeClair’s Projects

Pete LeClair’s Grenville

 

 

Pete LeClair is a well-known carv­er and teacher, author of three carv­ing books and a mem­ber of the Car­i­ca­ture Carvers of Amer­i­ca. You may learn more about Pete at his page on the CCA web site. Be sure to tour the rest of the CCA pages when you have a moment. In addi­tion, you may email Pete at pet­ele­clair AT comcast.net. Pho­tos copy­right 2001 — 2020 by Pete LeClair.

This pat­tern may be copied for indi­vid­ual use only; repro­duc­tion for resale is pro­hib­it­ed with­out express writ­ten permission.

Categories Caricature, Patterns

From “Ol’ Don’s” Drawing Table

by "Ol' Don" Burgdorf
February 25th, 2020


From “Ol’ Don” Drawing Table

“Ol’ Don” Burgdorf is a carv­er and artist from Hohen­wald, TN.  Don’s fea­ture “Doo­dles ‘n Notes for Carvin’ Folks” appeared reg­u­lar­ly in Chip Chats, and his draw­ings may be found in each issue of WOM and in past issues of Carv­ing Mag­a­zine.  Some of Don’s “Chat­ter­ing Chip­pers” pat­terns can also be seen at the Wood­carver’s Porch pat­tern page.

Copy­right 2011–2020 “Ol’ Don” Burgdorf. This arti­cle may be copied for indi­vid­ual use; repro­duc­tion for resale is pro­hib­it­ed with­out express writ­ten permission.

Categories Caricature, Patterns

January-February 2019 WOM

by Matt Kelley
January 28th, 2019

Welcome to Woodcarver Online Magazine

Detail from Shed Perch by Clark Weaver — Grin­nell, IA

2018 Inter­na­tion­al Wood­carvers Congress 

1st in Group F — Birds

1st in Class 603 — Song­bird — real­is­tic, painted 

Group F — Class 603 — 1st Place Prize — Tom and Lan­ny Simpson

 

From the Edi­tor -

With this issue we begin the 23rd year of Wood­carv­er Online Mag­a­zine.  WOM is, as far as we know, the longest run­ning online mag­a­zine for and by wood­carvers.  It has been and will remain free to all.   Like any oth­er pub­li­ca­tion, we can always use help with arti­cle ideas, show reports and pho­tos, etc.   Because WOM is a free mag­a­zine, there is not much in the way of mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion, but there is great sat­is­fac­tion is spread­ing the word about our art and craft. 

In this issue:

  • 2018 Inter­na­tion­al Wood­carvers Con­gress Pho­to Galleries
  • Pete LeClair: Doyle Cousin #1
  • Ol’ Don’s Draw­ing Table
  • Notes From The Net — Get­ting Moti­vat­ed To Carve
  • Update to Events, Hap­pen­ings and Goings-On

Com­ing up in future issues:

  • 2018 CCA Carv­ing Com­pe­ti­tion Win­ners Gallery
  • 2018 Artistry in Wood Win­ners Gallery

 

As always, we wel­come your feed­back, ideas for arti­cles, etc.  Please use the con­tact form on the About page in the menu bar above.  Please sup­port our spon­sors;  just click any of the links in the right menu bar.

Enjoy!

Matt-IWC14

Pho­to by Marc Feath­er­ly at IWC ’14

Matt Kel­ley

Editor/Owner

Categories Editor, WOM

International Woodcarvers Congress 2018 Winner Galleries

by Matt Kelley
January 28th, 2019

International Woodcarvers Congress 2018 — Best of Show 

1st in Group B — Relief Carving

1st in Class 202 — Scene oth­er than nature: Build­ings, Bridges, etc. 

Detail of Punch & Judy  by Debra Bergum — Lake­view, AR

As always, assem­bling the pho­to gallery for the Inter­na­tion­al Wood­carv­er Con­gress Win­ners is the great­est amount of work of any sin­gle arti­cle in WOM.  The 2018 IWC Gallery was no excep­tion.   In the win­ner gal­leries you’ll find 130 of pho­tog­ra­ph­er Marc Feath­er­ly’s excel­lent stu­dio pho­tos of the win­ners at IWC 2018, includ­ing more pho­tos of the Best of Show winner.

In addi­tion to the gallery of the prize-win­ning carv­ings, you’ll also find Mar­c’s can­did pho­tos from the Class­es, Award Ban­quet, the Judges, and oth­er pho­tos around and about dur­ing Congress.

As always, the thumb­nail pho­tos in the win­ner’s gallery are click­able, and when clicked will take you to much larg­er ver­sions of these great carv­ings.  (Much larg­er then you’ll see in any paper pub­li­ca­tion.)  The large pho­tos will afford you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to real­ly look at the win­ners in detail.

To vis­it the gal­leries, in the menu bar above click on WOM, then on The Gal­leries menu item, or click HERE.   Enjoy!

Categories Competitions, Photo Gallery

From “Ol’ Don’s” Drawing Table

by "Ol' Don" Burgdorf
January 28th, 2019


From “Ol’ Don” Drawing Table

“Ol’ Don” Burgdorf is a carv­er and artist from Hohen­wald, TN.  Don’s fea­ture “Doo­dles ‘n Notes for Carvin’ Folks” appears reg­u­lar­ly in Chip Chats, and his draw­ings may be found in each issue of WOM and in past issues of Carv­ing Mag­a­zine.  Some of Don’s “Chat­ter­ing Chip­pers” pat­terns can also be seen at the Wood­carver’s Porch pat­tern page.

Copy­right 2011–2019 “Ol’ Don” Burgdorf. This arti­cle may be copied for indi­vid­ual use; repro­duc­tion for resale is pro­hib­it­ed with­out express writ­ten permission.

Categories Caricature, Patterns

From Pete LeClair — Doyle Cousin One

by Pete LeClair
January 28th, 2019

 

Pete LeClair

Pete LeClair’s Projects

Pete LeClair’s Doyle Cousin #1

 

 

Pete LeClair is a well-known carv­er and teacher, author of three carv­ing books and a mem­ber of the Car­i­ca­ture Carvers of Amer­i­ca. You may learn more about Pete at his page on the CCA web site. Be sure to tour the rest of the CCA pages when you have a moment. In addi­tion, you may email Pete at pet­ele­clair AT comcast.net. Pho­tos copy­right 2001 — 2019 by Pete LeClair.

This pat­tern may be copied for indi­vid­ual use only; repro­duc­tion for resale is pro­hib­it­ed with­out express writ­ten permission.

Categories Caricature, Patterns

Notes From The ‘Net

by Matt Kelley
January 28th, 2019

Notes From The ‘Net

Ques­tions and Answers About Carv­ing Gath­ered From Pop­u­lar Carv­ing Groups

 Edit­ed by Matt Kelley

Wel­come carv­ing friends to NFTN, ver­sion 2.0.   In this occa­sion­al series we will gath­er the best ques­tions, answers and com­ments from the more active Face­book and mail list carv­ing groups, such as the Wood­carv­er List, Wood­carv­ing 101 — The Joy of Wood­carv­ing, and the Inter­na­tion­al Fish Carvers & Painters Asso­ci­a­tion, and present them here.

Enjoy, and Carve On!


I dug deep into the archives for this par­tic­u­lar NFTN — this con­ver­sa­tion occurred almost ten years ago, on the orig­i­nal email-based ver­sion of the Wood­carv­er List.  The ques­tion and com­ments are still valid almost 10 years lat­er.  Editor

 

On Get­ting Moti­vat­ed To Carve

This con­ver­sa­tion start­ed with Alex Bis­so noting:

I seem to be at a carv­ing stand­still.  I have not fin­ished a carv­ing since ear­ly last fall when I com­plet­ed a brown trout start­ed ear­li­er last year.  I just can’t seem to get moti­vat­ed enough to either start some­thing new or com­plete some start­ed projects that I told myself I would get done this year.  Can any­one tell me what has worked to get them moti­vat­ed to get back to carv­ing after a dry spell?   

Wood­butch­er Jan  replied:

Get your­self a carv­ing­body Alex.  Invite a carv­er to come and join you at your place one after­noon ‚morn­ing or evening every week and stick to it I had a dry spell last sum­mer for a few months and than when my class­es start­ed I could not wait to get at it again.
Done 5 fair size relief carv­ings this win­ter so far.       

To which Alex respond­ed:  A carv­ing­body: would prob­a­bly be very help­ful.  How­ev­er, I think I am stuck with the body I have!   

And of course Jan had to have the last word:  SMART ALEX!!!!!!!!! I mean Carv­ing bud­dy!  And if THAT won ‘t work COME OVA  HERE and I“LL get you all fired up for carv’n!        

Joe Dil­lett remarked:  I can’t remem­ber my last dry spell but there are times I just need to back away from my carv­ing and pick up a piece of wood to make chips with­out con­cern about what it will become. Just enjoy­ing the smell, sound and feel of a sharp chis­el slic­ing through wood is stim­u­lat­ing. Most often after a few cuts the block decides what it wants to become so I just help it along its journey.

One book I just read, Draw­ing From With­in says that some of the best pic­tures are cre­at­ed when we are not try­ing to cre­ate a pic­ture but just let our mind loose to draw. Maybe some of that is true for carv­ing too?

Mau­ra Coop­er added:  Hi Alex,  I can sym­pa­thize with your carv­ing slump. There was a time when I was almost obses­sive with my carv­ing.  Now I give thanks for com­mis­sions, seems noth­ing moti­vates like mon­ey some­times. When I have real­ly been stalled, there are three things I found would get me back into it.  One was to clean my shop. Seems I just can’t stand it when its just too orga­nized. Anoth­er was to sharp­en and/or hone all of my chis­els. Theres just some­thing about a won­der­ful­ly sharp tool that begs to be used. But the best moti­va­tor that I ever found was to help anoth­er carv­er along.  Per­haps theres a young­ster around who would like a few lessons or a bunch of seniors who you could vol­un­teer to teach a small class for.    

To which Jeff Pretz replied:  Thanks for the ideas Mau­ra, help­ing oth­ers seems to be a great way to do a lot of revi­tal­iza­tion!   

Bing described his expe­ri­ence after return­ing from an over­seas deploy­ment:  Alex I had the same issue once I came back from Kan­da­har Afghanistan it had been by that time almost a year since I had carved any major projects, still trapped in the war. But I went for a walk one day into the Cana­di­an Par­lia­ment build­ings and found myself in sur­round­ed by out­stand­ing carv­ings of all shapes and sizes. When I walked out I was ready to launch out and carve. Now I don’t have enough time in the day to do any­thing but carve.   Bot­tom line is go to a muse­um or some where’s you can wit­ness oth­er carvers or carv­ings could be just as sim­ple as pick­ing up a new carv­ing mag.             

Joe Dil­lett:  Excel­lent sug­ges­tions Bing, espe­cial­ly going to a muse­um. That’s got to inspire anyone.

Loren Woodard com­ment­ed:  As far as get­ting your carv­ing mojo work­ing, good luck.  I think we all go through those time.  I went through one not long ago.  I love car­i­ca­ture carv­ing.  I got out some books on car­i­ca­ture carv­ing and read them thor­ough­ly from cov­er to cov­er, dis­cov­ered a cou­ple of new things I want­ed to try and yahoo, I’m carv­ing once again.  Good luck and get back to carv­ing as soon as you can. You’re too good not to get back on it soon.      

Final­ly, Sandie Burgdorf added:  For­get about all of the old projects that you think you should be fin­ish­ing. Pick a new project that you have been think­ing about but put off because you thought you should do the old ones first.   If you pick some­thing you real­ly want to do, you will actu­al­ly start and work on it. Chal­lenge your­self but make sure it’s some­thing you WANT to do.


That’s it for this edi­tion of NFTN.    If you see a post on one of the FB groups or Mail List­servs that you think should be pre­served in NFTN, please use the form below to sub­mit your suggestion.

NFTN Suggestions

Sug­ges­tions for NFTN
  • Please enter your name
  • MM slash DD slash YYYY
    Please enter the sub­mis­sion date.
  • Please enter your email address — this is a required field
  • Please enter your sug­ges­tion for inclu­sion in Notes From The Net. Include the date of the post, the name of the per­son who start­ed the dis­cus­sion, names of those who pro­vide the best respons­es. It is impor­tant that you include the NAME of the Face­book group or mail list­serv.. Your email address will only be used to clar­i­fy your sug­ges­tion, if need­ed. Thanks for your suggestion.
Categories How-To, Opinion
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