Instructor Assisted Carvings
The carvings on this page were created with instruction from established carvers. I am striving to master the realistic details of carving the human bust and have been seeking out instructors who can lead me. The carvings below are my work but not my design. I could not have created them without the instructor's direction. I have learned great respect for the tradition of learning under the guidance of masters.
"Jeremiah"
Jeremiah was carved from a roughout by Gerald Copeland at the Rendezvous in Branson, MO. Gerald is a carpenter by trade and an accomplished wood sculptor on the side. |
"The Builder"
The builder is also by Gerald Copeland. He emphasized the importance of including the smallest details...because they are there. Gerald has won Best of Show at the International Woodcarvers Congress in the past. I am hopeful of carving with him again.
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"Lady"
The Lady I carved in Gerald's studio at his home in Holton, KS. Another carver from Florida took instruction as well. This carving was Gerald's first young lady. He said it was a challenge to create the smooth beautiful face as opposed to the wrinkles and lines of a weathered face like Jeremiah or The Builder. |
Native American II
I carved this with Chris Howard, a Native American himself who specializes in realistic faces. I worked with Chris at the International Woodcarvers Congress in the Quad Cities. This piece is actually two pieces of Butternut that he laminated. It takes close inspection to find the seam. |
Native American I
This was also with Chris Howard and was my first effort at carving a realistic face. This was also my first time carving Catalpa wood. The grain lines are much harder giving the blade a start and stop feeling as cuts are made. Chris taught a technique of burning the hair and brushing the charred elements off to get the darker look. I learned recently that this an old Japanese technique for wood finishing called shou-sugi-ban. |
St. Nicholas
Phil and Vicki Bishop are masters at caricature carving. When I started carving I was attracted to the detail they put into their carvings. They emphasized that even though the caricature has body parts out of sync with their size, the proportions should remain accurate...The hands and face are over sized for Santa's body but are in correct proportion to each other.
Butternut Horse This butternut horse was started under the direction of Fred Cogelow in 2010. It sat on my work bench until 2014 before I was able to finish it. If you are unfamiliar with Fred please Google his name to see his very impressive works.
Madonna
This is a clay sculpture I did in 2014 under the instruction of Janet Cordell. Janet is very skilled in carving the female face. The lack of facial hair and deep weathered wrinkles that often appear in men's faces makes the young female face more of a challenge. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to learn from Janet. The idea of sculpting in clay is to work out the design so I have an object to refer to when transferring it to wood. When I finally get that done you will see it in the Original Carvings section...but not yet.
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Cowhand
This is another carving taught by the Bishops. I learned a great deal from them about how to paint with diluted acrylics so the grain remains visible. They also taught me the very detailed approach to painting eyes that I use on my Santa eyes. I have carved with the Bishop's at the Congress and at the Woodcraft Shop in Bettendorf, IA. We are blessed in the Quad Cities area to have this wonderful store for easy access to carving supplies and the many workshops with the masters of the art that the owners, Larry and Carol Yudis, can attract. 
Bronze Madonna
Yeah, I know this is not a woodcarving of my Madonna. To use the clay sculpture featured just to the left as a "go by" I would have used calipers to transfer accurate measurements. Since the clay I never totally dries, the caliper points would have riddled the Madonna with pin prick holes. In 2016, I met an artist who worked in bronze and actually worked at Max-Cast, a forge in Kalona, IA. The original thought was to have a resin bust cast made from the clay which would be a hard surface to work from. We finally decided to have three bronze busts made: one for me, one for my son and one for my daughter. I have started the basswood bust, but everyday carving demands have kept me from finishing. Stay tuned.
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Sea Captain
The Sea Captain is the design of Gerald Sears. I carved him at the Rendezvous in Branson. Although this is considered a caricature, I consider it my introduction to the human bust and realistic details. Gerald has a technique for carving eyes that clarified for me all the things other carvers were trying to teach me but I was too dense or too overwhelmed to grasp. It all made sense once Gerald taught me his way. I use my own variation of his technique on my Santa's.
Young Lady
This is a unfinished carving I did with Janet Cordell at the 2015 Burke's carving event at Doane College in Crete, NB. Like last year, I wanted to learn more about the female face. This year I carved from a roughout of one of Janet's designs. I will replace this picture with the completed version later.
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