August 2008 Newsletter
Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 6 PM Volume 17
Issue 7
This is the Picnic Meeting!
President’s Corner
Hi all -
I look at the carving club year as two halves with a break in between. The
first half starts in January with the club banquet and the show in April. We
then take a recess in July and have the picnic in August.
Darrell has some interesting demonstrations in mind for the second half
beginning in September which I look forward to, and we'll finish with the
holiday social. If anyone has a technique they've learned at a class over the
summer, please mention it to Darrell and he'll schedule you for a demo.
Maybe you've seen a carver of interest at an art or craft fair that we could
bring in. Mention it to me or a board member and we'll see what we can do
to get them here. We're always looking for ideas.
See you at the picnic!
Neil
Picnic's Featured Guest:
Member's News
Once again Dick Jelovnik was featured in the Sheboygan Press Weekend
July 10th edition regarding his great talent in growing tomatoes. Among the
many growing tips is the fact that with all those tomatoes he “doesn't even
make salsa”! I wonder if there are some special ways to carve a tomato. Way
to go, Dick!
We asked Darrell Abston to share with us his experience at a carving
seminar he participated in this June. It follows:
On Monday June 16th through Friday the 20th I had the good fortune to
attend the Creative Carving Seminar held in Evart, Michigan with three others
from the area. On Sunday afternoon we traveled to Manitowoc and loaded up
on the ferry, The SS Badger, for a four hour cruise to Ludington. It was a 65
mile drive from Ludington to Evart.
We stayed at a Super 8 Motel about 2 blocks from the fairgrounds even
though camping was available on the fairgrounds for about 1/4 of the room
fee. Many of the campers had RV’s or pop up campers while all I had in that
area was a small tent .So I decided that a motel bed was better for my back
than my cot.
The classes offered were caricature, Indian bust, walking sticks, wildlife
(carving, woodburning and painting a rabbit or squirrel), relief carving,
woodburning, and several power carving classes. There were over 125
registered carvers present, two different tool vendors, a tee shirt shop (look
to some of the upcoming raffle items), and John Dunkle of Dunkle Knives
who is a talented knife maker with a wealth of knowledge on keeping a
sharp edge. Several of us purchased some of his knives. After all, what is a
carving seminar without new toys/tools?
All four of us had registered with the caricature carving session which
consisted of 3 days with Floyd Radhigan and two with Gerald Sears. There
was a second session that had 3 days with Gerald and two with Floyd.
Floyd's class consisted of choosing a rough out from his large selection and
begin to carve on it. He calls each student up for a 5 minute session and
helps them carve certain features. He then lets them do the other half of
what he carved (the other eye, ear, hand) and outlines what he would like
done by the next time he sees them. He completes a rotation with each
student, calls a break of 10 minutes and starts the cycle over again.
In the three days I carved 2 items with Floyd; one, an elf innkeeper with a
large knife behind his back. (If you saw Pam in our featured carvers booth
this year she had the exact same carving but I think hers was better, and a
small Viking with a double bladed axe between his feet.
The Viking carving is now living in Slovakia where our past foreign
exchange student is enjoying it. He saw it on his recent visit and I foolishly
asked him what he would like to take back as a gift and he picked my
Viking.
I carved two Santas with Gerald in the two days I was in his class. Gerald’
s approach is similar to Floyd's, only on his first session he goes through
very quickly to get everyone carving then comes back for 7 minute sessions.
Gerald has an unbelievable selection of cowboys that he offers as rough
outs and his passion is carving those cowboys. He does lots of research on
them and makes his carving as realistic as he can. Ask me about “rawls”
when you see me at the picnic.
Both Floyd and Gerald are members of the CCA and their carvings reflect
their passion and expertise in the art of carving. Both are very good teachers
and I would take a class with either one again. One very nice person that I
also have to mention is Barb, Gerald’s wife. She paints all of his carvings
and whenever she was asked, “How did you do this?” she would just smile
and say that this is Gerald’s carving class not her painting class and she
was not going to say anything.
On Wednesday night there was a trade blanket that Floyd set up. Basically
everyone sits around in a circle and if you have something to trade you put it
on the blanket. Then people around the circle will put in items that they will
trade you for your item. At the end you can either select what one person put
in and the trade is complete or you can pull your item off the blanket and no
trade is made. It was interesting. I did not bring anything to trade but while
talking to Floyd he said he would give me any one of his carvings if I would
get one of the 3 women I was traveling with on the blanket. No such luck. I
really missed out on a cool carving of a pirate sitting on a couple of rum
barrels.
Thursday night we attended Karaoke Night at a local establishment that
we thought was supposed to start at 8:30. Instead, 9:30 was the starting
time. We were all very tired so we went back to the motel for some much
needed rest. Good decision on our part because a fellow carver at our table
said she left the gathering about 4:30am and another instructor was seen
making his way back about 6:30am. A good time apparently, but we slept
through it all.
On Friday there was a raffle where lots of cool things were won. Pam won
a book so our small group was not skunked. One guy won a couple of nice
items. Maybe he is related to Mary Noordyk. We left right after the raffle for
Ludington and the ferry. We got back to Manitowoc a little after 11:00pm and
home around midnight. I enjoyed myself a lot and found out that carving for
8 hours a day is almost like work. Maybe I will have to rethink my retirement
strategy.
Upcoming Events
Blackhawk Carvers Show, August 16th. Rockford, Ill. Contact Bob at 815-
963-1326.
Lake Country Carver’s will have a show in conjunction with the Sussex
Antique Power Show on August 23rd & 24th. This will be a show and sale
only, no competition.
Rock River Valley Carvers Show September 20th. Janesville, WI. Contact
Donna at 608-363-0554.
Capital Area Carvers 20TH Annual Show. Sunday, October 26th at the
Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. Contact Manny Voeltz at 608-241-
1188 or Patti Landmann at 920-992-5226.
Issue 7
This is the Picnic Meeting!
President’s Corner
Hi all -
I look at the carving club year as two halves with a break in between. The
first half starts in January with the club banquet and the show in April. We
then take a recess in July and have the picnic in August.
Darrell has some interesting demonstrations in mind for the second half
beginning in September which I look forward to, and we'll finish with the
holiday social. If anyone has a technique they've learned at a class over the
summer, please mention it to Darrell and he'll schedule you for a demo.
Maybe you've seen a carver of interest at an art or craft fair that we could
bring in. Mention it to me or a board member and we'll see what we can do
to get them here. We're always looking for ideas.
See you at the picnic!
Neil
Picnic's Featured Guest:
Member's News
Once again Dick Jelovnik was featured in the Sheboygan Press Weekend
July 10th edition regarding his great talent in growing tomatoes. Among the
many growing tips is the fact that with all those tomatoes he “doesn't even
make salsa”! I wonder if there are some special ways to carve a tomato. Way
to go, Dick!
We asked Darrell Abston to share with us his experience at a carving
seminar he participated in this June. It follows:
On Monday June 16th through Friday the 20th I had the good fortune to
attend the Creative Carving Seminar held in Evart, Michigan with three others
from the area. On Sunday afternoon we traveled to Manitowoc and loaded up
on the ferry, The SS Badger, for a four hour cruise to Ludington. It was a 65
mile drive from Ludington to Evart.
We stayed at a Super 8 Motel about 2 blocks from the fairgrounds even
though camping was available on the fairgrounds for about 1/4 of the room
fee. Many of the campers had RV’s or pop up campers while all I had in that
area was a small tent .So I decided that a motel bed was better for my back
than my cot.
The classes offered were caricature, Indian bust, walking sticks, wildlife
(carving, woodburning and painting a rabbit or squirrel), relief carving,
woodburning, and several power carving classes. There were over 125
registered carvers present, two different tool vendors, a tee shirt shop (look
to some of the upcoming raffle items), and John Dunkle of Dunkle Knives
who is a talented knife maker with a wealth of knowledge on keeping a
sharp edge. Several of us purchased some of his knives. After all, what is a
carving seminar without new toys/tools?
All four of us had registered with the caricature carving session which
consisted of 3 days with Floyd Radhigan and two with Gerald Sears. There
was a second session that had 3 days with Gerald and two with Floyd.
Floyd's class consisted of choosing a rough out from his large selection and
begin to carve on it. He calls each student up for a 5 minute session and
helps them carve certain features. He then lets them do the other half of
what he carved (the other eye, ear, hand) and outlines what he would like
done by the next time he sees them. He completes a rotation with each
student, calls a break of 10 minutes and starts the cycle over again.
In the three days I carved 2 items with Floyd; one, an elf innkeeper with a
large knife behind his back. (If you saw Pam in our featured carvers booth
this year she had the exact same carving but I think hers was better, and a
small Viking with a double bladed axe between his feet.
The Viking carving is now living in Slovakia where our past foreign
exchange student is enjoying it. He saw it on his recent visit and I foolishly
asked him what he would like to take back as a gift and he picked my
Viking.
I carved two Santas with Gerald in the two days I was in his class. Gerald’
s approach is similar to Floyd's, only on his first session he goes through
very quickly to get everyone carving then comes back for 7 minute sessions.
Gerald has an unbelievable selection of cowboys that he offers as rough
outs and his passion is carving those cowboys. He does lots of research on
them and makes his carving as realistic as he can. Ask me about “rawls”
when you see me at the picnic.
Both Floyd and Gerald are members of the CCA and their carvings reflect
their passion and expertise in the art of carving. Both are very good teachers
and I would take a class with either one again. One very nice person that I
also have to mention is Barb, Gerald’s wife. She paints all of his carvings
and whenever she was asked, “How did you do this?” she would just smile
and say that this is Gerald’s carving class not her painting class and she
was not going to say anything.
On Wednesday night there was a trade blanket that Floyd set up. Basically
everyone sits around in a circle and if you have something to trade you put it
on the blanket. Then people around the circle will put in items that they will
trade you for your item. At the end you can either select what one person put
in and the trade is complete or you can pull your item off the blanket and no
trade is made. It was interesting. I did not bring anything to trade but while
talking to Floyd he said he would give me any one of his carvings if I would
get one of the 3 women I was traveling with on the blanket. No such luck. I
really missed out on a cool carving of a pirate sitting on a couple of rum
barrels.
Thursday night we attended Karaoke Night at a local establishment that
we thought was supposed to start at 8:30. Instead, 9:30 was the starting
time. We were all very tired so we went back to the motel for some much
needed rest. Good decision on our part because a fellow carver at our table
said she left the gathering about 4:30am and another instructor was seen
making his way back about 6:30am. A good time apparently, but we slept
through it all.
On Friday there was a raffle where lots of cool things were won. Pam won
a book so our small group was not skunked. One guy won a couple of nice
items. Maybe he is related to Mary Noordyk. We left right after the raffle for
Ludington and the ferry. We got back to Manitowoc a little after 11:00pm and
home around midnight. I enjoyed myself a lot and found out that carving for
8 hours a day is almost like work. Maybe I will have to rethink my retirement
strategy.
Upcoming Events
Blackhawk Carvers Show, August 16th. Rockford, Ill. Contact Bob at 815-
963-1326.
Lake Country Carver’s will have a show in conjunction with the Sussex
Antique Power Show on August 23rd & 24th. This will be a show and sale
only, no competition.
Rock River Valley Carvers Show September 20th. Janesville, WI. Contact
Donna at 608-363-0554.
Capital Area Carvers 20TH Annual Show. Sunday, October 26th at the
Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. Contact Manny Voeltz at 608-241-
1188 or Patti Landmann at 920-992-5226.
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