Carving in Lancaster County, Pa.

Our hometown club, the Lancaster County Wood Carvers, recently held their annual show. This year, we hosted the first ever WCZ/Fox Chapel Spit N Whittle. (It’s just an expression, spitting was highly discouraged.) Show attendees were encouraged to stop by, sit a spell, and make some wood chips of their own. Bob Duncan, WCZ’s technical editor, held down the fort on Saturday while Nick Sciortino shared chip carving tips, Jack Kochan demonstrated power carving techniques, and Pete LeClair taught caricature carving basics.

On Sunday, I completed my very first relief carving under the watchful eye of Herlene Iobst, tried my hand at tramp-art carving with Jim Sebring, and carved a caricature bear with Jan Oegema. The event was a huge success and I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the carvers who donated their time, and to Andy DiPace and the rest of the club members for all of their help. WCI and Fox Chapel will be hosting a similar event at the Artistry in Wood show in Dayton, Ohio on Nov. 14 and 15. We hope you’ll come out and join the fun!

Immediately following the show, the Lancaster County Wood Carvers arranged a variety of seminars. The seminars were held in an enclosed building nestled in a beautiful wooded park just south of Lancaster city. I was fortunate to be enrolled in Jan Oegema’s class. I warned Jan up front that I have very limited carving skills, but he assured me I would complete a garden chair before the class was over. Jan’s article on carving garden chairs ran in WCI Spring 2007 (Issue #38). I chose Lora Irish’s pattern from the Fox Chapel book Relief Carving Wood Spirits. With lots of help from Jan, I took chisel to wood and brought my wood spirit to life. I had never carved with a mallet before and I really enjoyed it. However, the students in the other classes weren’t so fond of our chisel and mallet work. They promptly hung a sign over our heads that read, “Quiet while men are working!”

Fellow classmate Nick Sciortino kept us laughing (and groaning) with jokes, and I’m pretty sure he would frequently bang his mallet on surfaces he wasn’t carving just to make noise. Each student (even me) left with a completed garden chair and I couldn’t be more pleased— with my new chair and with the great experience!