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April 4, 2024
CALCARVER MARCH 2024
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April 4, 2024
CALCARVER MARCH 2024
CALCARVER MARCH 2024
Mary-Leigh Doyle on April 4, 2024 at 5:30 am
Ted W is one of our well seasoned carvers with loads of experience carving birds gave us a wonderful hands on lesson on making birds feet.
Dave B impressed us with his thrift store find that allows for hands free carving.
Featured Carvings and Meet the Members:
A Warm Welcome to Another New Member!
Connie G is an accomplished artist, painting and sculpting in mixed media. She is joining us to hone her wood carving skills and to make the use of wood a larger part of her practice. These pieces are glass and concrete.
Steve E is proud and rightfully so to show us the progress and a wonderful resource for his first walking stick. Nice work!
Chad has studied with Rick Wolcott, a local legend and west coast style carver. Chad has not only created these beautiful carvings but has also made his own traditional tools under Rick’s watchful eye.
Triumphant Return:
Ken K made his way in to the February 20th meeting, crutches and all, to immediately jump in to continue his contribution to the Gnome Home project. His bell tower, in progress, will be fully functional.
Lori F took “a month off” and returned with a small army of carvings.
Reminder: UPCOMING EVENT AND OPPORTUNITY
We have an offer to participate at the Drumheller chain saw carving event on the May long weekend with a selling table. It would not be just carvings. It is also for wood items you make such as burnings or wood turnings etc. Cost of table for us is $50.00 for the 3 day event. We would split the cost between people selling their items. Please let me know if you are interested in participating in this. Also if you have made carvings from the Drumheller bark I handed out or other bark carvings please bring them to the club so they can be photographed or send pictures to Mary-Leigh as the people organizing the event in Drumheller would like to see them.
KEEP YOUR TOOLS AND YOUR MIND SHARP
SOMETHING OF INTEREST: MARK HENRY DOLITTLE: TURNED AND CARVED
MARK DOOLITTLE, biologist turned wood turning and carving artist, brings elegance and organic beauty to every masterpiece he creates. His love of intricate, microscopic and even architectural elements of nature combined with the turned symmetrical perfection of a glorious piece of wood are the signature of his work. The exotic hardwoods and burls he seeks out from around the world that are his artistic inspiration, as he reflects their natural grains in his hand carving. His turning is classical and allows the natural beauty of these precious woods to speak for itself.
Doolittle proudly states, “All of my work is done by hand, and I never use lasers or CNC machinery.”
Before he began carving in wood his wife Kathy encouraged him to carve gourds. Kathy herself had developed a unique and beautiful approach to embellishing the surface of gourds with her handmade paper. Afterward she then turned to woodburning giving her gourds a stained glass-like appearance. Before long they began to start a collaborate with gourds featuring her paper appliqué style with his carving. Occasionally, they introduce carved wood, copper and bead elements as well creating gallery worthy and collectable vessels .
Mark also collaborates with the very talented jeweller, Michele Foster. Each jewelry piece is easily removable from the wood sculpture, so that it can be worn and then replaced as desired. See below.
Each of us was given a piece of household grade copper electrical wire 9-12 inches long. Ted then had us strip the insolation off of the wire using a knife or wire strippers.
Focus, focus. Next the group twisted and bent the wire to create a leg, a back toe and ultimately made it roughly resemble a webbed duck foot.
Then the real fun began. We lit the torches and played with fire, soldering the single joint created by the careful tight bending of the wire. We heated the wire only, then touching the lead solder to the hot wire the lead melted and was allowed to drip and run to fill in the leg.
The final step involved clipping the wire and loops and shaping them to form toes and claws.
By the end of the night many of us had perfect birds feet
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Another beautiful love spoon by Genevieve Huard
Calcarver Family Album: A Random Sampling of Life in the Calgary Carver’s Club
Send me your news and your photos!
With your help the newsletter will only get better!
Special thanks this month to Ted W for the wonderful lesson and article for the newsletter! Contact me here!
Mary-Leigh D.
CALCARVER MARCH 2024
Mary-Leigh Doyle on April 4, 2024 at 5:30 amTed W is one of our well seasoned carvers with loads of experience carving birds gave us a wonderful hands on lesson on making birds feet.
Dave B impressed us with his thrift store find that allows for hands free carving.
Featured Carvings and Meet the Members:
A Warm Welcome to Another New Member!
Connie G is an accomplished artist, painting and sculpting in mixed media. She is joining us to hone her wood carving skills and to make the use of wood a larger part of her practice. These pieces are glass and concrete.
Steve E is proud and rightfully so to show us the progress and a wonderful resource for his first walking stick. Nice work!
Chad has studied with Rick Wolcott, a local legend and west coast style carver. Chad has not only created these beautiful carvings but has also made his own traditional tools under Rick’s watchful eye.
Triumphant Return:
Ken K made his way in to the February 20th meeting, crutches and all, to immediately jump in to continue his contribution to the Gnome Home project. His bell tower, in progress, will be fully functional.
Lori F took “a month off” and returned with a small army of carvings.
Reminder: UPCOMING EVENT AND OPPORTUNITY
We have an offer to participate at the Drumheller chain saw carving event on the May long weekend with a selling table. It would not be just carvings. It is also for wood items you make such as burnings or wood turnings etc. Cost of table for us is $50.00 for the 3 day event. We would split the cost between people selling their items. Please let me know if you are interested in participating in this. Also if you have made carvings from the Drumheller bark I handed out or other bark carvings please bring them to the club so they can be photographed or send pictures to Mary-Leigh as the people organizing the event in Drumheller would like to see them.
KEEP YOUR TOOLS AND YOUR MIND SHARP
SOMETHING OF INTEREST: MARK HENRY DOLITTLE: TURNED AND CARVED
MARK DOOLITTLE, biologist turned wood turning and carving artist, brings elegance and organic beauty to every masterpiece he creates. His love of intricate, microscopic and even architectural elements of nature combined with the turned symmetrical perfection of a glorious piece of wood are the signature of his work. The exotic hardwoods and burls he seeks out from around the world that are his artistic inspiration, as he reflects their natural grains in his hand carving. His turning is classical and allows the natural beauty of these precious woods to speak for itself.
Doolittle proudly states, “All of my work is done by hand, and I never use lasers or CNC machinery.”
Before he began carving in wood his wife Kathy encouraged him to carve gourds. Kathy herself had developed a unique and beautiful approach to embellishing the surface of gourds with her handmade paper. Afterward she then turned to woodburning giving her gourds a stained glass-like appearance. Before long they began to start a collaborate with gourds featuring her paper appliqué style with his carving. Occasionally, they introduce carved wood, copper and bead elements as well creating gallery worthy and collectable vessels .
Mark also collaborates with the very talented jeweller, Michele Foster. Each jewelry piece is easily removable from the wood sculpture, so that it can be worn and then replaced as desired. See below.
Each of us was given a piece of household grade copper electrical wire 9-12 inches long. Ted then had us strip the insolation off of the wire using a knife or wire strippers.
Focus, focus. Next the group twisted and bent the wire to create a leg, a back toe and ultimately made it roughly resemble a webbed duck foot.
Then the real fun began. We lit the torches and played with fire, soldering the single joint created by the careful tight bending of the wire. We heated the wire only, then touching the lead solder to the hot wire the lead melted and was allowed to drip and run to fill in the leg.
The final step involved clipping the wire and loops and shaping them to form toes and claws.
By the end of the night many of us had perfect birds feet
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Another beautiful love spoon by Genevieve Huard
Calcarver Family Album: A Random Sampling of Life in the Calgary Carver’s Club
Send me your news and your photos!
With your help the newsletter will only get better!
Special thanks this month to Ted W for the wonderful lesson and article for the newsletter! Contact me here!
Mary-Leigh D.
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