Woodcarvers share skills, tales

By Becky Brooks

Man­ag­ing Editor

news@gazettepublishingco.com

For local res­i­dent Jim Andrews, his wood­carv­ings are just one form of art that he can share with others.

At 20th Annual Wood­carvers Show at the Belle­vue VFW on Sat­ur­day, Andrews said he had been com­ing to the show ever since he took up wood­carv­ing six years ago.

He said he took up wood­carv­ing from his brother. “The next year after I started, he died,” Andrews said.

For the local man known for his oils and water­col­ors, he carves ani­mals from wood.

“What­ever pops into my head,” he admitted.

The man with var­i­ous art abil­i­ties only cre­ates six or seven wood­carv­ings a year, he said.

Still, it only takes him a cou­ple weeks to carve some­thing as ornate as a sow with piglets, which he had on dis­play at the show. Another carv­ing of a minia­ture buck jump­ing also took him a few weeks, he added.

The show held annu­ally by the Wood­carvers Den in Belle­vue draws var­ied carvers of all abil­i­ties. Besides the near 70 artists with dis­plays, Juanita Clark, one of the orga­niz­ers, said more than 1,000 peo­ple vis­ited the show over the weekend.

“We had a full house both days,” Clark commented.

While Andrews was sell­ing some of his works, 18-year wood­carver Roger Carter of Clyde was not at the show to sell any­thing this year.

“These two masks and this walk­ing stick, I did for the Can­cer Soci­ety in Tif­fin,” he pointed out while sit­ting at his table in the back of the VFW Hall. Carter also had a vari­ety of Santa Claus carv­ings on display.

“I do like San­tas,” he admit­ted. Some of his pieces were also very per­sonal, such as a wood relief of a draw­ing made by his grand­daugh­ter. That draw­ing won a con­test through Green Springs Ele­men­tary School, he said.

Carter said he has par­tic­i­pated in the Belle­vue show about 15 times, and has sold carv­ings such as Welsh spoons in the past.

The long-time carver com­mented that he mainly gives his items away.

“My wife keeps most of it and my daugh­ters,” he pointed out.

Also at the show Sat­ur­day was Gary Adams of Images in Wood in Belle­vue. He spe­cial­izes in sil­hou­ettes cut with a scroll saw, adhered to a black back­ground and framed. He admit­ted he brought about 45 works to sell at the show.

“They are keep­ing us pretty busy,” he said in the first hours Sat­ur­day. Adams said he works with very thin ply­wood and cuts sev­eral of the same pat­tern at one time. But he said he can cre­ate sil­hou­ettes from per­sonal pic­tures and designs as well.

“I’ve been doing this about 10 years,” he com­mented as cus­tomers walked up and down his table. “This is the sec­ond year I’ve been out here.”

He com­mented the Belle­vue show is the biggest event he attends.

His sil­hou­ettes range from TV char­ac­ters, mil­i­tary, West­ern icons to motorcycles.

One long-time sup­porter of the show, Walt Nichols, of New Haven, came back on Sat­ur­day, although he did not have a table of his own.

Nichols was talk­ing with peo­ple in the crowd and had one or two of his carv­ings on dis­play at a friend’s table. Nichols said his health had kept him from carv­ing as much as he had in the past.

“Canes used to be my big thing,” he said. Walk­ing through the crowd car­ry­ing one of his detailed ani­mal char­ac­ter canes, Nichols appeared to be wear­ing a leather cap — it turned tuned out to be carved wood. “This is the first year I missed,” he said about not being in the show.

Nichols, who has par­tic­i­pated in many juried shows, said he has enjoyed the Belle­vue show. “Every­body is on the same level, because there is no competition.”

Sit­ting behind one of the dis­play tables was Mike Otte, who was carv­ing a spoon. He quickly pointed out that he was just a begin­ner and it was his wife, Sheri of Green­wich, who the seri­ous carver. Her busi­ness is called Chappy’s Chop­pings Wood Carving.

“I started carv­ing in 2000 at Wood­Carvers Den,” Sheri Otte said. “I love fish.”

She also carves por­traits into wood from photographs.

Otte com­mented that any­one who is seri­ous about carv­ing needs to take classes. “Tak­ing classes is the best thing you can do,” she stressed. “You learn from every­body else.”

Juanita Clark, whose hus­band Al runs Wood­carvers Den, was very please with the show, she said Monday.

“It was prob­a­bly one of the best shows we had.”

To pay for the annual show, which has free admis­sion, the orga­niz­ers raf­fled off two large wood­carv­ings. This year the win­ners of those carv­ings were Keith McNutt of Cal­i­for­nia and Larry Black of Belle­vue, she said.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Feb 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.