starting a new club

[bigarm]

I am intersted in starting a carving club at a youth center in town here. I need to find a project that the kids can carve in one evening or may a weekend. I was thinking of maybe a boot. These kids will not have any tools at all. Thought maybe just using a Xacto knife. If I can get some ideas would be helpful. I may have to supply the knives myself. Have to convince the board of directors that this would be a good idea. Give the kids something to do besides electronic games. NEED ideas and what to do about knife problem.

[bill#1]

carving soap with plastic knives might be a good start...make them "see" whats in the block of soap before they carve it get their imagination to work..or make a miniature chain saw that would fit in a bar of dove.......just my 2cents..bill#1

[Eddy-Smiles]

Bigarm... If I was in your shoes I'd do a search on this forum for pass threads on starting new clubs and the pro's and cons and liabilities involved. There have been quite a few. We have a number of members who work with kids who have given some great input.

[Bartster]

bigarm,


the soap is a good choice, i have also seen some things about sandpaper carving, nothing sharp there just sandpaper, and maybe some dust masks.

bart

[againstthegrain]

I think the plastic knife and soap is a better idea for kids. I would think that if you used an Xacto knife, you would also have to supply them with safety items, such as gloves. Then you begin to run into big expenses, depending on how many you are going to teach.

Just my humble opinion....

[Preacher2nc]

I don't remember what issue of WCI it was in, but there was great article about using sweet potatoes to teach carving. I bought some and they were alot of fun to carve. The great thing, is that they are not expensive and you can use a variety of carving tools depending on the age of the student. (i.e. paring knives, butter knives, pumkin carving tools, or even sharpened popsicle sticks. I have included a photo of one of my sweet potatoe carvings. Take a look and I hope it helps. The great thing about sweet potatoes is that they are very much like carving wood, just not as hard material.

[hruukki]

Bigarm - why not have them model things out of clay? I'm sure they will benefit as much if not more from that, since they can work much quicker to achieve forms - no need to spend time learning any technique. That will come later, one by one, in your tuition or someone else's. I think the main thing is to give them a good feeling about making art, and here you would run the least risk of frustration. It's altogether free of danger. A mess is the only flipside of it.

Later, when the kids are older - and you see which of them have interest and aptitude - you could introduce carving tools to them, a few kids at a time. Besides, since model making is almost essential to any complicated carving, you would be giving them very useful experience for that too.

Henri

[vacation212]

WinkPlastic knives and ivory soap for starters.

[Jodyb]

I taught our Cub Scouts last year using parraffin wax and plastic knife. Word of advice, double check with the facility to make sure knives are allowed in the building. We meet in a school so we could not bring a regular knife into the building. My son also did the sweet potato carving this weekend at home with his xacto and enjoyed that project.

[Donna_T]

Hello,
Ditto on looking up the link that's been posted here before on starting a club.

As for starting kids, I found that Ivory soap worked best--some of the other soaps crumbled instead of sliced when we tried to carve them. The times I've done this project, I just used heavy plastic knives and a bar of soap. I also learned to put down a plastic drop cloth on the floor, and unprinted newsprint on the table. Sure made clean up easier.

Ever been to a dance where they put soap flakes on the floor? (Now I'm showing my age--making dance floors slick!!) That's what happens when a lot of soap chips and shavings are on the floor, then swept up. Slick Floor!

When I did the project the last time with kids, their teacher asked each of them to bring a bar of Ivory soap. I provided the plastic knives. I still brought several bars with me because there's always a few who can't afford it or their parents forgot to get it for them.

I definitely like the sweet potato idea. They are fun to carve and they dry into funky shapes and looks.

Donna T

Good luck.