[Lightningbolt]

Colin,

You raise some interesting points. Mostly I'd have to say that it's fortunate, for you as the teacher and they as students, that everyone is part of the local carving club so there can be plenty of follow-through and ongoing feedback. Fortunate for me, my dad got me started carving at about 12 years old and I've been at it ever since... which brings me to this:

"I think a persons age has a lot to do with that." Ky_Whittler

While this isn't always the problem I do agree that it can play a significant role and should be something to consider as the teacher. I'm also a Red Cross WSI Instructor and I'm occasionally called on by the local community to teach how to swim classes. Well, let me tell you... my swimming classes made up of the elder generation are the most difficult to teach and this fact is also backed up by the American Red Cross. This was also one of the biggest surprises to me when I taught my first senior citizens class back in the mid 1990's. Here you have these highly accomplished folks who are highly coordinated with most other motor skills... but when they're in the water they are totally clueless and probably need more help, assistance, encouragement, and practice than does an infant or toddler learning to swim.

I can only assume that this could also apply to learning to carve? As previously mentioned I did pick up a knife at an early age so I have a lot of life experience to recall, reflect, and to rebound upon. However, when I branch-off (enjoy the pun!) to learn a new realm of carving I still go through a learning curve until I master the new skill. For instance, when I decided to learn how to carve woodspirit faces I always tell people that it took me over 30 sticks before I came up with something that I was satisfied with. And as Susan and Hi_Ho just said, a person has got to want to before they're going to. My senior swimmers are certainly capable of learning to swim for the first time at age 60-something but it is also a well known fact that they are greatly handicapped in doing so since they never learned to swim as a child. It is interesting that perhaps this could also apply to carving?

"I sat with a member of my club to learn how to carve my first gnome. Actually my first in-the-round anything. He got me started and did one side of the face and the rest was up to me." Bill K.

Amazing what a small world it is! Back in the 1980's I recall attending the carving classes offered by our alternative school at the annual national conference. The instructor also gave each of us the exact same gnome rough-out as in your picture! Well, I also had the same response as you and eventhough I could easily finish it up today, that same gnome still sits in my shop today unfinished. Glad to see you finished yours!

Anyhow, it is my opinion that the instructor had chosen a much too advanced in-the-round project for a target class of mostly beginners. Funny how time changes things because since the mid-1990's it is ME who is now the teacher of that same class at the national conferences! Gosh darn... Who'd have ever thought that!?! I consider my carving class with these adults as highly successful but I also approach it as a beginner class. I provide plenty of visual aids which show the project in various stages of carving from the beginning to the completion. In a class of ten it's nice to have about two of these "models" of the project to pass around for folks to compare, internalize, and to see what they need to do if I can't immediately get with them on a one-to-one basis. These learning models also work good with teaching kids.

I have attached one such model that I made several years ago to use while teaching woodspirit carving classes and it includes the various stages of carving a simple generic woodspirit. Granted, it is not "exactly" the way that I carve them, but I tried to make the model as simple as possible with the beginner woodspirit carver in mind. Personally, I am a visual learner so I know the value of such an aid while teaching those who also learn like me. If a picture is worth a thousand words then I can't empasize enough how powerful a tool in teaching can be had by providing a model at the various stages of carving of whatever the project might be. Just my itty-bitty opinion.
Anyhow, hope there's something here that you can pick from. Thanks for ticklin' my brain this morning!

[Ky_Whittler]

No Colin, you didn't fail, not by a long shot. What the eleven yr old lacks is fear of failure. By 30 this fear is well entrenched in all of us. That is why I like spoons and knives for beginers. They get to feel the wood slowly a bite at a time. They are creating a simple yet basic tool with a simple and basic tool. Nothing to cloud the mind.

I have to agree that bark is something else to carve. That brittle property can make it discouraging when you get to the eyes especially. But the softness of bark is what makes it so fun to carve.These people are carvers already and they may or may not understand the material yet. Give them time and plenty of it to play with and all of you will be surprised at what becomes of it.

I've been going to Susan's site for many years now for inspiration when I get stuck with something. While I may not follow her tutorials to the letter they give me ideas I can incorporate with my way of doing things.It helped me to break the wood spirit down to basic cuts to start them.Before I was floundering around trying to see the whole face at once. Maybe some of your students are trying to see the whole face? Whittler

[Irish]

Colin, Your posting has caused quite a discussion this afternoon on my front porch. I've spent most of the day in the garden leaving Mike to hold down the websites but we had a chance a while ago to sit on the front porch and talk about your class and your experience. It was a fun discussion, so !

Anyway, one of Mike's points was that at least you get to see what your students carved during class and will have a chance in the weeks ahead to help them begin to fine tune the project. We don't get that! Since we went on the web I no longer teach beyond the websites. Walking the tables has had to be let go and I do miss it. For us it's very nice comments as Ky_Whittler's that lets us know that anyone even reads them!

We get an occassional e-mail with photos and a lot more without photos. But around the studio we wait each quarter for "one of those Other" magazines to come in .... (whispers softly - Chip Chats). Both of us hover over the pages and are just thrilled when we discover one of our patterns or one of our tutorials finished by a new carver. This month's delight was our little Canoeing Bear going over the Falls ... I smiled ear to ear.

So I want you to know I believe that I am just a touch envious this evening and wishing my old ankles would support one more trip around the table, I think I miss it more than I realized.

Susan

PS - It's ashame that WCI doesn't have a Reader's Gallery each month where their subscribers could send in photos of their finished samples made from the previous month's issues. HINT! HINT!

[Kenny_S]

My 2 Abe Linclons worth is, everyone has creative abilities! It just has to be released somehow. Creative Abilities doesn't have to be carving or drawing or singing, writing lyrics to songs or books, or scrapbooking or what have you. My father, did not have any artist abilities but boy could he tell a story and at runions or family gatherings, he could tell you storys of year gone by or his indian/cowboy legends which he was noted for in this part of the country.

Yes, I believe everyone has creative abilities that needs to be released.