Starting a local carving group

[Dr. Joe]

After sitting on the sidelines for too long (lurking), perhaps you can help me directly with some suggestions. I've visited several different carving, some great (eg, Liepers Fork Carving Club in TN and Grapevine Carvers in TX) and some not so great. I'm trying to start/nurture a group in Nacogdoches, TX. Give me your suggestions for developing a strong, vibrant group. You know, the kind we all want to learn with.

Thanks in advance. I promise to try my best to benefit from your thoughts.

Joe Richardson

[gene-messer]

Joe .. being in Nacogdoches Texas ,, your not far from one of the best carving groups in Texas in Tyler .. Every year they have one of the best shows in Texas ..

My suggestion would be to contact the people who run the tyler carving club and get advice ..

They might even know some carvers down your way that they could recommend ..

Also .. one more suggestion .. If you are not a memeber of the Texas Woodcarvers Guild .. Please join .. its only 12.00 a year and recently in the last issue .. they had a list of all the members of the guild and where they live and I saw several from Nacdoches texas in there you might not even know about .. Its a great organization and its keeps you abreast of events and memmbers ..

Hope this helps

Gene

[Donna_T]

Hello Joe, and welcome to our message board.
Our little club has been in existance for 18 years. It was started by 2-3 carvers. They contacted the local newspaper who ran an article on their carving efforts and announced an informational/organizational meeting for anyone who was already a carver or had an interest in learning how to carve. They offered a round-table type of "teaching" -- everyone helping new newcomers.

The club was organized pretty informally--get together every Tuesday night from 7 to 9 pm for everyone to carve together on whatever their current project was. The second Tuesday each month would start with a brief business meeting and program--then carving. The first programs were carving hints by the three experienced carvers. By the time we'd grown to a dozen or so carvers, we took turns giving the program and it was some simple carving project where the leader copied patterns, cut out the wood for the project and lead the group in all carving the same thing. We did walking sticks, holiday pins, cookie molds, relief projects, name tags--mostly simple things that could be completed in one night's carvings.

Over the years, we've brought in professional carvers for workshops, sponsored carving campouts, had annual auctions of carvings and carving supplies (to fund our club treasury--but our annual dues is only $5), had twice a year potluck suppers for members and their families, had "show and tell" nights to show off or latest carvings and share things we learned at other club/workshops, etc. Some of the neat things we've done as a club was to buy a sharpener (Burke) for the club and start a club library of books, tapes, go-bys and even a wood supply for club members. a current paid-up member can check out anything from the library for two weeks at no charge. Members donate things to the library--and the club votes to add things from time to time.

We've carved in community centers, industry break areas, hospital cafeteria, church basements or rec rooms, and now we're in the YMCA. We've never had to pay to use our areas. In the hospital, and YMCA, we've had a designated storage area for our library. One of our members build a roller cart for it that we can lock up and leave there. For the many years we carved in the hospital, we donated a tree full of hand carved ornaments for their annual Christmas sales. We've also carved a walking stick --passing it around all year for members to carve on before we auction it at Christmas time and donate the proceeds to a charity of the buyer's choice.

We elect officers, President , VP, Sec. Treasurer, Librarian. We've had quarterly newsletters and more recently, monthly ones. The Secretary and treasurer are elected for life (or till they wear out--just for continuity sake.) I was secretary for 10 years--and did the newsletter. We sponsored carving classes each fall and spring: mid-January to mid-March and again mid-Sept to mid-November. One or two of our most experienced carvers led the classes and we didn't charge a fee for the classes--just one flat rate and it covered six cutouts with patterns, a knife, veiner, v-tool, simple sharpener/strop (a 1" by 1" block of wood with very coarse emery cloth, fine emery cloth, and leather glued to it. Last I remember, we charged $35 for this kit--and it included their first year's club membership.

Each time we offered classes, we wrote up articles with photos to the area newspapers (most of our members come from a 3 county area. We'd send the articles to each of those newspapers, and wrote up a blurb for all the area radio stations. This served as publicity for the club and for the upcoming classes. (When we stopped having classes to get new carvers, our membership started dying...that plus so many of our members are over 60 and they die ) We're down to about 25 total members of which any dozen attends pretty much every week. Our highest number of members was in the 60's. Our club has given carving demostrations at 2-3 fairs, including the regional. I'm sure there are other things we do, but that's all I can remember.

Hope this gives you that might work for you.

Donna T

[Dr. Joe]

Thanks to both Gene and Donna T. for good ideas. I am familiar with the Tyler group as well as an offshoot in Henderson. The Tyler group offers a very good contest and exhibition early in November each year.I've attended but never entered. Two of our members do compete and do quite well. The Depot Carvers in Henderson, several of whom also involve themselves in Tyler, focus almost entirely on learning rather than competition. Therein is an example of my questions. Should a local group focus on competition or lessons or both? If lessons, how does your group challenge both beginners and more advanced carvers? What does your group do to promote interaction, both during meetings and throughout the month? Do weekly meetings work better than monthly, or would twice a month be a good balance?

Donna, you've given me some good ideas. Another question for you or others. I'm older, mostly retired (and with an 8 year old grandson, sometimes just TIRED!), and increasingly concerned that most, tho certainly not all of the carvers I see are retired. I would love to find ways to help youngsters learn to carve. Seems that a good block of basswood or butternut is so much better than cutting on their bodies or those of others. My granddad taught me when I was about grandson Noah's age.Trouble is, with our mobile culture, children may not have access to carving adults. The demo at fairs sounds like a good promotion. Do any of your clubs work with youth groups, schools, churches, etc.? What about liability? I have taught boy scouts some. Here in East Texas we have an abundance of chicken processing plants which have been willing to give me discarded knives. I've been able to reshape the remaining blades to provide knives for beginners. It costs me time, but I have more of that than money! The multipurpose strop/sharpening "stone" also sounds good.

I really would appreciate many other ideas from everyone. I'll be happy to compile and provide an electronic file for use by others. Thanks for your comments.

Dr. Joe

[gypsy]

Come to Dallas. We don't have a carving club that I know of.

[Donna_T]

Dr Joe,
One of our carvers works with a boy scout group each year to teach them how to carve. Some of us have gone to grade schools and done the "soap" carving program, but the Boy Scout effort is one that I hear of in many states. THey have a badge they can earn for learning to carve. There are several guys on this board who have helped scout-carving for years.

From my experience, the best thing you can do for a youngster is buy them a carving glove. If you have chicken processing plants, they usually have butcher-type gloves that are the same but they can get them much cheaper--maybe get them to donate some--or let you buy some from them. I've worked with a few kids, including my grandkids, to try to teach them to carve. The younger they are, the shorter attention span...and the more careless they tend to be. Sharpening is a task that confuses many adults, so obviously, it's a high hurdle for kids to learn, too. Patience is the hardest part for me!

We don't have many opportunities for our carvings to "compete." Every year at our Christmas potluck dinner, we bring carvings and all our members vote on their favorites. There's always hard feelings when newer carvers don't fare well against experienced carvers. For awhile we divided them into beginner and advanced levels and that helped. We sponsor a beginners category at the area fair that has a well-established carving competition to allow those who have carved for less than two years. It also split the categories to have an "advanced" section for professional carvers (those who regularly sell their carvings). Those steps help.

Having regular carving projects led by members is a great way to challenge newer carvers with a variety of project. Having professional carving instructors do workshops not only helps the advanced carvers, but exposes newer ones to projects they may not have attempted yet. They build confidence as they acquire carving skills.

Hope there's some ideas in this that might provide some direction.

Donna T