[goneagain]

Does anyone know of a woodcarving interest group or lessons in the Bend, Redmond, Prineville area of Oregon? I started woodcarving this winter in Arizona through a fellow that had taken some lessons. I got a book on wood spirits and one on relief carving and have enjoyed completing two projects. I am hooked and want to connect with some others with this interest. I am having trouble finding them. Any suggestions?

[Mottles]

Sorry I don't know of any, but sure would like to welcome you to WCI message board. Our carving club 'Prescott Wood Bee Carvers' is in Prescott, Arizona we meet twice a month. If you think you might be in our area please send me and email or check our web page (at bottom of this page) for meeting information.
We love visitors!
Kathy

[Donna_T]

Welcome to a great place to get help and ideas about carving! If you look over the the left of this section of the webpage, you'll see a section called Carving Community. Under it you'll find a club search feature where you can see what clubs are listed in Oregon--together with the latest contact information. Also, if you don't see a town listed that's close to you, check out the Colwood site: Woodburning Tools by Colwood: Carving Clubs

Sometimes you can just contact an active club and they may know of a club or carvers in your area. Other hints that I've learned over the years is to find a carving show somewhere close to you and attend it. You'll meet carvers from all over the state and may learn of a club near to you. It's also a great way to access carving supplies since vendors often attend shows to sell their wares.

Regardless, you'll find this message board a great resource and we're glad you joined us.

Donna T

[Mottles]

Take a look at this link and see what might be listed under Oregon
Wood Carving Illustrated - How To Magazine for Carvers. Maybe there is a club or classes offered not to far from your home.

Also there are two carvings magazines that list events and club activity (1.) Woodcarving Illustrated Magazine and (2.) Carving Magazine. You can subscribe or buy them at most book stores. Both very fine magazines.
Kathy

[Larry A.]

Welcome. I'm new to the site too, and new to carving. I didn't know of any carving clubs here in Albuquerque either, and the lists online pointed to what seemed more professional associations. I found one at the local Woodcraft store. The Oregon stores are in Tigard and Eugene, which isn't near you, but if there is a store locally where you get your carving supplies, maybe someone there knows of a club nearby. Worked for me. Sorry, it's the best I can do. Good luck, though. I only found my club on Thursday, and I learned a lot at my first meeting from a real master. Carvers seem to be a friendly bunch of people, more than willing to help.

[Doug Ridley]

You may be out of luck around Bend. My daughter lives there and I have searched for some time with no luck whatsoever. I was planning a trip out there and contacted several people including a woodworker and as far as I can determine there is no carving club at either Bend or Redmond. However I am sure there are some carvers there and if you can locate one they might be able to help.

[goneagain]

Doug,
You are right no carving clubs here. I checked the senior centers in Redmond, Bend and Prineville and came up with nothing. There HAVE to be carvers around here somewhere. One of the senior centers offered a room if I wanted to teach a class. Yeah, right! I just got started. Maybe later this summer I will get a video and see if anyone wants to sign up for a video taught class. Any ideas what to use for that? Any ideas how to start a carving group?

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

There are a number of good woodcarving shows in Oregon, bound to be some clubs.....

[Donna_T]

Goneagain,
There's been several "threads" on this website over the years on how to organize a club. I'd encourage you to search for them when you have time to read back through old postings.

However, if you have a local newspaper and/or radio station, an easy way to get a club started is to pick a time and place to hold an informational meeting and write it up and give it to your local media to run. I live in a small town of about 8,000 and they run items like this all the time--especially if you take the time to write down all the details for them.

At your first meeting you can explore places where you might meet (free space is great and the only way to go to start with.) Logical places include senior centers, church basements, YMCAs, community centers, etc. You can see if any of you are expert enough to lead a class--or if you just want to get together on a regular basis to carve and share what you know. Finding someone who can teach a beginner class is a great way to pull in new members. Our beginner classes are six sessions, 7 to 9 p.m. and we hold our meeting at the local YMCA. Over the years we've met in a community center, local industry "employee break area", hospital cafeteria, church basement--and they all worked for awhile.

We meet every Tuesday night from 7-9 pm. One meeting a month is a business meeting (lasts about 5 minutes!) but we have a program that's done by one of our members, either on a project we can all work on together or just a demonstration of a process. Once or twice a year we bring in and "expert from afar" to do a workshop --they charge anywhere from $25 a person to $250 a person--but our club is so small now that we don't "fill" a class very often if it costs too much.

In areas where clubs are predominently retired citizens, they frequently meet in the day time instead of at night.

Hope that gives you some ideas. It's been 20 years since our club was started and we had about 80 members at one time--down to about 20 now. When we quit offering classes for beginners twice a year, we went down in numbers pretty quickly. We only have one of our original members still alive.

Good Luck.

Larry, I was in Albuquerque several years ago and made arrangements to meet with the local club. They were great and made me feel very welcome. Seemed to be very active and they had an annual show back then, if I remember right. Hope you found them.

Donna T