Belleville Holzschnitzers
August 4, 2009
The meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting minutes from July were corrected as follows: Ray Rensing, a former member of the club has passed away. He is survived by his brother, Ralph.
We had a visitor tonight, and a new club member. Dave Perez, a chain saw carver, visited tonight. Ben Gray, a new member, was with us also. We love visitors, and we always need new members.
Treasurer’s Report: Our checking account has $3290.72, and our money market has $14,008.04. Some interests has been added, exact figures were not available.
Show Committee: We have sold 84 spaces, however, last year there were 128 spaces sold. We have a long way to go to fill the area we rent. We have 27 people signed up for the banquet so far. Volunteers are needed to help with the show. It is not too early to sign up to help at the club spaces. Ben Shuppert needs help with the Information Table, Gen and Tom Kreyling need help setting up the competition area, and help during the show counting ballots and keeping the area secure.
We have several carved ornaments for the Christmas Tree, which is good. Please keep up the good work, carvers.
Sunshine Report: Rochelle Biermann has broken her knee. We hope your knee gets better soon. Our Sunshine Report Secretary is looking for a replacement for his position.
Art LaTurno says that he has been in touch with John Burke and he is much better.
Membership: There are still members who have not paid their 2009 dues. Beside your name on your newsletter the year you are paid up for tells you whether your name is on our current. People who are not paid for the current year will be dropped.
Monday Night Carvers: Don Lougeay reports the beginners are doing well, but he would like to see more club members at the meetings. There are 15-20 students coming.
Web-site report: Dennis Browning reported that he would like to update our website. He would like to put member biographies on the site. He can be emailed at dms.browning@gmail.com.
Library: Doug Murray is asking members to request books to be purchased by the club for the library.
Seminar: The only seminar we have scheduled is the Stenman Seminar November 10-12. Cost is $125.00 for non-members and $100.00 for active members. Earlier reported prices were in error. The original sign-up sheet has been misplaced. If you had signed up for the seminar, please sign the new sheet at the next meeting.
Old Business: Don’t forget the fall campout. It will be October 1-4 at Pin Oak Campground and RV Park in Union, Missouri. For more information contact Bob Biermann.
For the good of the club: Larry Keller mentioned the West County Woodcarvers Show and Sale is on Saturday, September 12th from 10 - 4, at Salem Methodist Church, 14825 Manchester Rd., Ballwin, MO 63011. The church is having a BBQ in conjunction with show.
The Caricature Carvers of America are also having a show September 26 & 27 in Branson, MO.
Show and Tell: 30 carvings were brought in by 17 carvers. The winners of the drawing were Charley Shane, Kai Andersen, and Bob Biermann.
The meeting was dismissed for coffee and doughnuts.
Sincerely,
Teresa Denson
Belleville Holzschnitzers
September 1, 2009
The meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. The minutes from August were read, as corrected as follows. 1) The Monday night carvers do have 15-20 attending, but the number of students averages 4. 2) Rochelle Biermann had knee replacement surgery. She did not break her knee. 3) The correct address for the West County Carvers Show and Sale is 1485 Manchester Rd. in Ballwin, MO.
Treasurer’s Report: Our checking account has $3,219.06, and the money market has $14,010.70.
Show Committee Report: Gen Kreyling reports 106 confirmed spaces rented. It seems our local vendors are still coming, but many out-of-state vendors have not responded as yet. We have 35 signed up for the banquet Saturday evening. We still need help with the club’s part of the show. Be sure to sign up with Gen or Ben to give an hour or two for your show. We need 12 more vendors to meet last year’s vendor number. Think about taking a table if at all possible. Carvings to be used as grand prizes will be purchased at the next meeting.
Next year, 2010, will be our 40th show. We need help to make it a memorable one. Please be thinking about special things that we can do.
Tickets are ready for the show. They are in $15.00 bundles, with 5 tickets, or $30.00 bundles with 10 tickets. See Russ Musgrave.
The floor plan for the show will be available at the next meeting. We are trying to give everyone the same spot they had last year.
Sunshine Report: Get well cards were sent to Kay Wannamaker (broken ankle), and to Rochelle Biermann (knee operation). Sadly, Doug Murray’s wife, Sylvia, passed away. Doug was sent a card, and a $25.00 check as a memorial. It was reported that Larry Baldridge has a stroke, but he is recovering nicely.
Membership Report: The new membership rosters are in.
Library Report: Doug is still asking members for names of good books for the library.
For the good of the club: We have been invited to the O’Fallon City Park on September 26, and 27 to demonstrate carving, and sell tickets to the show. See Don Deitz for more information.
Seminar Report: Ben found the sign-up sheet for the Stenman Seminar. The seminar will be the 10, 11, and 12th of November Cost is $125.—for non-members, and $100.00 for active members.
The Woodcarvers Campout is October 1-4 at the Pin Oak Campground near Union, MO. For more information contact Bob Biermann.
More information about the West County Show. It is in Ballwin, MO. on Manchester Rd, across the street from Applebee’s. It is a small show, at a church located on Manchester. The church is having a BarBQ the day of the show. There will be soap carving at 10:00.
Art LaTurno announced again that the St. Louis Woodcarvers Show will be held Nov, 28 and 29th. The show is held at the Kirkwood Community Center. Rent for the first table is $35.00, and additional tables are $25.00/ Scouts wearing uniforms will get in free. Otherwise there is a dollar admission. Exhibitors do get free food during the show.
The Blackhawk Carvers are having a show in August of 2010. Their show will be held at the Tebalo Shrine Temple, 7910 Newburg Rd., in Rockford, IL. The first entry is $5.00; other entries will be $2.00. First place is $50.00. For more information contact Don Stansfield, at 815-235-0075. There will also be a Two Inch Cube Carving Challenge.
Show and Tell: Eighteen carvers brought in 26 carvings. The winners of the drawing were Don Lougeay, Hal Harsin, and Bob Biermann.
The meeting was adjourned for coffee and doughnuts.
Sincerely,
Teresa Denson
Carving a French Angel Fish with Josh Guge
By Tom Kreyling
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If any of you ever have the chance to carve with Josh Guge, be sure to take that chance. I recently won a 3-day seminar at the Guge Institute, so on Wednesday, September 23, Gen and I loaded the camper and headed for Gilberts, Illinois northwest of Chicago. We found the Forest Preserve where we hooked up the camper and then, with Garmin’s help, we set out to find the Guge Institute.
Josh’s studio is in the lower level of his 100 year old dairy bottling building. He, his wife, and baby son live upstairs in the most unique building. We saw lights on in the studio when we arrived, so we went in to find Josh and Bob holding their Wednesday evening class. Josh invited us to bring my supplies in Thursday, which we did. We then went to visit some friends from Texas and Bernie Frigon. Bernie was in charge of tool sales at Silver Dollar City for many years. After suffering a stroke last March, he was moved to Chicago. He and his wife, Annie, were sure glad to see some familiar faces from SDC.
The seminar began on Friday. We began with a band saw blank and some directions from Josh. There were four of us in the seminar. One was carving a trout, one a crappie and two of us were working on the Angel Fish. We worked throughout the day; eating lunch that was provided by Josh, then stopped again for supper, and then went back at it until 9:30 that night. We began again early Saturday morning, and, except for stopping for lunch and dinner, we worked until 10:30 that night. Sunday was fine tuning the carving, preparing for paint, and then airbrushing followed by painting details. It was really great to not have to leave for lunch since Josh and Bob Guge provide lunch when they teach in their studio.
Remembering Josh as one of the youth carvers in the International competition at Davenport, it’s easy to see how far he has come and the expertise he has mastered. Not only is he a phenomenal carver, Josh knows how to express his instructions to his students. I, for one, certainly appreciate Josh’s generosity in donating the seminar as a way for AWC to gain funds to operate the International Show.
Thank You Received
We recently received the following letter. It is from the recipient of the Bob Austin Award at the International Woodcarvers Congress held each year in Davenport/Bettendorf, Iowa.
“Belleville Holzschnitzers:
I want to thank you for your donation to the 2009 Congress show. I was the recipient of the $100.00 for the (Group D) (Class 406) Bob Austin Award. It will be put to good use and again thank you, thank you.
Sincerely,
Wayne Kertz.”
Wayne is from Mountain View, Wyoming. It is interesting to see how far our donation can go to help others in their carving endeavors.
Bob Austin was a very active member of our club, at one time our president. He was on the board of Affiliated Wood Carvers when he suffered a fatal heart attack. At that time, the club deemed it appropriate to donate $100.00 each year to AWC to be used as an award in the animal group, which was one of Bob’s areas of expertise. It’s nice to know how much it is appreciated.
Fall Campout – A Cool Success
Bob Biermann
I can't believe how fast this summer has gone by. Fall is in the air and we just had the last woodcarving campout at Pin Oak Creek Campgrounds for this year. We really had a great turn out for the campout. We filled 8 sites. Some of the carvers got there on Tuesday and the weather could not have been better. We got all set up and ready for a fun week and the rest of the carvers came in Wednesday and Thursday. By Wednesday night it started to get fun and it really got cool and about bedtime it started to rain. It rained all day Thursday and it was cold but we weren't going to let a little cold and rail spoil our fun. The campground has a red room which they let us use and another well lit building we could also use. All the women got to use the rec room for their card making and didn't have any trouble filling the tables with all the supplies to make some gorgeous cards. The carvers got to use the other gathering room and it worked out real well so we all stayed warm and dry. We decided to carve indoors the rest of the week because of the weather.
After dinner we got our campfire going and we all sat around the fire which kept us warm and then the stories started to fly.
Saturday during the day I had a small class on carving Christmas ornaments which I hope everyone enjoyed, I know I had fun. Saturday night we had 23 people around the fire. Vicki and Matt Schumacher brought their 8 month old daughter, Makayla, and she seemed to enjoy the fire until she finally fell asleep in mom's arms all bundled up. It was a great night, and Dennis Browning and Wayne Laramore manned the fire which was one of the best and biggest we ever had. John Bouchillon's pixy sticks keep our fire interesting with lots of beautiful color.
Well the camping season is just about over for Rochelle and me, but I will be looking forward to next years campouts. If you would like to come to camp with us for a few days or just stay for a day we would like to have you. The campouts are not only for the carvers, but the ladies always seem to have fun also making cards, scrapbooking, crocheting and working on a quilt or getting a sudden urge to go shopping.
If you would like to try camping with us, mark your calendar for May 13 - 16 and Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2010. Come have some fun with us.
New Entry Form for Carving Competition
In an effort to speed check-in and to get more complete information from competitors regarding themselves and the pieces they are entering in the competition, we have a new, one page form to be completed. On this form there are spaces to include the size of the piece. We are asking competitors to include that information so that it is available when we send articles to magazines about the show and the pieces in it.
In the space marked title, we would like the piece to be “named”. The description of the piece should be just that – a description of what the piece is, i.e.; bird nesting, or drake in flight. If the piece was from a roughout, please include who designed the roughout if possible. If it was from a class or seminar, please include who the instructor was.
Also, if the piece is for sale, please include the sale price in the space provided. We will mark on the exhibit tag that it is for sale, and will have the price ready for anyone interested. We will direct the prospective buyer to your space or give them a phone number where they can reach you. We hope that this will make it easier and faster for entrants and for those working the competition area.
We appreciate your help in this matter. An entry form is included in this newsletter that you can complete before you come to the show. If you have any questions, please contact Gen at 314-954-4322 or at kreyling@swbell.net.