SCAWC Newsletter

President Mitchell has talked to the St. Charles and O'Fallon Art Councils in an effort to get the SCAWC involved with sculpturing art shows. The St. Charles Art Foundary opens in May 2004. Displays must pertain to Lewis and Clark. Judging awards will be made with a total of $10,000 to be awarded. See Pres. Mitchell for an application.

O’Fallon has the 1^st weekend of each month open for carving seminars. Typically they would be held Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. The room will be secured so carvers should be able to set up and leave their carvings/tools on site during the seminar. A sign up sheet was routed to get a list of members interested in being instructors. Currently, Wilbert has signed up for wood spirits on 6 March and Jim Leifeld for humming birds on 31 January ($8). Dave Lincoln will have a TBD project in June and Charlie Mitchell will do Santa faces in Sept. Instructors were asked to designate approximate cost, maximum and minimum number of students. This will be a real opportunity to get quality instruction at a bargain price. The classes will be open to members of other clubs; however, SCAWC will have the first opportunity to sign up.

The O’Fallon Art Center is looking for items to display. Darren Granaas, O’Fallon Cultural Arts Center Coordinator, would like for the SCAWC to set up a carving display for a month. Contact Pres. Mitchell if you are interested.

The Spring show at O’Fallon is a go. The club will have tables both inside the building and outside under a tent provided by O’Fallon. The date is May 1^st from 9am to 5pm. The cost will be waived for all carvers that participate in demonstrating carving/burning/etc. O’Fallon’s center has a shortage of display tables, so if you have your own please let Pres. Mitchell know. A sign up list will be routed at a future meeting to insure that we have demonstrations going on all day. You can sign up to host the soap carving demonstrations if you do not want to wood carve at the show.

The club authorized John Bouchillon to construct a vinyl sign “St. Charles Area Wood Carvers”. The sign will be displayed at upcoming shows. Lettering will be 6 inches high; length to be determined by the layout. John showed a paper layout of the sign at the 21 January meeting.

The club will not participate in the Festival of the Little Hills this year.

The club is again offering carving instruction through the St. Charles High School adult education. The club is also discussing instruction through the St. Peters Community and Art center for youth.

Dave Lincoln took pictures of club member's carvings for the O'Fallon spring show brochure. If you forgot to bring your carving or have completed one that you would like to have included in the brochure, you can send Dave an electronic picture or bring your carving to the next meeting. We may still be able to get it included. At the least, you can get it published in the club newsletter.

Volunteers are still needed to fill the secretary and fall show chairperson positions.

When critiquing the quality of your carving, try this: Cut a 1” round hole in cardboard or paper. Place over a section of your carving and review the area through the hole. This will allow you to focus on a particular area without being distracted by seeing the entire project.

How many times have you read a carving book and said “I’ve know that tip for a long time?” Well here is your chance to share what you have learned with new (and old) club members. Send me your tip of the month to share. I will even give you credit for the tip.

At the January Board meeting the Directors discussed options to get club members more involved in carving at the club meetings. In place of a different demonstration each month the directors plan to get members to host a "table" with a project that could take one week or many weeks. Multiple tables would be offered and members could select the table that interested them. Wilbert Brewton hosted a table at the January 21st meeting. Wilbert provided blanks for the carving of St. Anthony. The carving offered challenges for both the new and the experienced carver. Each level adding a degree of detail to the carving: facial detail, robe sashes and braids, ...... Interested carvers will be expected to pay for the rough outs and material required for the projects. If you have a project that you would like to share and instruct other carvers, please bring it in.

Do you have a problem or need assistance with some aspect of your carving / burning / etc. Send me a note and we will solicit feedback from others that may have been there, done that.

Its time to pay your dues for 2004; $10. Contact the Membership Chairman, Charles Sapp, or Treasurer Bob Craven. Club patches are available from Bob Craven for $5.

Be sure to fill out the sheet that Charlie passed out a couple of months ago with suggestions for club projects, activities, or suggestions for the club officers and directors. New members - your comments are especially important. Now that you have joined the club, what do you want from the club~ formal instruction, informal instruction, be left alone, ...... What do you like about the club? What would you like for the club to do differently? Please give us your feedback. Lost your sheet? Just put down your thoughts on any piece of paper and get it back to Pres. Mitchell.

Wyatt Sample displayed his art work during the month of January. His carving consists of in the round carvings. Typically, he has done a number of Santa and holiday figures. But his interests also lie in carving realistic western figures. He has carved a number of small busts and Indians.

He likes to try new types of carving, but finds that working faces is the most interesting. He is now doing several relief carvings of sports characters, walking sticks and multi-character groupings. In general he does not do animals but is attempting a rearing horse carved in walnut. Compared to basswood the walnut is quite a challenge to carve.

Wyatt only uses hand tools as he doesn't care for the noise and dust created by power carving. And since he does most of his carving when the kids are in bed noise from power tools is a concern.

He is a member of the St. Charles Area Woodcarvers, the Mid-Missouri Woodcarvers, and the National Association of Woodcarvers.

He has taken classes from Lynn Diel, a fellow member of the Mid-Missouri Woodcarvers and a demonstrator and instructor at Silver Dollar City. Lynn has been the greatest influence in Wyatt's carving ability and style. (Editors note: Wyatt does not blame Lynn for any shortcomings.) He has also had classes with Gerald Sears, learned techniques from magazines, and books and tapes by the likes of Harold Enlow, Stu Martin, Rex Branson, and others. He has also been influenced by the information on websites, particularly that of Greg Wilkerson, a carver of Native American figures from Branson, MO.

He started carving animals many years ago with a pocket knife. About four years ago he started carving in earnest. His first efforts were with flat plane carving influenced by WoodCarving Magazine and Harley Refsal's book "Woodcarving In the Scandinavian Style." He enjoyed carving but was frustrated by the time it took and that his results were not nearly as good as what he saw in the books and magazines. He felt his carving abilities remained stagnant until he joined the Mid-Missouri Woodcarvers and learned some techniques and gained confidence. His carving progressed and he was able to carve much more quickly with far better results.

Wyatt joined the St. Charles Area Woodcarvers last year and is now serving as the club vice president.

When you have an item for show and tell, please get my attention before you leave (presuming that I remember to bring the camera). If you have a digital picture of your work, send it to me for publishing.

Applications for the 28th annual Doane Experience in Crete, Nebraska will be arriving in your February mail. This seminar continues to grow in popularity as carvers from around the nation attend and spread the word. The seminar set new attendance records in 2003 with 350 participants and instructors. Len Dillon, Phil and Vicki Bishop, Marty Dolphen, Larry Nowell,..... were among the number of nationally recognized carving instructors in 2003. The tuition last year was only $240 per person which also includes room and meals. The 2004 event is scheduled for July 25-31. You must be a member of the MidAmerica Woodcarvers Assoc to attend ($10/year membership for a family). Many of our club members attend the Doane Experience, just ask for more information.

Len Dillon will be doing a horse head carving and possibly an eagle head for his class at Doane this year.

John Bouchillon used acetone and lacquer thinner to apply a Xerox photocopy to the bells. This technique makes it easy to apply patterns to curved surfaces.	Cane carved by Charlie Mitchell for a friend.	Ray's Plofzien first carving.


Wyatt's son wanted to go for the "most creative" pine wood derby entry so Wyatt made a go-by for him to use as a pattern.	Charlotte completed this relief carving and finished it with watercolors.

Fred Volansky gets instruction on St. Anthony project from Wilbert.	Bill Kuhn & Ray Plofzien get started on St. Anthony.	Jim Leifeld discusses the January seminar humming bird project with Al Westfall.