Month: March 2016

Five-Day Bare Bones Wood Carving Classes

The Bare Bones Wood Carving Class will give the beginner carving enthusiast a solid foundation in woodcarving because we address the carving skill from its most simpliest building blocks. No matter what your carving style preference is you need to know the fundamentals of carving technique and you need to know it well. In sports, because woodcarving is part sport, the learning curve of having strong fundamentals is akin to a tennis pro who has trained his tennis volley to be both effortless and graceful. Woodcarving can be effortless and graceful too. This is the romance and attraction of the skill.

WE WILL STUDY AND EXPLORE THE FOLLOWING:

• WOOD CARVING TOOL SHARPENING: Learn how to design and sharpen your tool edge so that you have better control and a more versatile woodcarving chisel. I will show you how to sharpen with the proficiency that was used in the European apprenticship programs. I will also incorporate some Japanese sharpening theory because it comes from the samari traditions and is an integral part of their apprenticeship. Sharp tools that easily bite into the wood and do not skate are an important ingredient for woodcarving with intent.

• WOOD CARVING TECHNIQUE: Learn how to handle your carving tools in the wood; from roughing out the beginnings of your project to the final delicate detailing. I teach an approach I call “anatomy integration” and it is an integral part of good hand technique. Wood carving is a skill that incorporates the body to better assist your hand control of the gouges. It is like a baseball pitcher throwing you a ball. You swing with the bat and use your body to step into the hit. The same is true in woodcarving, you use your body strength and weight for the cutting action. Simply stated; You don’t have to be a physical giant to handle woodcarving tools; it’s all in the technique.

• YOUR WOOD CARVING PROJECT: In the five-day class each students will complete a few wood carving projects. In addition to practice exercises, you will carve a large fleur-de-lis that contains all the possible carving approaches and a woodcarver’s compass to understand wood grain. These are great projects because we can learn all aspects of carving thru them: technique, visual mapping and design elements. Each student does the same project which allows me creatively to keep repeating myself so the information I give you is reinforced. I have time tested this approach over many years and it is highly successful for adults.

• ART OF SEEING: Learn the mechanical steps in the process of carving. Often I hear my new students say what I call the beginner’s mantra… “What do I do next?” There are mechanical steps to seeing what is the next move in your project. I also work with an approach method I call visual mapping. It is an activity that helps you to move through the progressive steps of your carving project. It is teachable and gaining this skill is critical for the beginner’s eye.

• DESIGN SKILLS: Learn how to design your wood carving projects using references that many of the great artists used. There are many basic tools and mechanical steps to designing that are unknown to the novice woodcarver. This approach to building your design will expand your imagination and the steps to creating your own projects will start to come more easily to you. Finally, among many other things, you will learn about building contrast in your piece, a necessity to having a striking, attractive look.

This wood carving class will give you the skills to add a creative, personal details to all your wood working projects. The class and workshop formats are two, three or five days in length. Calvo Woodcarving School located in Gloucester, Massachusetts is a convenient commute from Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and New York City areas. For those flying in we are located 45 minutes north of Logan Airport in Boston. For more description info click on: The Bare Bones of Wood Carving Article. This wood carving workshop will give you skills that will put you on a whole new level. You will be surprisingly pleased with your new found woodcarving abilities.

March 16-20, 2016   Five-Day Wood Carving Workshop   Wed – Sun