TexasWoodcarving.com

Some of my students and I will be at the North Texas Wood Carver's Guild show " Rhapsody in Wood " this Saturday and Sunday (March 2nd and 3rd 2013). Come see a wide variety of wood carving, turning, pyrography, vendors and more. The show is at the Grapevine Convention Center: 1209 South Main Street, Grapevine, TX Show hours are Saturday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm and Sunday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. See the show web page for all the details. I will be there doing carving demonstrations and answering questions. I hope to see you there.

Travis Bryant is an artist working in the medium of wood. Though most of his creations are in the form of fine furniture, his woodcarving work has made an appearance in this blog. Travis recently put together a website at: TBryantStudio.com . Have a look and let Travis know what you think via the contact information on his new site.

While I was studying woodcarving with Ludwig Kieninger back in the late 80's, a fellow student named Russ Aikins was working on impressive carving of the Sermon on the Mount. I did not get to see it completed. When I last saw it, it was still a work in progress. I recently learned that over 20 years later, Russ completed the carving and it is now installed at the First United Methodist Church of Plano. The piece is approximately four feet wide and the composition includes over 50 individual figures. There is a nice write up of the history of this piece at The United Methodist Reporter. There is also this video on Vimeo showing details of the carving. Hopefully I will be able to go and see the carving soon. If you get an opportunity to see it, let me know what you think. Updated July 2018 - The article link in the original post is no longer available. Updated to another article.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with some great people over at All Saints Catholic Church to see a set of Stations of the Cross carved by Ludwig Kieninger . These stations were carved for All Saints in the late 1970's. The stations are mounted up on the wall going around the church as can be seen in this photo from the church website. Unfortunately, my photos did not turn out as well as I had hoped. The color fidelity is not that good. Still, I hope you will enjoy having a look. If you are a parishioner of All Saints, leave a comment and let me know what these carvings have meant to you.

One of my students, Ricky Smith , made this woodcarving.  It was commissioned for Dr. Joe Saunders on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Dr. Saunders is noted for his extensive research into the Middle Archaic period   in Louisiana. Ricky carefully researched the period to create his design. The projectile point and a fired earthen block and sphere represent some of the few verified artifacts of the Middle Archaic. Earthen mounds were built by the people of that time and place as well. The resulting carving is a well executed design that I think will intrigue those not familiar with this period in Louisiana and will hold special significance for those that are.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to teach a whittling class for a group of eight boys in the eight to twelve age range. When I was looking for ideas for projects they could work on, this whittling lesson post showed up in my news feed. I did a little research and found out that this little project goes by a number of names including  gee-haw and whammy diddle. In the class we went over safety, knife sharpening, wood grain and knife handling techniques. All of the boys were attentive and well behaved. They all did a good job whittling and left with a working gee-haw. Big thanks to Tom H for the idea.

Doug Oliver sent these photos of a box that he recently completed. The exterior has a well done art deco design. On the bottom of the inside, he carved a relief of a  Claddagh design. Don't you think it makes a nice surprise when you open the box?