NEWR 2009 (NorthEast Woodcarver's Roundup) - DAY 1

Well, we're back from NEWR2009 and had a blast meeting up with our NEWR friends, jamming, carving, and causing mayhem! A great time was had by all. I'll get back to philosophy soon - I promise. But first a trip report.

For those that don't know - a "woodcarver's roundup" is a gathering of folks who enjoy woodcarving lasting 3 or 4 days or so, where volunteer instructors teach workshops in a variety of carving styles. There is usually no charge for any of the instruction though you are expected to purchase your materials (prepared "blanks" or raw wood/bark) for the workshop from the instructors. This helps defray their expenses to come & teach. In addition, many instructors sell intructional books or DVDs and some offer tools or other blanks. Folks either camp or if available rent rooms on the grounds. It is a great way for new carvers to get exposure to a wide range of carving styles, carving techniques, tools, and great folks at a relatively low cost.

The three big round ups in the US that I know of are Evart Michigan (in June), NEWR in Honesdale PA (in July), and one in Florida (don't know timing or location). There are probably others that I am not aware of. NEWR takes place in late July (runs from Sun evening to Thur evening) each year at Cherry Ridge Campgrounds in Honesdale PA. Cherry Ridge offers cabins, rooms in their lodges, or camp sites for those with trailers or tents. This was our 4th year attending. The first two we camped but the second year we got rained out of our tent (this area get's a lot of thunderstorms this time of year) so we had to bug out and commute from home (we live about 90 mins away). So last year and this year we decided to get a room. MUCH nicer!!! (yeah I know - wimp! guilty as charged)

So Theresa and I left home Sunday afternoon about 3:30pm then turned back after realizing we forgot something critical (did this twice). Finally got "on the road" for real about 4:30pm and pulled into Cherry Ridge about 6pm. Checked in to our room and went to the main hall to grab a bite to eat and listen to the instructor's spiels. Each instructor gives a brief introduction to their workshop to help folks decide which they want to sign up for. Then . . . the rush to each instructor's area to sign up for the workshop sessions you're interested in. I planted myself by my buddy Mike Bloomquist's area because he was limiting his Monday NA Flute in bamboo to only 8 and I knew it'd fill up immediately. I was second in line and sure enough it filled up within the first couple minutes. Meanwhile Theresa planted herself over at Maura Macaluso's (http://www.carvinginginnyc.com/) table to sign up for her Carving in the Classical Tradition class for Tuesday since that was our next priority. Then I dashed over to Hall 2 to sign us up for Ed Otto's bark woodspirit class for Wednesday, while Theresa signed us up for Jack Miller's smoothie shorebirds class for Thur. YES!!! We successfully got all our classes. Then it was time to chill and catch up with old friends from NEWR's past before heading back to our room to watch some Pride & Prejudice on a laptop and get some sleep.

Next morning I was off to Mike's NA flute class while Theresa decided to spend the day relaxing and getting caught up on emails & family stuff. I had selected my piece of bamboo the night before when signing up. We were all settled and ready to start at 9am. First part of class was learning about the basic structural elements of a NA Flute and how they work. Then it was on to looking at our bamboo and deciding on layout. Bamboo is a type of grass that grows in sections with blockages of the tube at nodes spaced out along the length of the bamboo. A NA flute consists of two chambers - a "slow air" chamber where you blow in, and a main chamber where the air is forced over a knife edge and into the chamber that varies in length based on how many finger holes are covered. The more holes covered, the longer the tube and the lower the pitch.

Here is a photo of Mike's whiteboard diagram (hope he doesn't mind me posting this).

The air passes from the slow air chamber up through a hole and along a channel under the "bird" where it is then directed onto an edge of a second hole allowing part of the airstream back into the tube. This area is called the fipple and is what produces sound. The difference in air pressure between the outside and inside air streams set up an oscillation of the tube resulting in vibration or sound. In making a bamboo NA style flute there isn't much actual carving except to hollow the air channels for the fipple and carving the bird. I kept mine simple just so I could focus on the actual construction of the flute. We used and online tool the helps calculate the placement of the finger holes given the fundamental pitch of the isntrument with no holes and the overal length from the node between the chambers to the foot of the flute. To create the holes we used a 1/4 in brad point drill bit and then compared each pitch to a tuner. If it was flat we raised the pitch by burning the holes bigger. This was accomplished using a torch to heat larger drill bits held with vise grips. The heated bit was pressed into the hole you want to widen and allowed to burn out the hole. Worked like a charm. Most of the flute came out producing sound but were somewhat weak in volume. So Mike gave us some hints for how to improve them.

I hope to make more in the future.

Here's a pic of Mike and my flute.

Philosophy?? And Carving???

Mark Yundt as some of you know has been very active on the WCI Forum over the last several years. He now has a blog in partnership with Doris Fiebig (in my Blog List) and I highly recommend it. In addition to being a wonderful artist and carver, he is also one of the most interesting and fearless folks I've ever talked to with respect to general philosophy, symbology, meaning, and life principles. Doris too has some excellent writings in their blog on "learning to see".

Mark has encouraged me to take up and run with my stated goals for this blog and has asked - where I will begin? Honestly - I don't know. That question has stumped me. I have stated my interests, I have given some insight into what resonates with me, and I have stated my interest in beginning to think and intuit more deeply about myself, art, carving, the world around me, etc. "Where do I start?" Hmm...I don't know how to answer that other than to pick a "start" and see where it leads.

So - I will partly abdicate that decision, by choosing to start with reading and thinking about some writings of someone whom Mark suggested I read. Paul Brunton was a philosopher who lived between 1898 - 1981 and wrote extensively about what he called "The Overself." You can read more about Paul Brunton in Wikipedia here, and his writing about "inspiration and the overself" here. The writings I am starting with come from "The Notebooks" (The Notebooks are copyright © 1984-1989, The Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation.) Hopefully - the main focus of this exercise will be on how these writings relate to creativity, artistic expression, and carving.
Mark of course approaches these topics from a solid base of thinking and intuiting (I assume) and as a serious FT Professional artist (woodcarver). I on the other hand approach this as a total amateur and novice woodcarver who has dabbled with artistic expression over the years (music performance, acting, writing, photography) and now as a long term (4 years) novice woodcarver. I am inviting Mark and anyone else who finds this interesting to jump in and participate via the comments and/or links back to your own blog (where you have the ability to post your own photos and can perhaps be more extensive in your posts).

Some ground rules. The challenge is how to explore these ideas with out getting lost and hyperverbose (which I tend to do) and losing your - the reader's / participant's - interest. I am writing this blog partly as a selfish exercise in "journaling" and to spark my own growth and creativity, but I do hope that other will find enough interest in these topics to both follow along and hopefully participate via the comments. I would like this to be an exercise in "dialogue" (in the sense as discussed by Peter Senge in "The Fifth Discipline" - where we hold up ideas for examination and commentary without the need to try to passionately prove to one another other the idea's validity or lack thereof) as opposed to "debate" where the spirit is more one of trying to convince everyone else that I am right and they are wrong. That said folks should feel free to ask pointed questions and challenge each others thinking without feeling like it will be taken as a personal attack.

So with that, my next post will be based on my beginning reading of Paul Brunton's writings as posted here. There is a LOT of material in this, so this could take some time and I (we?) WILL probably stray off into tangents at times. Or maybe we'll peter out on this topic and move on. That's cool. Plus, I may need to get more adept with the blog's tools in order to keep these posts organized, so be patient.

For now - that's all. I'll try to post my first post on this topic by next weekend.
Cheers!

Some past carvings . . .

Ok - I guess since the main point of this blog was supposed to be CARVING - I really ought to post at least a couple pics of some of my carvings right? Well, unfortunately our digital camera died a couple months ago and we're going to have to wait awhile to save up for new one. So all I have to post are a few picks of the VERY few carvings I worked on over the last year.

This first is a woodspirit hiking stick in White Birch that I did quite awhile back from a pattern in the Shawn Cipa, Chris Pye and Lora S Irish book on Woodspirits and Greenmen.

I especially love Shawn Cipa's woodspirit faces. They are so unique that you know them immediately. Love his curlycue beards. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately, the left eye chipped out a little and I had to try to repair with Cyanoacrylate. So it looks a little off.

Here is a Santa again from a Shawn Cipa pattern. I gave this one to my mom for this past Christmas. Unfortunately, we never got to paint it before Christmas and after I showed it to her she didn't want to let it go for me to complete it. So, he remains unpainted. I did spray on a clear finnish to protect it though.

Lastly - here is a small Santa ornament from a Cindy Joslyn (sp?) pattern that we completed and also gave to my mom for Christmas this last year. This one my wife painted. I think she did a fantastic job.

So there's a small sampling of my carvings. When I can get a chance I post some pics of my bark carvings.

Been awhile eh?

Yeah - well . . . I got a little sidetracked with this thing that pays the bills called "work". So I've totally neglected this blog for nearly a year. Still been reading a lot and participating over on the WCI Forum quite a bit (ChuckT), but as for my own carving and blog . . . nada. I really must be the most undisciplined "carver" ever. For someone who is as fascinated by carving as I am (read constantly, talk on the WCI forum constantly, THINK about it every day etc.) I DO remarkably little of it. Which is why I've not posted links to this blog anywhere.

The thing about me is this . . . I am a LOT like - hmm, there was a character in The Hardy Boys books named Chet (I think) who was a collector of hobbies. A GREAT starter, and terrible finisher. Sadly - I seem to exhibit that trait as well. I find EVERYTHING fascinating. When I see someone doing something that looks interesting I want to learn all about it and do it too. Then interest tends to wane and it falls by the wayside - with the exception of a few things in my life.

1. My marriage & family. Happily married for 23 years now and going strong. 4 fine kids too!
2. Guitar & music. Been playing guitar for 32 years and singing & playing for church for just about as long. Still going strong. Should be a much better player after that long but I do ok.
3. Interest in woodworking and carving. Though I do very little of it my interest has NOT fallen off.

So with carving, I am a slow starter & slow finisher, but hopefully it'll be something I do till I die.

Still, compared to lot's of others out there I am a woefully slow and inadequate "carver". I even hesitate to call myself a carver - kinda like calling myself "an athlete" just because I play a pick up game of basketball or soccer a few times a year. But in my mind - I am and always will be a carver.

Chuck

Learning to See

Very interesting thread going on over on the WCI site which I have started posting to http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/f38/learning-see-18443/ .

Lot's of thought provoking posts about learning to carve and reaching that "ah ha" moment when the thread initiator started seeing the combination of tools & cuts necessary to create a carving he was looking at. i.e. Able to deconstruct how the carving was created. Touches on lot's of very interesting ideas - left brain right brain, Eastern Philosophy vs Western, how we learn, impediments to learning to carve etc.

Check it out.

What is Woodsmyths Muse?

So I coined the term "Woodsmyths" to take as my "company" name to one day market my carvings. (NOTE: This is really only a placeholder site for now since I am still developing my skills and VERY slowly building up an inventory of carvings to sell.) This term blends the double meaning - Woods Myths (Myths from the wood) and an altered spelling of Woodsmith (i.e. worker of wood as in Silversmith: created from the forest using natural materials wood, bark, stone etc.). I added Muse as I see the Blog as an exercise in self-exploration and getting in touch with "the Muses" to forge my creativity for woodcarving.

One series of books that I am reading and that I find fascinating and the Mythago Wood cycle by Robert Holdstock. I have read the first book (Mythago Wood) and the last book (The Hollowing), and am currently reading the middle book (Lavondyss). The books tell the stories of various characters who interact with a mysterious forest in the English countryside - which seems to bring to life within its borders the "myths and imaginings" of the people around it. These beings are referred to a "Mythagos". If the beings leave the borders fo the wood - they die. It is a wood which is primal - having never been developed since the dawn of time, and which though seeming small from the outside - displaces time & space on the inside providing an entire "other world" to interact with. I am still trying to digest this series and feel I'll need to read it a few times. They are not "happy" books - as the characters meet with both their "good" and "bad" mythagos to varying consequences.

This series is a perfect example of fantasy that resonates with me and incorporates many themes which I find of interest. Highly recommended. In the second book (Lavondyss) the main character - Tallis - is the 12 or 13 year old younger sister of a character (Harry) from the first book. She creates a set of masks carved from the bark & wood of various species of trees which seem to represent various mythologic architypes. Not sure yet of their purpose or function. I am thinking of trying to create my own versions of these masks. Might be a cool project.

Welcome - step inside my mind!

Yes - I supposed getting into someone else's head can seem a bit strange, a little off, or even weird. But clearly you've got nothing better to do if you're taking the time to read this. So sit back and ponder along with me the mysteries of life, the universe and well . . . um, everthing. Ok, maybe that's a bit too broad (and besides, those in the know are already aware of the answer - it's 42). So why am I writing this and even more to the point, why should you waste your valuable time reading this drivel?

Hmmm . . . well, I thought I'd jump into this world of blogging for a few reasons.

1. I've worked in the world of web sites as a Sr. Business Analyst for larger corporations mostly in the financial and publishing industries for the last 13 years. Yet I've had no experience with creating blogs to date. I was curious to learn more about them so here I am.

2. I occassionally have some free time riding on a train for 2 1/2 hours into and out of NYC to work each day that when it isn't used for working, ends up being used to read, ponder life, and too often to examine in minute detail the backs of my eyelids. So why not start writing?

3. I have several interests which might provide ample fuel for such an endeavor and sharing my musings may in fact help someone else with similar interests. Among these are: simplicity, the art of living, raising a family, music, art, literature, history, nature, religion, politics, group dynamics, systems theory, human potential, self improvement, technology, mythology, geology, theology, and the other various -ologies on a list that goes on forever.

So over the course of however long I manage to keep this thing going you can expect to share in my exploits across this vast range of subjects as I struggle to make my way through life and hopefully we'll understand & enjoy a little of it.

Cheers!