​​LONG ISLAND WOOD CARVERS ASSOCIATION

​​​​​2017

​​Carving Mtg​​​​​Open Carving

January​​10 Tuesday​​​​18 Wednesday

February​​14 Tuesday​  ​​​22 Wednesday

March​​14 Tuesday​​​​22 Wednesday

April​​​11 Tuesday​​​​12 Wednesday

May​​​9 Tuesday​​​​17 Wednesday

June​​​06 Tuesday​​​​20 tuesday

September​​ 5 Tuesday​​​​13 Wednesday

October​​10 Tuesday​​​​17 tuesday

November​​ 14 Tuesday​​​           22 Wednesday

December​​12 Tuesday​​​​20 Wednesday

Marjorie Post Community Center

451 Merrick Road Massapequa N.Y.

Meeting change till May

12 Ways To Add Texture With Tools You Already Have

A big part of adding texture to your work with tools you already have, is looking beyond their typical use. Sure, your nail set was made to set nails, but it can also be used to create small dimples in wood. A chisel was made to pare small surfaces and remove small chips of wood, but it can also be used to create slightly faceted, uneven surfaces. I’m not encouraging you to abuse tools, or use them in a dangerous or careless way. Just keep your eyes open to what a tool can do for you in terms of adding texture to a surface.

HOW TO TRANSFER A PHOTO TO WOOD

HOW TO TRANSFER A PHOTO TO WOOD
Click HERE

What Is It ?

Rope Making Tool

The product produced by this item elicits much interest because, frankly, few people think about where rope comes from, how it was made or, for that matter, that almost every working farm or community had one of these things. Rural living meant that one had to have on-hand repair items that allowed for work to be completed. Rope was an important and versatile tool around the farm.

What Is It?

In the early 1960s, there was a surge in tool collecting primarily due, in my opinion, to the demise of the apprentice system for traditional trades where skills were passed from generation to generation. Rapid industrial growth post Second World War meant that many were trained on the job, and there was no need to spend a long period learning all the intricacies of a particular trade. This change meant a difference in how tradespeople approached their tools. No longer did one have a tool chest full of items to cover any aspect of work one might encounter. In some toolboxes, these tools could have been apprentice pieces or owner-made interpretations of more costly items or perhaps a gift from a master who was passing on the craft to a deserving individual.

Pickles by Brian Crane

Macy's Wooden Escalators

A bit of retro transportation flair preserved in the world's largest department store.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/

Macy's Herald Square is famous for a lot of things: Its animatronic window displays are the talk of the town, and it is the site of the "Miracle on 34th Street" as well as home to the world's top Santas. The store pioneered the department store model, but perhaps the best preserved piece of its history lies right underneath shoppers' feet.

Moving

Rich is moving and has the following available for sale:

10 inch Radial Arm Saw
10 inch Chop Saw
48 inch Wood Lathe
Universal Wet Dry Grinder
Power Grinder   and much more...contact Rich at 516-641-6188

Self-taught Haroshi Turn's Old Skateboards Into Beautiful Sculptures

Haroshi makes his art pieces recycling old used skateboards. His creations are born through styles such as wooden mosaic, dots, and pixels; where each element, either cut out in different shapes or kept in their original form, are connected in different styles, and shaven into the form of the final art piece. Haroshi became infatuated with skateboarding in his early teens, and is still a passionate skater at present. He knows thoroughly all the parts of the skateboard deck, such as the shape, concave, truck, and wheels. He often feels attached to trucks with the shaft visible, goes around picking up and collecting broken skateboard parts, and feels reluctant to throw away crashed skateboards. It’s only natural that he began to make art pieces (i.e. recycling) by using skateboards. To Haroshi, his art pieces are equal to his skateboards, and that means they are his life itself. They’re his communication tool with both himself, and the outside world.

How to make a mask worthy of the spirits...

For artisans in Grand-Bassam, sculpt masking is a family affair -- and an important way to uphold Ivory Coast traditions.

Source: CNN  CLICK HERE

How to Make a Wooden Mask

Many cultures have pursued the tradition of mask making throughout history for both artistic and ritual purposes. There are limitless possibilities and styles to choose from when creating your own wooden masks. They can be decorated with paint, feathers, carving or a combination of all these elements. Power tools are helpful in creating the initial wood cutout and should be used under supervision. Forethought into where the mask will go helps you harmonize the style of the location with the decorations used on the mask.
To get more information: CLICK HERE

2016. Meeting's

​Carving Mtg​​​​​Open Carving

October​​05Wednesday​​​12 Wednesday

November​​ 09 Wednesday​​           16 Wednesday

December​​14 Wednesday​​​21 Wednesday

    BIG ED Gets a New Hat
 I finally remembered to bring in the black cowboy hat I bought at a garage sale for BIG ED. As soon as I saw it at the sale I knew I wanted to see it on him. He spends the winters down in Arizona and the place is infested with cowboys…but mostly snowbird cowboys. He’ll fit in better now, even if the hat doesn’t quite fit.

              BIG ED was working on a cowboy snowman and something else that is still fairly unrecognizable. It’s a roughout of something. Care to take a guess?
     I’ll go first…Siamese trolls sharing 2 arms and three legs.You can email me your guess and a winner will be chosen.….ED is sworn to secrecy for now.
 Ed tried on the black hat…Someone said only bad guys wore blackhats but Ed said that Gene Autry wore one…Ed ought to know, they went to high school together.
  
 Don the Cop started working with his wood burning outfit a few weeks ago. Today he brought in three framed projects..Very nice work Don.
      Bob from Whitestone came in around 10am…He often comes in a little later than many of the others, but then he is driving in all the way from Whitestone..He was basking in the glow of being singled out to be the assistant to the helper of one of the officers of the New Hyde Park carving club… What I think really happened was that he got up from the meeting to go to the restroom..When he returned he was elected…he’s lucky they didn’t make him the president.  Bob said that he had great plans to raise the treasury by a lot…All he had to do was recruit 60 more members. Good luck Bob!

    Eli came in carrying a birthday cake. His. He said he was eighty years old and if he’s telling the truth he is looking very well indeed…”Beauty is on the outside..Don’t ask about the inside.” Said Eli.
 I said that I wish I was eighty….Someone asked why I would wish to be  older than I was…I said “ I would look pretty good for an eighty year old.” Many of us had some birthday cake …I thought it was excellent…all three slices.
  
 Tom said..”Oy…Three pieces he had already…Oy.”
 Gene sometimes comes to the Thursday sessions. He’s more active with the New Hyde Park Club..and he writes a monthly newsletter for them. He was carving a dog and having trouble ..Most of it with the hind legs..”I cut off too much wood..His legs are supposed to stick out more.”
 He took out some “wonder wood fixer”.It’s a two part mix and you stick it onto the part that you need more of because you cut off too much..like Gene did.
  We’ll see how that works out

     . Everybody has problems…I have plenty, to be sure. I was having trouble with the eyes again..For what seemed like the  eightieth time, Ed sliced off the old eyes and showed me how to do eyes…..again. This time I think I paid attention…All I have to do is remember what he did..
 Last week I brought in a little statue I found at a garage sale..It has a lot of detail but the wood seemed very hard, We weren’t even sure it was wood..Maybe plastic? Ed would know…
 Ed held it..felt the weight..tapped it on the desk….looked at the grain….posed thoughtfully ..and then said,,”It’s wood.” Hooray,,It was declared to be  wood by Ed…and what Ed says at the meetings is golden...And so it shall be written..and so it shall be done…
    ”It’s wood!”

 I went back to working on my wolf head walking stick /cane top.I had wood burned in some hair and then added some deeper grooves to simulate thicker hair

 …     The eyes look ok…so I’m happy.
 And so the sessions go..Always fun..always interesting and always worth writing about…

Carvers are Happier People

       
 I look forward to the Thursday carving sessions with the Panama Carvers (AKA The Long Island Wood Carvers Association). I pack my tools, my project of the day and my camera in a shopping bag and drive to the Senior Center in Merrick…

 As you enter the room, on the far left, is a smiling woman who always says ”good morning”. That’s the last nice thing you hear until you get to the smaller room with the carvers settling into their work.There is an intent group of four ladies playing Ma Jong…They rarely look up.”One bam—two crack- North” I have no idea what’s going on, but they look happy, they just don’t look up.

 And then we have the poker players who never look happy.
 ”How could you bet like that? It’s not a good bet.”
 “It’s my bet..That’s what I bet.”
 “You shouldn’t bet like that. It’s not good poker.”
 “Look at the money? Who knows from playing? You?”
  

    The Panama  Carvers are always happy…That’s BIG ED, Howie and Ed.  (Second Picture)
Howie has been working on his beautiful walking stick.He just added a wood spirit wearing a crown…It’s good to be the King.(Picture's 3 and 4)

Cutting Board Basics: Wood Vs. Plastic By Danilo Alfaro

Wondering about the best kind of cutting board to use to help avoid a food-related illness? Here's all the info you need.

Cutting Board Basics: Wood Vs. Plastic

Nonporous surfaces like plastic or glass are easier to clean than wood and thus better in terms of food safety. Wood is naturally porous, and those tiny fissures and grooves in wooden cutting boards can harbor bacteria. Which is why cutting boards made of wood aren't allowed in commercial kitchens. That being the case, why use them at home?

As for glass cutting boards,

“Spruce Girls”

Wooden bathing suits, supposed to make swimming a lot easier. Haquian, Washington, USA, 1929

 

 “Spruce Girls” 

on beach wearing spruce wood veneer bathing suits during “Wood Week” to promote products of the Gray Harbor lumber industry, Hoquiam, Washington”

Wooden swimsuits. Look your best on the beach with these wooden bathing costumes in Haquin, Washington, 1929. The contraptions, which do not look comfortable, were made to make swimming easier. Luckily the trend did not catch on.

 

 

 

A group of unknown bathing beauties. Date and photographer unknown.

Feather Thing

       Eagle Head Feather Thing

       I really didn’t know what else to call it.I stumbled across it on the internet and I thought it looked interesting and not particularly difficult or time consuming.

Theirs

       I had a thin sheet of basswood, a bandsaw, the necessary wood carving knives and v tools plus the paint. I even had a wood burning tool.

       So I made one..but I didn’t like how the wood burning turned out..So I made another..and another and even another..

Mine

       So now they’re getting better…but what are they and what does one do with these Eagle Head Feather Things?

       Anyway, they’re fun to make and pretty easy too.The hard part is figuring out what they are and what to do with them…I guess you can always write about them……I guess...until next time, Bill Russo >)))'>

      

The Panama Carvers

The Panama Carvers Gather Today 7-7-16

       First, Bob from Whitestone wore one…and today Harvey came in with one…and I heard others asking where they could get one. I heard “Dollar Tree” so guess what? I now have a Panama hat and I also bought an extra one. Someone is sure to want a Panama Carving Hat…and they’re guaranteed to be offered for sale in the Carving Illustrated Magazine and on line. Everything can be bought on line.

                    

       I sat next to Tom the peach pit carver. I took out my next project. I plan to  make something like this for my granddaughter Lauren. She’s a dancer.. I have the old shoes…It’s a start.

                    

After almost two hours of carving under the watchful eye of Ed

Thursday's Carving

The Harriette Carter Lamp Day

by Bill Russo

 

      I had just finished two carvings..The Boy Scout and High Noon, I painted them and waxed them and I polished them too. I carried them over to the table where Ed and Dan were working away on something or other..

      “These are coming along nicely,” said Ed

      “Yeah..They’re going to be beautiful when you’re done”, said Dan.

      “They are done”, I said.

      “Oh” said Ed..

      “Oh” said Dan.

      “Bastards” I thought…and then I sat down and had a good laugh along with a few guys who heard the exchange..Mel, in particular, enjoyed it.

      And that’s one of the things to expect when you are showing your work to really, really good carvers…They’re honest…. Still, Things are improving with each piece…I think.

      Just then

Know Your Sawdust and Woodchips...

Read all about it: click here

Brooklyn's Biggest Tree Gets a Second Life

When a massive European Elm tree in Prospect Park died in late 2015, the NYC Parks Department asked RE-CO BKLYN to mill it into lumber and make furniture from it.  Most of NYC’s felled trees get chipped and sent to a landfill that is often hundreds of miles away. Turning this material into lumber and furniture cuts down on the environmental burden of disposal and stimulates the local economy.

 The century and a half old tree was located near a footpath at the intersection of Coney Island and Caton Ave. It was planted circa 1870, shortly after construction on the park began. Over the course of the tree’s life it grew beyond 7 feet in diameter and more than 75 feet in height.
 The rest of the story:  CLICK HERE

My Boy Scout!

My First Time at the Monday Carving Session by Bill Russo

May Competition 2016 by B. Russo

Woodburning! .... (a short story)

Bill Tries Pyromania 

While Carving by Bill Russo

Mel the Carver told me that he would give me a few

pointers about wood burning at the Monday session. He was
great at it and I asked him if he could show me how it was
done.










Mel was here when I arrived, wood burner already hot
and the smell of smoking basswood was in the air. He was
adding hair to a chimpanzee carving. These are of a gorilla.
I settled into my spot, took out the bear and began to
pencil in some general lines that flowed in the directions that
I thought looked proper.
















“Lines too short..make them a little longer…good…good. “
said Jerry.

SUMMER TIME - PEACH PIT CARVING

HISTORICAL  BACKDROP

Peach pits have been carved for several centuries: Tim Hallman of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California contends that the craft originated in China where the Peach is a symbol of longevity(1);  Wang Xu-De, in a summary about the history of peach pit carving in China, notes "Peach stone carving has a long history in China and is first recorded in the middle of the Song dynasty [960 -1279]"(2);  it also is recorded that AHandiwork of pit carving was all the rage for a time in the Ming [1368-1644] and Qing [1644 -1911] Dynasties.@(3);  [and]  folklore exhibits of the Sichuan University Museum in south-central China include Asome fantastically small carvings including a miniature boat and crew carved from a peach pit.@(4)

More recently: Michigan State University lists "Peach Pit Carving" on its "... topical file subjects" relating to the Michigan Traditional Arts Program.   Articles have been published about peach pit carving in both China and America in, for example, the periodical Chip Chats.  Carvings have been displayed at art and craft festivals.  And, a few web sites describe and/or illustrate relatively recently carved peach pits.

So far as the place peach pit carving has in the world of arts and crafts, the following rather apt statement seems to "say it all" – i.e., for all, save a few professional, peach pit carvers whom I know or have read about:  "This unusual art form seems not to be attached to any specific region, ethnic group, or occupation.  One simply occasionally finds folks who like to sit down and carve tiny figures and baskets out of peach pits...@(5).

PITS and TOOLS

Peach pits, sometimes referred to as peach stones or even peach seeds, comprise the cores of the widely eaten fruit called peach. 

A Wood Carvers Poem

A Wood Carvers Poem

I Saw This Piece Of Wood One Day

When I Picked It Up It Seemed To Say

There’s Something Hiding Inside Of Me

Remove Some Chips And You Will See

I Looked To See What I Might Find

And Soon An Image Came To Mind

My Task Was Now To Set It Free

What’s Hidden In This Piece Of Tree

With Loving Care Each Cut Was Made

Wood Peeled Off With A Sharp Edged Blade

And As Each Chip Fell To The Floor

I Could See The Object More And More

By One Final Cut It Was Set Free

My Work Of Art For All To See

This Piece Of Wood Which Would Just Lay

And See It’s Body Soon Decay

Was Now Transformed And Given Life

With Careful Cuts Of Gouge And Knife

By Carving Something From This Tree

It Lives Again Because Of Me

By Gnomes Hollow Wood Working