Happy (belated) 4th of July. I hope each of you had the opportunity to enjoy the holiday. The end of June wrapped up with the chip carving classes conducted by Bill Johnson. The carvers that took his class were delighted not only with the class itself but with the instructor and the results of their projects. The completed or nearly completed chip carvings available for viewing at the summer picnic were terrific.The summer picnic was well attended where nearly 60 members and guests gathered for good food and good fellowship. Many thanks to those who donated items for the raffle and to those who helped with the preparation and clean-up. Special thanks to Bill and Judy Dominic for their efforts in making this activity a success.
Pyrography classes with Michele Parsons for beginner and advanced students will be July 19, 20 and 21. I know all those enrolled are looking forward, as I am, to seeing what projects she will have available for us. Our club is very fortunate to have such skilled artisans as Michele Parsons and Bill Johnson among its membership.
Greetings Fellow Woodcarvers
June continues to be a busy month with carving classes for new carvers.
We are pleased to have this month chip carving classes instructed by Bill Johnson, a gifted and talented carver who is also a member of the Charlotte Woodcarvers Club. We want to continue the momentum by offering instruction in the various woodcarving venues that are of interest to club members. If you have any suggestions for future classes please let us know and we will try to make it happen.Now that the location for our 2019 woodcarving show has been decided (CPCC), I would like to turn my attention to further developing the main purpose of the Charlotte Woodcarvers Club. The club was founded on the premise, “ to promote the art of woodcarving”. In addition to our yearly woodcarving show we need to broaden our public persona. I recently received an article from Ray Branch about an ongoing program by the Lancaster, Pa club, to reach out to the youth and general public by offering classes on the techniques of basic woodcarving. They have been successfully conducting this program for the last 13 years. We need to get more youth involved in our art and who knows we might just spark an interest that puts aside the phones and video games that seems to occupy so much of our youth’s time.
START WHERE YOU ARE. USE WHAT YOU HAVE. DO WHAT YOU CAN.&mdashArthur Ashe
Happy Carving,
Al wheeler
President
May is continuing to be a busy month with various club members conducting carving classes. The club will continue to soliciting other members to use their carving talents to instruct/demonstrate to the membership. Several club members have volunteered to demonstrate woodcarving at the Matthews Farmer’s Market this month. We have also been contacted by a local Boy Scout Troop to demonstrate carving for 50-60 scouts. We welcome opportunities like this to showcase the artistry of woodcarving to the public.
The Board has approved the purchase of new LED tube lights for the Cathcart Center. Club volunteers will install them this month. We are all looking forward to a brighter area for carving.
Many thanks go Bob Benston and his committee for securing a new venue for our 2019 Woodcarvers Show. Having the Show at a new location will require participation from as many club members as possible. Please contact Bob and volunteer your time and talents to help make this another successful show.
It is with sad hearts to learn of the passing of one of our members, Debra Downer. Debra was a warm and wonderful person as well as a talented carver and painter. Debra was a friend to everyone she meet. She will be missed. Happy Carving !!!
Al Wheeler,
President
THE FREEDOM OF CARVING OPENS THE MIND TO UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES
Vice President Tom Kavanagh will be the go to person to coordinate and schedule any classes offered by the club. If you have any ideas for classes that you would like to see offered, please contact Tom.
Unleash your creativity. I would like to challenge each member to try something new in the art of woodcarving. If you haven’t tried carving caricatures or chip carving or birds or pyrography, get out of your comfort zone. You never know what you can do unless you try.
If you think you can or if you think you can’t….you’re rightHappy Carving!Al WheelerPresident
Henry Ford
We continued to rent out all show tables this year as we started this last year. This again was a big relief on Sunday as we closed down the show and was able to get home in time for Sunday supper.
Attendance for the show was around 2000 this year. We had 127 registered carvers with a total of 690 carvings for competition. In the Novice Division there were 21 carvers and 103 carvings. In the Intermediate Division there were 49 carvers and 304 carvings. In the Open Division there were 57 carvers and 283 carvings. We were also represented by 12 states and 21 different carving clubs.Bubba Mullis took on the JC Campbell raffle again this year and collected $1025 for this year’s sales. We congratulate Diane Bagwell as the winner for a week long class at the John C. Campbell School. Thank you Bubba for another successful year towards the JC Campbell raffle sales.
This year the club had 107 items in the raffle. We were actually running out of space to display all items that were donated. Thanks to all those that contributed to our raffle as we collected $2995 in our table raffle sales. This brings our total raffle and silent auction sales to $4020.Thanks to all the carving clubs and individual carvers for their support to our 2018 Showcase of Woodcarvings.
We would also like to recognize the seven (7) CCA members who attended our show this year; Mitch Cartledge, Dennis Thornton, Ron Dowdy, Tom Wolf, Desiree Hajny, Steve Brown and Jim Hiser. It’s an honor to have this many CCA members attend our show and we welcome all of you back to our 2019 Showcase of Woodcarvings.
