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Time for wood carving

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An artistic eye and lots of patience are two qualities that make any artist successful, but especially a wood carver. Learning how to use intuition and talent to carve a particular object is a skill that is only learned over time.

David Parker, of Sherwood who is retired, has been a wood carver since he was about 20 years old.

"I saw an article in a magazine," he said, "and decided I could do that.

"I do a lot of lettering," he said, pointing to a carving he did of a quotation from the Bible. "Most carvers don't like to do lettering, but I do. I use gouges for the walking sticks and, for the caricatures, I use a regular carving knife.

"I have to keep the knives sharp," he said. "That way, it hurts less when I cut my hand," he added, with an easy smile.

Parker has a number of projects he has worked on including carving elaborate designs of outdoor scenes on the bottom part of wood clocks. He said it takes about 12 hours to do one clock. He also carves whimsical faces in his walking sticks.

One of his most unusual artistic accomplishments is his collection of caricatures.

"This is Eldon," he said, pointing to a carving of a farmer in a red shirt with blue overalls. "For Eldon, I used the style of carving called Scandinavian flat plane carving." He said he named his farmer "Eldon" because when he was working in Henry County, he met a lot of farmers.

"It seemed like a lot of those farmers had Eldon for their first name," he said.

Another one of his caricatures is of an old cowboy complete with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He calls that carving "Old Teks."

Parker does his carving as a hobby in his spare time and has attended several wood carving shows.

Defiance resident Vic Dunlap became involved in wood carving as a result of his career as an industrial arts teacher.

"I taught industrial arts for about 30 years," he said. "I taught first at Arcanum and then at Tinora. I taught woodworking and my wood carving was an offshoot of that.

"I started with flat signs," he said. "I saw one and I said, 'I think I could do that.'"

Dunlap now does incredibly detailed drawings of animals including birds such as hawks, eagles and peregrine falcons, snakes, dogs and many small-woods mammals. He has created intricate displays such as his rodeo display that features a bull-riding cowboy, a rodeo clown and his dog, and a corral fence with saddles.

"On that display, I started with the bull rider and just kept adding to it," he said. "When I made the dog with a handkerchief around his neck, my wife said that was enough," he added with a laugh.

Another display is a Christmas crèche that features nativity scenes placed inside half of an eggshell. The eggshells, made from balsa wood, range in size from 3/4 of an inch to 6 inches high. To place the nativity scenes inside the eggshells, he carves the tiny figures and then glues them on a stick which goes into the eggshell.

He also has done some pierced carving which involves carving a figure and taking the wood inside the figure out, which leaves a shell of the figure. He has a tiger that he carved in this manner which allows the viewer to see through the tiger's stripes.

"Once I get started on a project, I like to keep going because I want to see what it looks like when I'm done," he said. Dunlap said he attends wood carving shows and has entered his work in a number of competitions, winning several awards.

"I do a lot of custom work," he added. He also has his creations for sale at the Old Red Barn, located on Jewell Road.

For Barry Kern, of rural Liberty Center, wood carving has evolved into a post-retirement career that has given him wide recognition.

"Wood carving is something I always wanted to do," he said. "I started in either 1985 or 1986. I retired from Ford Motor Co. about three years ago.

"I carve all kinds of wildlife figures. My wildlife figures sell from $150 up to $2,000. I do a lot of things, such as songbirds, for anniversaries, weddings and birthdays.

"I also do a lot of gun stocks," he said. "The gun stock work has started a business _ Chestnut Art Works." His brother, Tom, is also involved in the business. He said he has sold his gun stocks all over the country, from New York to South Dakota.

"The gun stock work is pretty detailed," he said. "It takes a lot of patience. I do all kinds of checkering and other detailed work on them. It takes between 40-60 hours to do a gun stock."

Kern attends wood carving shows, such as the one held at Sauder Village in late October, and also goes to many gun shows in the area. In spite of the poor economy, business is holding up well for him.

"If people decide they want a carving, they will find the money for it," he said.