September 15th. Meeting

     Our meeting for this month is scheduled for Wednesday the 15th., as usual it starts at 7 pm and will be at Jamie's shop/school.  Dennis Patchett will once again demonstrate his carving skills to us.  He plans to bring several examples of his work and also show how to carve a chain as well as a few flower designs.  My first exposure to carving was way back when in Cub Scouts.  We were given a bar of soap, a knife, and the simple direction of carving a whale.  I seem to recall that there was a picture of a whale, maybe Moby Dick, that we were to use as a guide.  The only advice I remember getting was to just "cut off everything that doesn't look like a whale" -- yea, like that really helped!  Good thing it was soap and I was able to use it for a bath later that week.
      Hopefully, Dennis will give us a little better understanding on what it takes to take a flat piece of wood and carve a recognizable feature on it.  From seeing his demonstrations before I'm sure we'll all walk away with some of his knowledge.  To carve as well as he does takes a certain artistic eye, the ability to see what the outcome will be as you selectively remove wood and shape it to become whatever it is you're carving.  Hope to see all of you at the meeting.