Wood Chips

Newsletter for April 2026

Carving days: Wednesdays 10am-2pm at Art & Soul, Sebastopol

Second Saturday carving/potluck @ ? April 11th, 10-2p

Greetings fellow carvers!

Spring is officially upon us once again! Rain followed by beautiful sunshine is messing with carving time though, yard work beckons! Carve outside and sweep your chips into the flowerbeds…you’re mulching! Woodcarving is one of the contemplative arts, and many of us find solace in the meditation of our creativity. We are lucky to have this outlet, otherwise we might be lost on the internet or in front of the TV…

Reach out to your fellow carvers and encourage everyone to keep on carving– or woodburning. I very much appreciate the pictures everyone sends. Very inspirational! This newsletter would be much sadder without your contributions.

March Second Saturday was pleasantly spent in my backyard, where it was bright and sunny, and where a small group of us enjoyed good conversation and company. There wasn’t a group project this month, so we all did our own thing. The potluck was good, with a balanced variety of offerings. It was all too easy to eat too much, delicious!

We are very much looking forward to the Oakhurst Woodcarvers Rendezvous, our yearly reunion with the greater California (and beyond) carving community and our many friends. Sharon and I will have attended for 16 years (sans the Pandemic hiatus) and many other SCW members have partaken in the fun and know-how offered, multiple times. I’m teaching backscratchers again, and big and small balance birds as well as manning the Quail Carving Supply “store” with Sharon. We will be busy with that, but there are plenty of other classes to explore. See me for the classes list.

Our annual “business” meeting was held on the 11th of March during our regular Wednesday gathering. Led by President Tom Babcock, it was efficiently managed and concluded with in an hour. Tom is currently updating our bylaws to reflect our current situation. (the older version still has us at the church, from some 6 or 7 years ago) We must have been on top of things back in the day, because the folder with emergency contact info and liability releases that we had collected was dated to then as well…Time to correct this! I will have the forms available by next week and going forward they will reside in our cabinet at the store. Please take the time to fill them out.

Treasurer, Randy Frost presented his financial report (See Randy if you would like a copy) which was refreshingly favorable, so we can continue with Free Days. As always, we suggest a $5 donation to offset our rent at the store, (only if you are in attendance on a given week) or $20 once a month if that is easier and you plan to come every week. “Free June” and “Free December” also remain in place and if there is a 5th Wednesday in a month, that is also free. Please make good use of the red box and the sign in book so that we can keep track of ins and outs, including the amount put in, as well as your name. (This makes Randy‘s Job so much easier!)

The red box has always operated on the honor system, but we recently had a discrepancy between the actual cash and what was noted in the book… probably an over-site but concerning nevertheless! If this weekly donation ever constitutes a hardship, pay only what is comfortable. We’d rather have you here carving than not!

The grant to offset the cost of attending Oakhurst that we instituted last year will remain in place, if our financial status will support it. It is for any active SCW member and is to be used only for Oakhurst specific expenses. Grant applications open soon after next year’s Oakhurst announcement and can be submitted semi-anonymously to any of the board members, who will act as a committee that have determined the criteria for receiving the grant, considering need, and the privacy of the person receiving a grant. A lottery drawing will be made if we have more than one applicant. It was also moved and seconded that we reimburse members for the cost of up to three entries in the County Fair. This is a fairly nominal investment to encourage wider participation in the fair, as I have challenged everyone yearly. Dust off your masterpieces from the last year or two, or start something new–entries open May 1st and close sometime in July(?), but you don’t have to turn in your entry until a week or so before the fair opens August 7th. The budget was voted on and accepted as presented.

The new CCG president, Dave Woulf, is encouraging chapters to join the modern age and is offering us our own page on the CCG website, which we would have to maintain. They are also offering an on-line teaching series on how to work with Word Press on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 7pm. If interested, contact Gary Eaves, LOG editor at [email protected]. Randy Frost (already the lead for our Facebook page) and John Braschi have already expressed willingness to explore this. The entire Central Sierra Carvers club are CCG members. Impressive! I will be looking into what the path to our club achieving this goal cost-wise. It would be a proud thing to claim such support for the CCG, which supports our nonprofit status and carries our insurance as well. This being an election year, we opened the floor to nominations for any of the board positions. With no opposition, the board remains the same: Tom Babcock– President, Ann Bruner-Welch-Vice President, Randy Frost-Treasurer, Theda Mobley– newsletter editor, Sharon Terrel– CCG Liaison, and, in an exciting development, David Richards joins the board as Member-at-Large!

Next, we discussed what goals we want to set for the coming year. Primarily, we always want to see classes offered by importing teachers from outside our area. The club should be able to subsidize the cost for the teacher, their travel, food, lodging, etcetera and keep costs to members at a minimum. We hope to organize classes in relief, chip carving, power carving, lettering, little people, linocut, Santas, or whatever when we can… If anyone has a connection, please reach out so we can get this under way.

Ann Bruner-Welch was one of only two women selected to receive the 2026 Woods Service Award by the National Special Needs committee of Scouting America for her longstanding commitment to supporting Special Needs and Disabled Scouts, reflecting her extraordinary service to scouts of all abilities. Well done, Ann! Quite an honor, indeed! She has also recently completed the wooden book she started last year in Ken Sevy’s Oakhurst class. Her Scouting for Boys guide is convincingly realistic!

Wen Belber, our newly farthest flung member (Uruguay), has been adopted by a group of traveling chainsaw carvers from Argentina. Wen was experienced with chainsaws, having owned a tree care company in the past and living among the redwoods, but this kind of sculpture was new to her. These admittedly rough projects were the first carvings she had done since moving since her tools had come on a slow boat a couple of months later than she and Jo. Wen reports that, like carvers everywhere, they are a great group of people!

Daren Daugherty shared a cork covered bird feeder that he made with corks that Stella gave him. Cool! He is also making good progress in his carving, currently tackling the beginner otter.

Kathy Brown is excited to announce that she has finished something! A cheese round pyrography piece with a butterfly embellishment for a dear friend of hers. Kathy has a fine collection of UFOs that she is also working through.

What have people been up to?

Marie Hruby had the unfortunate experience of being betrayed by a stain and her poor penguin was left red with embarrassment. Neil and she picked out a light walnut, but it looks more like mahogany. The bird is currently undergoing a makeover after a little light sanding.

Sharon & I just finished with our latest group of 4H kids under the leadership of Chelle McDonnell. During this session, they were all returning students and though they were at a variety of skill levels, it was fun not to start at the beginning.

Theda–I have been getting my act together for Oakhurst – everything I think we might need to take is piling up in my garage…making it a bit tough to move around. I have finished a few things, though. I color-ized the bonsai pyrography using pale watercolor washes for a pleasing effect. The walking bear blank that gave me a few fits finally resolved after I reminded myself that bears have a plantigrade stance, unlike dogs, which I am much more closely attuned to…I decided to fur and paint it, as well. Digging through projects set aside, I finally put my knife to an English saddle blank that I had cut out many years ago. It was a pretty funky blank, but with burned in stirrups and paint, it turned out ok. Then, I pulled out a small butternut western saddle and boots set that Stella had given me. I think that it had possibly been meant to become a bolo tie, but I’m not sure how to accomplish that, so I just made a stand for the saddles. Neither saddle are wide enough for any sort of horse… The boots could possibly become earrings, or danglers for a rear-view mirror.

Fairs: We’ll have a demonstration table again at the Sonoma County Fair, August 7th– 16th, so I’ll be looking for volunteers… Free fair entry, lots of fun talking to people, fair food. Try it, you’ll like it! Remember, I’m challenging everyone to enter at least one piece again this year! The theme this year should be announced soon, I’ll keep you posted – entries open online May 1st

Pyrography Group: This SCW sub-group has been meeting for a year now and we’ve done some nice work, learned a few things and had some fun. We have settled on meeting on the last Saturday of each month, (though there won’t be a meeting in April – Oakhurst) and while usually just the usual suspects are in attendance, we often have space available for anyone who would like to try it out. This isn’t a class, per se, but we help each other out and teach when needed. Space is limited to 8, so that everyone has sufficient elbow room and our electricity is not overwhelmed…

General stuff…

Art & Soul has requested that we please park around the north side of the building rather than in front so that close-in parking is available more fluidly to their patrons and not tied up for the hours that we are there. Thanks for keeping this in mind!

If, unlike myself, you find yourself without something to carve, bring me a pattern or a picture, or just an idea of what you’d like to carve and I’ll do my best to get something cut out for you. The club wood resides in my garage, so chunks of whatever you may need for your own blank cutting are also an option. We also have a fair amount of birch plywood (1/8”) suitable, if not ideal, for pyrography. We often have an ongoing need for blanks/projects beyond the initial four. If you have a bandsaw, please help by cutting out blanks when needed and sharing patterns that you may have (bandsaw or not) You can, of course, charge a reasonable fee for time/wood. Thanks to everyone who already helps in this area!

We are all of us are capable of getting new carvers started, and we have beginner blanks (i.e., the penguins, otters and hummers) as well as loaner tools and gloves at the ready. These blanks are in a small tackle box smaller bin that wears a padlock. The reason for this is that those were disappearing faster than we have had beginners to carve them, which is a problem when someone new shows up… If you have a special interest to share, or if a newbie just looks confused, please, step up and help. This doesn’t need to cut into your own time too much and will be much appreciated!

Some blanks can also be found in the blue lidded bins in our cabinet at the store. The blank bins operate on the honor system. Take what you want, just remember to pay the red box and note what you bought on the sign in sheet. The prices are generally penciled on the blanks or, if not, pay what you think is fair. If you want to carve something else, ask.

We sometimes overwhelm our allotted storage space… Please help the situation by not leaving personal items. Books and magazine are great to share, but if no one is actually borrowing them, please take them home with you! Perhaps one day one of us will win the lottery and we’ll have a dedicated space where we can maintain a reference library (…although I understand you have to buy tickets.) Occasionally, odds and ends go missing from people’s kits… generally we hope that they have just been mislaid and will turn up, but it brings up the fact that all our tools look pretty much the same, and it is easy to pick up someone else’s stuff by accident. Check your stuff and return any strays and be sure to mark your tools with a sharpie, or the woodburner.

Happy Birthday to: Gabe Shain & Dean Bettencourt 

Dates to remember:

Until April 24th – 23nd Annual National Arts Program (NAP). At the Finley Center

April 19- 25th 17th annual Oakhurst Woodcarvers Rendezvous

Until May 26th – 36th annual Artistry in Wood. At the Museum of Sonoma County

May 30th Pyrography group. Rsvp required 1-3pm

July 11-12th Pacific Flyways show in Sacramento at the Doubletree Hotel (www.pacificflyways.org)

August 7th – 16th Sonoma County Fair. Save the dates for shifts at our Demo table!

September 25 – 27th 20th annual Bay Area Makers Faire on Mare Island. Big Fun!!!

As always, any comments, announcements, pictures, inclusions or classifieds should be directed to me at [email protected]