Wood Chips
Newsletter for May 2026
Carving days: Wednesdays 10am-2pm @ Art & Soul
Second Saturday Carving/potluck at Theda’s May 9 th,10-2pm
Greetings Fellow Carvers!
I hope everyone has been enjoying this spring weather – there are lots of opportunities for yard work and creating some home-made mulch. (Just sweep your chips into the flowerbeds.) This newsletter is a little later than usual because I’ve been gone with a bunch of fellow SCW carvers to the:
As some of you will have noticed, we did not have a Second Saturday in April. This was because no
one volunteered to host and others were in packing mode for the 17th annual Woodcarvers Rendezvous in Oakhurst. We had a wonderful time! There were quite a few of we SCW carvers – not easy to keep track of everyone for meals and the like. Sharon Terrel, Judy Hess, Jo Broussard, Bert Flack, Nona Estabrook, and her grandson, Kayden Counter, Jan Halseide, Nancy Robbins, Ann Bruner-Welch, David Richards, Wayne, Lisa & Nicole Van Hoesen & I all made the trek south safely and in good time. The weather was lovely all week, only a little chilly in the morning.
There were a lot of classes to choose from: face/bust carving with featured carver, Vic Hood was back
again from Tennessee, ball in cage or chain carving, relief carving, bark carving, spoon carving, backscratcher, balance birds, power carving a moose head or a bunny, cigar box guitars or dulcimers, tatting, mosaic stepping stones, pine needle baskets, beading stars and an assortment of beginner or non-carver projects. In addition to the regular classes three evening classes were offered: knife covers, “Teaching your Passion” taught by our Ann Bruner-Welch on using the teaching sticks she uses for scouts, and an additional pyrography class, led by Ngaam Worley from the Tri Valley club. What Fun!!!
As has always been the case, there were plenty of cool prizes given out at the two BBQ, and final
potluck dinners. Several of our group won things. On Thursday evening we were able to secure the private room at Round Table Pizza and invited friends to join us for a no-host pizza party, which was lots of fun. Briefly, this is what we were all up to:
Ann was able to get into the Vic Hood class and very impressively worked on a girl embraced by a
crescent moon in butternut. Sharon took on a relief carving/sign “Welcome to our Nuthouse” which allowed her to work at our store at the same time. Judy and Jo both took the bunny carving class with Lola Nelson and explored kolrosing with Darryl. Bert did a bunch of his Turkish knot rings for people and worked with Jerry Schneider on assorted whimsies. Nona made a very cool cigar box guitar and her grandson, Kayden carved a spoon and made a napkin holder. Jan and another of our long-distance members, Roman, worked with chip carver Vicky Hopson. David spent time with Jerry and reports that he is overwhelmed with inspiration and started a relief project with Ken Morgan, as well as kolrosing. Wayne and his daughter, Nicole carved balance birds at my table while Lisa enjoyed making a mosaic steppingstone. Nancy worked on a couple of Darryl Easter’s projects, including a folding spoon and kolrosing. I carved a couple of backscratchers during my classes and picked up several projects to do back home, as did most of us.
Totem: If you haven’t made a totem piece, you ought to. Blanks are in the box. (2x2x3 with a ½” center hole) Great PR and represents you at functions that you might not be able to attend. We have a bunch of totem blanks, as well as several carved heads in need of finishing, should you rather adopt a character and make it your own. We took our totem with us to Oakhurst, and it was much admired. (Thanks, Ann)
May Second Saturday will be hosted by me on May 9th 10am-2pm. No project is planned
yet…suggestions? So, bring something to carve, something to carve with and something tasty to share.
Our intrepid treasurer, Randy Frost, is embellishing his SCW resume by swiftly adding webmaster to
his title. Already managing to keep our Facebook page more active, he has secured a domain name:
SCWoodcarvers.org and designed a web page. It’s already launched, but Randy brought a mock-up around forus to review and make suggestions. Tweaks have been made and it will continue to evolve with your help.Eventually, beyond our general information (meeting time/place etc…) we will have a gallery where members will be able to showcase their work. How very 21st century of us!!!
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 is Festivals. Fiestas, and Fun. Slightly awkward for a carving project, but we have time! Entries open online May 1st
Pyrography: A year ago, even though I only got only a few responses to my inquiry about starting an
informal pyrography group, I decided to go ahead with it. The general idea was for up to 8 people to join me inthe garage for a couple of hours one afternoon every month and play with pyrography. BYO burner, pattern, wood, (though the club does have some 1/8” plywood that can be pressed into service and there are a couple of extra burners around to borrow…), and snacks. No teaching but help as needed. As things evolved, we now meet on the last Saturday each month, and we have collectively done some nice work, and had a lot of fun. All are welcome, but you must sign up, as space and electricity are limited. Our next meeting will be on May 30th,1-3pm.
In other news:
From Paul Marini: “I have not been goofing off. These images show the bird with all 33 tail feathers
placed in position but not glued. I will tighten them up when I attach them permanently. I am now in the
process of “damaging” them a small amount. When Elise gets back from Hawaii next week, she will finally paint them and then they can be attached. Perhaps another month before the unveiling.”
Dave Hensley continues his own exploration of pyrography with a tiger lounging on yet another cheese
round. A pair of zebras are up next.
And, if we’re still being cheesy, Judy Hess shared a few projects that she’s done, and her nearly
finished dreamcatcher.
Theda: I guess that I have been mostly doing pyrography in the run-up to Oakhurst and just doing a few
small things on Wednesdays. Most recently I took on a cheese round. After finding the frame of an old clock that I’d saved, I thought about what I could use it for. It didn’t work for my first project idea, so I scrolled through the cheese rounds that Kathy has given us and found one that had an interesting purplish area that suggested a sun stained sky and cut a circle out of the round, which led to a pyrography landscape that I painted with washes of watercolor. I was quite pleased with the result, and inspired, I looked at the leftover piece of cheese round which was very obviously in the shape of a crescent moon. Some burner work and oil pencils resulted in the moon shown below, which now graces the door of our hall bathroom (a nod to historic outhouse design…) The woodchuck (and roses) pyrography plaque was from a picture on a Woodcraft sales sheet that I thought was cute. The roses on the other side were just because I seem to have trouble with blank surfaces… In testament to that tendency, a cat & mouse bark relief is sitting at my workbench while I think about what to put on its other side:
Theda’s recent pyrography projects
Club wood: We have a fair amount of wood stored in my garage. Primarily basswood, and some
butternut – assorted chunks of each, some bark, and a pretty good stash of 1 & 2” basswood boards that can be cut to length. We also have an extensive collection of the aforementioned thin plywood, somewhat suitable for your pyrography projects, and quite a bit of bark, and driftwood for bases. I’ve been rather ruthless with my scrap bucket, relegating a good amount of the “might use it someday” collection to the “next step is kindling” box under my saw. If anyone wants any of that, you can come and help yourselves…
Reminder: Razertip industries will repair your broken pyrography pens for just $12 plus whatever it
costs to mail them in. (which is quite a lot, since they are in Canada…it might almost be cheaper to just buy a
new pen.)
A bit of business:
Parking: please park on the north side of the building rather than in front, per the store’s request.
Housekeeping: The door into the studio/classroom area does not actually have a closing mechanism,
please push or pull it closed as you use it, as the store has requested. Clean up after yourself. Shake off chips
before venturing through the store or to the restrooms – sometimes there is a trail to follow…
Chairs: if you sat on it, put it away. It is easier for the cleanup crew to sweep afterwards, if we don’t
need to move everyone’s chairs. If you physically can’t, don’t worry about it.
Power carving: Please don’t do power carving in the classroom. We have several people with
compromised respiratory systems, and the fine sawdust is very dangerous for them.
Politics: Please just don’t. We are here to carve and enjoy each other’s company and while it may seem
that everyone is on the same page, that is not necessarily true…
Happy May Birthdays to: Julie Thomason, Dave Lewis & Pam Hight
Sonoma County Woodcarvers are Chapter 17 of the California Carvers Guild. If you are not already a member, please consider joining the CCG, too. They support out club in many ways (insurance, grants, etc…) and certainly appreciate any support we give in return.
Dates to remember:
May 1st Entries open for the Sonoma County Fair
Until May 26th – 36th annual Artistry in Wood. At the Museum of Sonoma County
May 30th – Pyrography group. Rsvp required. 1-3pm @ Theda’s
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!!!
Next year:
April 11-17th 2027 18th annual Oakhurst Woodcarvers Rendezvous
For more information contact: Dennis Ciccarelli #209-402-3583 or [email protected] or
Eric Jensen #559-580-7719 or [email protected]
As always, any comments, announcements, pictures, inclusions or classifieds should be directed to [email protected]
More Oakhurst Pictures
Happy Carving! May the Grain be With You!