The Work Begins!

Developing a full sized pattern (scribble and erase, erase and scribble) for two of the five upper pipe shades to adorn the new J. F. Nordlie pipe organ now being built for the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Church in New Ulm, MN.  Eventually these pipe shades, carved in basswood, will be gilded with gold leaf such as those we did for the Chapel Organ in the Moravian Church in Kernersville, NC:

 J. F. Nordlie Organ - Opus 50.

Chain Saw Carving

Chain Saw Carving by Thomas Vrba

New Web Site

It was a pleasure to meet a young lady at our January third Saturday  meeting of the S D Woodcarvers, Inc. who was about as new to wood carving as anyone can get.  We gave her a sharp whittling knife and a piece of wood and expected her to go to work. But she really did not even know how to hold the knife and make the first cut.  We more experienced carvers find it sometimes difficult to explain how to do what has become almost second nature, but here is a website that really gets down to the basics:
Whittling WoodCarving