Teaching

     We just got back from teaching and attending classes at the Tri-Cities Woodcarvers Club Rendezvous in Kennewick, Washington.. We always have a great time there every year, learning new techniques, greeting old friends and making new ones. Due to lagging attendance and interest, numbers were down from previous years and revenue dipped a little, but all in all we had a great time.

I will be teaching more at the Woodcraft store in Boise, as I am now also teaching intermediate carving classes along with the beginning carving classes. Woodcraft agreed to teach beginner classes every other month and intermediate classes every other month. So the beginner and intermediate classes will alternate months. Beginning in July, I will teach a fantasy door class as a beginner class, then cottonwood bark faces in August, then a ghost Halloween carving in September, then a face study stick in October, then a dog/cat stocking ornament in November and a gnome in December.

I have outlined about 24 beginner classes, 14 intermediate classes and 30 or so weekend long classes. If you know of any carving club or group that wants me to come teach a carving class, contact me and I will set that up with them. I love teaching and always feel I give a great class for both beginners and intermediate carvers. I look forward to working with any group that wants a good teaching experience. Thanks.

New series of Youtube videos

If you are interested in learning how to carve, check out my latest Youtube carving video series.

On Youtube, check out my channel:  Eric Owens Carving

Thanks.

Christmas sale

Thekla and I did a short, small bazaar at the King of Glory Lutheran Church for the Sons of Norway lodge a few weeks ago. We did OK, but not as good as we had hoped. I will have to promote it a bit more aggressively next year.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from that sale. Thanks for looking.
                                   

New Woodcarving Illustrated article

I will have another Woodcarving Illustrated article coming out sometime next year. I pitched another article on my sports/fan bears, and they accepted. 
Here are the bears I carved for that article.

Thanks for looking.

Finished!

It took me a while but I finally finished the carving article for Woodcarving Illustrated. I am excited to have a 2nd article in WCI. 

I don't know when it will be published, but I suspect it will be next summer or next fall. We shall see.

Now it is on to the sons of Norway show. I will have a booth at that show, and hope to be very successful. A friend of mine challenged me to do some viking carvings, so I will have some at that show, as well as the usual characters posing as Santas, shelf wizards, cowboys, and a few others. Come see us on December 1st at Kings of Glory Lutheran Church from 9-3. You might even catch some lefsa if you get there early enough.

I also want to enter the Caricature Carvers of America competition this year. I have several good ideas I plan on carving. I also hope to line up some teaching dates for some of my designs for next year. 

We shall see!

Thanks for tuning in.

New article

I just received an email from Woodcarving Illustrated on a carving I proposed for an article. They want it and now I have to get moving on getting the article finished.

I proposed my sports bear and they want the article, write-up and pictures by November 15. That's quite a tight time frame, so I better get going. I have already carved a few, and am getting the sequence down correctly. After that I will work on the pictures and captions, as well as the directions, tips, tool list, paint list, etc.

So excited!!! Yay!

Above is an older one I completed and have since sold.

These two I worked on over the weekend.

Thanks for listening and tuning in. Stay tuned. I will let you know which issue it will be featured in.

More vikings

These Vikings are more of the ones I taught in the Salem, Oregon class. I know, Vikings did not put horns on their helmets. But whenever you look at drawings or images of Vikings, they seem to have a lot of horns on their helmets, so I kept the theme going. Besides, they seem to make it more finished with some sort of helmet adornment on them. I plan on doing one with wings on them. 

Interestingly, I read in an armor book that most of their helmets had fur-lined ear flaps that they often would swing up and out of the way when not needed. It was thought that they may have looked like wings,  as Thor is often depicted having on his helmet. That may have given rise to the impression that Vikings put some sort of helmet adornment on their helmets. So anyways, that is why I do it. 

Enjoy the pictures. Thanks!