One cold and misty December morning, shortly before Christmas, we set off for a weekend of woodcarving and sculpture.  To say that we were novices would be no exaggeration, so we were a little apprehensive.  The course was held at the Earnley Concourse ( http://www.earnley.co.uk/ ) near Chichester, which is a residential centre offering a range of leisure interest and activity courses throughout the year.  The centre is warm and comfortable with facilities that include a swimming pool, bar and internet access, as well as the IT suites, studios and workshop where the classes are held. 

Five of the nine students in the class had been on previous carving or wood working courses.  Experienced and newcomers alike were thrown in at the deep end straight after dinner with our first carving session, where we chose our projects for the weekend.  Mine started out as a duck and two days later - with help and advice from our tutor - looked something like one.   We learnt about the different woods that could be used for carving.  Fruit woods are usually good and most of the class worked with lime.  I used jelutong (Dyera costulata), which is a hardwood that is quite similar to balsa wood in that it is very easy to carve, but can’t be used for fine detailing. 

The first step was to draw my duck on tracing paper and then to transfer the design to each side of the block of wood.  The tutor cut out the rough shape for each of our designs using a band saw.    We set to work with a variety of tools, including chisels, gouges, grindstones and rifflers, having been shown the right and wrong ways to use them.  Our tutor held impromptu sessions to explain and demonstrate different points or techniques and was on hand to help us out when it got tricky. 

We also had the chance to admire the far more skilful carvings of the tutor and our experienced classmates.  Bill was tackling a complicated relief despite only having started carving at the beginning of the year, Jim was working on a sycamore leaf plaque to fit into a table he had designed and built, while Pam was finishing off the detail on a life size cockatiel. 

As it was close to Christmas and our tutor’s last session before his retirement, there was a relaxed, ‘end of term’ feel to the course.  Our tutor had promised we would all go home with something we were happy with and more knowledge than when we started, and he was proved right on both points.  Time passed very quickly, with workshop sessions interspersed with frequent breaks for plentiful refreshments and before we knew it, the course was over.    We left Earnley having had an enjoyable and relaxing break and being considerably better informed on wood carving than when we started. 

Would we go back?  Absolutely.

... getting started

... half-way through

... finished!