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Highlands Today

Wood Carvers Ready For Saturday Show

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

President of the Highlands Wood Carvers Aaron Perkins works on one of his relief carvings during a weekly meeting at the Highlands Art League on Wednesday in Sebring.

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JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: February 27, 2009

SEBRING - Whether you like to whittle, are creative or are a chip off the old block, the 12th annual Highlands Wood Carvers Show, starting from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Sebring Civic Center, could be fun.

The entry fee is $3 for guests.

The Highlands Wood Carvers' members met Wednesday at the Highlands Art League in preparation for the upcoming carving show and competition. Wood Carvers have about 25 members.

"As of this moment we've got 115 pieces entered," said Chuck Thomas, carving show chairman, on Wednesday. "We have entrants from as far as Vero Beach, Tampa and Miami, so we draw from a fairly large area."

The members of the club will raffle away a nativity scene.

A carousel horse will be on display by the Lake Placid Carvers.

The competition will be judged in four skill levels; beginners, intermediate, advanced and masters. Judges will select best in each class as well as a Best in Show award. There will also be a People's Choice award.

"Everyone who buys a ticket gets a ballot," said Thomas. "So they get to pick who they think is the best in the show."

Thomas said he's been carving wood for about 25 years.

"I had a back surgery and I was laid up," he said. "My wife brought me a bunch of periodicals and magazines. There was an ad for a place in North Carolina that read, 'Come to North Carolina for a vacation and learn a skill.'

"We went down there and I got tied in with one of the better known carvers (Elmer Tangerman). He took me under his wing and I learned a lot."

For the most part the carving is done with hand tools, although there is no rule against the use of power tools and some shapes are first cut with a band saw.

"In the masters' class you'll find the birds were all done with power tools," said Thomas. "I don't like the dust."

Bob Seybolt, of Sebring, carves miniatures using only a small pocket knife. He was carving out a winged pixie figurine on Wednesday.

"I been carving since 1976," said Seybolt. "I still have my first carving, a figure of Nadia Comaneci on the balance beam (who at age 14 became one of the stars of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal). I just never sell them."

For this show he carved an American Indian scene and a sailboat.

Aaron Perkins is the Highlands Wood Carvers president. He's from Indiana but now resides in Sebring. Perkins has been carving for about six years, but caught the carving bug about 20 years ago.

"It started when my son (Matthew, now 32, and stationed in Iraq) was working on a wood carving for his Eagle Scout merit badge," he said, adding he helped a little. "That gave me the bug."

His specialty is relief carving, and his work has a gnomish appearance. He was working on a six-inch long Santa's face relief figure with a ribbon, so it can be hung as an ornament.

Does he sell them? Some become gifts, he said.

"It depends how attached I get to them," he said. "I've got a new granddaughter in Indiana, she just turned 1, for her first Christmas, she had a Santa carving (hanging) on her tree."

His other hobby is carving faces into golf balls and painting them with acrylic paint.

"You learn to understand the human face when you start carving golf balls," he said.

He can't enter them in the competition because they're not made of wood. He keeps a bucket full of golf balls to work with, he said.
Seybolt joked about how golfers hate Perkins over at the golf course when they mysteriously lose their balls. They like to cut up!

Most carvers use protective gloves or thumb guards, because sharp blades are involved, said Perkins.

"Aaron, tell the truth, we're all here for one reason, to remove our fingerprints from the federal files," joked Seybolt.

The group is trying to create a program for beginners to learn the basics.

Ken Richardson, of western New York, is a winter visitor. He sat quietly listening to the conversation while he carved one of three Personal Angels he gives away to people who need a spiritual lift. He got the idea from a carving magazine.

Are you spiritual?

"I believe in angels," Richardson said.

Jim Frederick, 32, was the youngest man in the room. How long has he been carving?

"About two hours," said a gentleman sitting next to him without looking up.

"This is my first day," said Frederick. "I'm enjoying myself. I saw it in the newspaper. I had a family member that did a little bit, so..."

Leah Goddard, who recently had a show on the DIY Network, will be a featured carver at Saturday's show. A high school group will provide a lunch for sale.

Items being judged will remain on the table and are not for sale, but some other items will be sold. Four wood-carving seminars will be held during the show.

The group meets from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Highlands Art League, located next to the Sebring Public Library, on Lakeview Drive. For more information, contact Chuck Thomas at (863) 382-1697.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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