The House That Carving Built | Hacker News Reader

The House That Carving Built

bittersoutherner.com

48 pointsaxiomdata31615 comments

I have a new addiction to stone carvings from trips to Africa and India. Expensive shipping, but not something I find in the mall. The depth of skill in carving is is quite spectacular. It is one thing to make an animal, but I am impressed by the skill of an artist to create a lifelike pose, facial expression, claws, teeth and muscles. Even more so as they express ideas and emotions through abstract sculpture.

I got into stone carving for a while when I was working at a granite shop. Any time we got some soap stone or onyx I'd grab a chunk and make pipes, jewelry and animals and stuff.

I was never able to do things like this

>to create a lifelike pose, facial expression, claws, teeth and muscles

But it's a really fun relaxing hobby. The feeling of shaping a piece of stone with some tools is really like nothing else.

It makes you feel connected with the earliest days of humanity. You can picture thousands of years ago, someone doing something not so very different.

I can't recommend Bitter Southerner enough. To anyone who cares about or is just interested in the American South, check out the rest of their content and podcast.

https://bittersoutherner.com/we-are-bitter

Thanks for posting this. It's made me wonder just how many amazing resources like this might be tucked away and unnoticed around the country. Other than word of mouth, just how do people find out about things like carving classes?

I'm just getting into the hobby of woodcarving myself. There are some online classes but most of them charge a small subscription fee. If I were looking for an in-person class these are probably good places to look and/or ask, they appear to be the biggest communities:

old.reddit.com/r/woodcarving forum.woodcarvingillustrated.com

There are also a ton of free tutorials on Youtube that are pretty good.

The part of the article that was really appealing was the discussion of the classes. It sounds like wood carving was the reason for the class, but socializing was a big part of why people came back.

Yea it sounded like a really good program. If I were able to I'd like to abandon everything for 5 weeks to go there like the author.

Honestly, google, and instagram is how I found most of the classes I've taken.

I follow a lot of spoon carvers and other types of woodworkers and they post their class schedules pretty frequently. If you're in the bay area, there is the Bay Area Spoon Carvers. Since covid, one of their members started a "Wake up and Carve" zoom meetup. People from all over get together and carve on Zoom, ask questions. It looks pretty cool.

I live in Tennessee, and East TN/Western North Carolina there are multiple folk art schools where you can learn this kind of stuff.

EDIT:

Also, I just want to say, the John Campbell Folk School is such a great place. In my high school/college years I went there for contra dances during the winter and summer.

If this interests you, I strongly recommend visiting the Warther Museum[0] in Ohio.

[0] - https://thewarthermuseum.com/collection

They make quite good kitchen knives, as well.

Folk schools in the US are great and they seem to be little known outside a small circle of enthusiasts. I encourage anyone interested in music, crafts and home economics (in the Wendell Berry sense of the phrase) to seek them out!

I had never even heard of them. Glad someone posted this article its very interesting. I wonder if there are any around me in WV.

Me neither, but now I know where to go when COVID cools its jets.

Penland School of Craft is in the hills outside Ashland, NC. I went as a plus one on my sister who was instructing in the metals studio. It was a wonderful experience.

I’m also aware of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, but that’s up in Maine.

The Erzgebirge in the then-East Germany had a strong export market for wood carvings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountain_folk_art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pyramid

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