Carving out a great time!

Bev Tappan, RiverWoods Resident

Looking for a new pastime with good company?  You don't have to be an artist or an experienced wood worker to enjoy the RiverWoods wood carving class that started last year and meets every Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Dixville Arts Room for 5 or 6 week sessions at a time.  The class instructor is 70+ year-old Wayne Preston from Somersworth, who teaches affordable classes of all ages and at all levels in Dover, Kittery and North Berwick as well as Exeter.  

 Woods resident Helen Paulson has advanced from a beginner's bas relief lighthouse in soft pine  to small animals including a mouse, an elephant and a bird.  With no prior woodworking experience, Helen just wanted to try something new and interesting.

Ted Dwight from The Boulders is also new to carving although he has in the past made drop-leaf tables with his radial saw as well as a mahogany veneered firewood box.  He is at work on a pair of kitchen tools: a large spoon and fork set.
 
Ridge resident Bob Wentworth has long been involved  in do-it-yourself projects such as a hall table and an office work table.  Recently a daughter gave him a set of small tools which led him to enroll in the woodcarving class last year.  The tools turned out to be for linoleum block rather than wood carving, but Wayne outfitted him with the correct ones.  After completing the usual beginner projects Bob created two 6-12 inch boats, a skull with oars for a grandson who rows and a kayak with paddles for a kayaker son.  This Christmas he made ornaments of trees depicting the pagan Green Man, the spirit of renewed forest life whose foliage- bedecked head can be found on cathedrals.  At present he is carving practice pieces for the top of a hiking staff on which he plans to show a male human face.  

Henry Beck has a pair of half ducks mounted outside his Franconia apartment, a colorful mallard and a merganser made in former years by carefully following printed directions.    Now, with limited manual dexterity, he is having a good time carving a large kitchen spoon.

Amy Blitzer has been sculpting wood for years.  She and her husband created large figures of bears and other animals from big tree trunks.  With arthritis limiting her hand strength, she is presently carving a modestly sized but impressive Beowulf serpent-tailed winged dragon. 

George Eaton brings to the class a lifetime of artwork and training.  In his apartment one can see a youthful drawing of two friendly setters, a watercolor of a fiercesome tiger, and gracefully stylized nudes among other works.  George was a professional designer of jewelry for Tiffany's.  He brings his design talent to the new-to-him art of carving bas reliefs such as the octopus and bird of prey shown here whose likeness he adapts to the size and shape of the wood plate.