74
Realistic chipmunk is 
a great fall carving.
4
Editor’s Note
6
From Our Mailbag
8
Reader Gallery
10
News and Notes
14
Relief Column
86
Shop Notes
88
Book Reviews
90
Calendar of Events
94
Coming Features
95
Ad Directory
& Classified Ads
96
Woodchips
DEPARTMENTS
Check out 
Woodcarving Illustrated 
on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter, twitter.com/woodcarving
FEATURES
18
The Wonderful Wizard of Oregon
By 
Toni Fitzgerald
Gary Burns uses self-taught
techniques to carve out a 
fantastic niche
30
Back to School
By 
Mindy Kinsey
Learn to carve or hone your skills at 
schools and classes across the country
37
Story Time
By 
Kathleen Ryan
Carlo Olkeriil tells American stories 
in traditional Palauan style
54
Carving Like Maniacs
By 
Ayleen Stellhorn
Turning a Halloween hobby 
into a pumpkin-carving business
68
CNC Woodworking
& Laser Cutting
By 
Bob Duncan and Mindy Kinsey
Computer-controlled routers 
and lasers speed production 
for repetitive cuts
in this 
issue
FALL 2013 
■
ISSUE 64
www.woodcarvingillustrated.com
3
PROJECTS
PATTERNS
25
Carving a Wood Spirit
By 
Harold Enlow
Detailed instructions for 
carving your first wood spirit
32
Power Carving an
American Bison in Relief
By 
Jose Valencia
Learn the techniques to carve 
a gunstock on a less expensive 
wooden plate
38
Carving a Goldfinch
By 
Bob Guge
Practice power carving by 
making this popular songbird 
46
Double-Sided Holiday
Ornament
By 
Glenn Stewart
Ingenious Santa/turkey ornament 
is a real attention-getter
50
Carving a Caricature Horse
By 
Dave Stetson
Weary old nag is a great companion 
for any cowboy carving
56
Carving Kris Kringle
By 
Bob Mason
Get a head start on your holiday 
carving with this simple Santa
74
Carving a Chipmunk
By 
Desiree Hajny
Carve, burn, and paint this realistic 
version of a backyard visitor
Holiday Head Start
A 
collection of cute Christmas items 
and great gift ideas so you can start 
your Christmas carving early
Online Exclusive Article
Delectable Carvings by Kathleen Ryan 
Meet Chef Jimmy, a world-class carver 
of fruits and vegetables.
Bonus Whittling Pattern
Man in the Moon by Dave Stetson
Make 
your own moon man using just 
one knife and a scrap of wood.
➚
➚
➚
Additional 
online features: community forum • carving galleries • tips 
• article index • free patterns • product reviews • subscriber services
43
A Fantasy Favorite
By 
Don Dearolf
Customize this caricature wizard by 
changing the staff and paint colors
66
Carving a Little Guy
By 
Keith Randich
Learn to carve a basic figure and then 
personalize it as much as you like
TECHNIQUES
22
Chip Carving an Eagle
By 
Lora S. Irish
Practice basic chip carving techniques 
with this patriotic design
61
Carving a Native American Eye
By 
John Burke
Techniques for capturing the 
distinctive shape of these special eyes
www.
woodcarvingillustrated
.com/wci64
LOG ON 
TODAY!
Woodcarving Illustrated 
|
FALL 2013
4
editor’s
note
Woodcarving Illustrated 
4
Identification Statement: Woodcarving Illustrated vol. 17, no. 3 
(Fall 2013) (ISSN#1096-2816) is published four times a year in the months of 
February, May, August, and November by Fox Chapel Publishing Co. Inc., 
1970 Broad Street, East Petersburg, PA 17520. 
Periodical Postage paid at 
East Petersburg, PA, and additional mailing offices. 
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Woodcarving Illustrated, 
1970 Broad Street, East Petersburg, PA 17520.
Woodcarving and the use of associated equipment can potentially result in health hazards and 
injuries. 
While we cannot impose safety standards in every article, we do ask that you make safety 
your number one priority. 
Protect your respiratory system, hearing, vision, and the rest of your body 
with the proper safety equipment and prudent precautions. 
Read manuals supplied with your tools. 
Be aware most accidents occur when you are tired or distracted. 
And when in doubt, seek advice from 
professionals on how to keep your tools sharp and maintained. 
Volume 17, Number 3 (Issue No. 64)
How-To Magazine for Carvers™
Internet: www.WoodcarvingIllustrated.com
Woodcarving Illustrated Magazine
1970 Broad Street, East Petersburg, PA 17520
Phone: 717-560-4703
Fax: 717-560-4702
Our Mission: 
To promote woodcarving as an 
artform and an enjoyable pastime.
Publisher
Alan Giagnocavo
Manager, Magazines
Shannon Flowers
Editor
Mindy Kinsey 
Technical Editor
Bob Duncan
Creative Director
Troy Thorne
Art Director
Jon Deck
Founding Editor
Roger Schroeder
Studio Photographer
Scott Kriner
Advertising
Jane Patukas
Advertising Account Manager
Cindy Fahs
Technical Illustrators
Irene Bertils
Jon Deck
Carolyn Mosher
Newsstand Distribution: Curtis Circulation Company
Circulation Consultant: National Publisher Services
Printed by Fry Communications
©2013 by Fox Chapel Publishing Co. Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in USA
Subscription rates in US dollars:
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$69.90
Customer Service for Subscribers
Please call toll-free 888-506-6630, 
or visit our Website: 
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Display Advertising/Classifieds
Please call or e-mail Jane Patukas, (ext. 127) for rates and/or 
a media kit. 
Wholesale/Distribution
Woodcarving Illustrated is available to retailers for 
resale on advantageous terms.
Contact Wendy Calta (ext. 114) for details. 
Fall 2013
Note to Professional Copy Services — The publisher grants you 
permission to make up to ten copies for any purchaser of this 
magazine who states the copies are for personal use.
Customer Service for Subscribers
Visit www.WoodcarvingIllustrated.com, call 888-506-6630, 
or write: Woodcarving Illustrated, 1970 Broad Street,
East Petersburg, PA 17520
Printed in USA
Wild Wood
My friend and I took our kids miniature golfing the other 
day. Our local course, Village Greens in Strasburg, Pa., is 
fantastic—it rambles down a shady hillside crisscrossed with 
burbling streams and liberally planted with flowers. You 
cross over a swinging bridge and under a waterfall; water 
is the trickiest and most pervasive obstacle in the cleverly 
plotted course. Plus, you can order milkshakes from the 
20th hole for pickup when you’re done playing. 
As we were waiting to tee off, I spied large, root-like knobs standing 
along a stream under a tree—cypress knees. I recognized them from 
the samples, both carved and un-, at the office, and I was oddly excited 
to see them growing. It’s hard to explain, but seeing them in the wild, 
as it were, made them very real to me. It’s like I suddenly understood 
the relationship between the wood we usually see—carved, painted, 
and finished—and this dirty, natural, and lumpy wood that still 
somehow inspires people to go get some and turn it into something 
cool and creative. And in a small way, I felt the magazine in the middle, 
helping other people make that connection.
One of the artists featured in this issue, Gary Burns, a.k.a. “Wiz,” 
is especially inspired by dirty lumps of wood. Gary carves pine knots 
from well-rotted trees because he likes the way the wood carves when 
it’s full of pitch. He also carves maple burls, which he says don’t chip as 
much as regular maple and have interesting grain. Learn more about 
Gary and his carvings, and get some tips for carving burls and knots, 
beginning on page 18.
And speaking of cool and creative, check out pages 54 and 55
(go ahead, I’ll wait). Artists Marc Evan and Chris Soria morph into 
the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers at this time each year. Using standard 
carving tools, art supplies, and kitchen gear, they will create 500-plus 
decorative pumpkins over the course of three months. Like Gary with 
his knots, the Maniacs not only carve what’s available, but turn the 
ordinary into something extraordinary. 
This issue offers you plenty of opportunities to do the same. 
Although most of our projects use traditional blocks, you could easily 
carve them in found wood—or found vegetables. Or, add a carving to a 
common object. Jose Valencia usually carves his low-relief images into 
gunstocks, although he demonstrated his art on a plaque for us 
(page 32). Our grape vine relief pattern (page 14) and eagle chip 
carving pattern (page 22) would both look great on furniture.
We have articles or projects 
about power carving, tech, 
caricatures, wildlife, and even 
holiday gifts. I hope that one 
of them inspires you to make 
something extraordinary. 
Mindy Kinsey
Cypress knees growing at the 
local miniature golf course.
www.woodcarvingillustrated.com
5
Woodcarving Illustrated 
|
FALL 2013
6
Story Boards
I usually listen to classical music 
as a background while carving 
(I usually carve with hand-held 
tools so I can hear the music). I 
often develop mental images of 
the musical scenes, whether it is a 
symphony, opera, or ballet. 
For many years, I carved 
Nordic, Celtic, and a variety of 
legendary and mythological figures. 
But in the past few years, I have 
been carving storyboards. One 
consisted of 17 relief-carved scenes 
from Peer Gynt 
(an opera based on 
a Norwegian fairy tale) embellished 
with background pyrography. I’ve 
nearly completed a storyboard of 
14 scenes from Peter and the Wolf. 
Fred Sontheim
Gibbons, AB, Canada
Editor’s Note: Learn more about storyboards 
on page 37. They are part of carver Carlo 
Olkeriil’s heritage; he was raised on the South 
Pacific island of Palau, but now resides in 
Astoria, Ore.
For my 40th birthday, I treated myself to a one-week class at the 
Geisler-Moroder Woodcarving School in Tirol, Austria. The 
school exceeded my expectations. I was surprised to learn of all 
the talent in the room. Sitting near me were two other authors 
published in 
Woodcarving Illustrated
: Carol Kent (Twisted 
Spiral Ornament, Holiday 2005, Issue 33) and Jim Farley (Build 
Your Own Carving Stand, Spring 2009, Issue 46, and Building 
a Tilting Carving Table, Spring 2010, Issue 50). 
By the way, my 
Woodcarving Illustrated
T-shirt was a big hit at the school.
Joseph Savarese
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Editor’s Note: Joseph has written two articles for 
Woodcarving 
Illustrated
: Creating Toy Block Ornaments 
(Woodcarving 
Illustrated Presents Hand-carved Holiday Gifts Volume 2)
and 
Carving a Sleepy Owl (Summer 2012, Issue 59). Look for his 
whimsy ornament in an upcoming issue
.
FOX HUNT
Robert P. Chartier of Ware, 
Mass., and Larry D. Graf of 
Bismarck, N.D., are the winners 
drawn from the correct entries 
received for 
WCI
Summer 2013 
(Issue 63). The fox was hidden 
on page 25, among the Folk Art 
Fish Keychains.
Find the fox in this issue, 
and contact us with the page 
number and location. Two 
readers randomly selected from 
all correct replies will receive 
a $25 Fox Chapel Publishing 
gift certificate. Entries must 
be received by September 25, 
2013, to be eligible. 
NOTE: With 
his feet on the “ground,” the 
contest fox faces left (other foxes 
in 
WCI
don’t count).
Send your entry to 
Woodcarving Illustrated
, Attn: 
Find the Fox, 1970 Broad 
Street, East Petersburg, Pa. 
17520, or enter online under 
the contests link at www.
woodcarvingillustrated.com. 
Continuing Education
Woodcarving Illustrated
authors Joseph Savarese, Carol 
Kent, and Jim Farley pose outside the Geisler-Morodor 
Woodcarving School in Tirol, Austria, with their 
instructor, Pascal Wirth.
from our
mailbag
SET IT
STRAIGHT
In our 2013 
Whittling
Special Issue, several 
photos in the Man in the Moon article 
by Dave Stetson were inadvertently 
flipped. A PDF of the corrected article is 
available for download on our website 
(www.WoodcarvingIllustrated.com).
For a free printed copy of the article, 
contact our customer service department 
at 800-457-9112 or customerservice@
foxchapelpublishing.com.
Embellished Star Ornaments
I found Jody Sebring’s Moravian 
star ornaments (Holiday 2012, 
Issue 61) interesting and inspiring. 
After carving 14, I decided to 
carve a tree to match. I didn’t want 
the tree to be lonely, so I carved 
a little armadillo inspired by the 
Oaxacan (Mexico) carvers.
Ramon Sola
St. Anthony Village, Minn.
Ramon Sola 
painted his 
Moravian 
stars and 
added stems 
to create a 
colorful tree.
Woodcarving Illustrated 
|
FALL 2013
8
▲
Honoring Veterans
Bird sculptor 
Ralph Ziegler
of Racine, 
Wisc., based his patriotic sculpture 
on a photograph by Frank Glick, 
which shows an eagle perched on a 
gravestone at Fort Snelling National 
Cemetery in Minneapolis. The self-
taught carver commented, “I don’t 
know if I’ve ever seen anything more 
awe-inspiring than the very symbol of 
American freedom serving as honor 
guard over those who’ve paid for it.”
Spiral Trees
Bob and Vicky Boyce
of LaPlata, Md., created 
these ornaments for their grandchildren and great-
grandchildren. Bob carved 20 trees based on Dennis 
Carlson’s pattern (
WCI
Holiday 2011, Issue 57), and 
Vicky painted them. The pair also made a shelf display 
by carving three additional trees in different sizes.
reader 
gallery
Harley Cow
Gary Hayes o
f White Bear 
Lake, Minn., created this 
caricature based on Harold 
Enlow’s Ozark cow design. 
Gary made the piece for a 
daughter’s friend who works 
on a ranch in Texas and 
rides a Harley motorcycle.
▲
Carved Mascot
J. Roy Miller 
of Bullhead, Ariz., a 
1963 graduate of Manheim (Pa.) 
Central High School, carved this 
Baron von Stiegel, the high school’s 
mascot. The 17"-tall piece was carved 
from a tamarisk log. Roy used hand 
tools, an electric chisel, and a rotary 
tool. The piece will be sold at auction 
to raise money for the school.
▲
▲
www.woodcarvingillustrated.com
9
Woodcarving Illustrated 
|
FALL 2013
10
Back 
After 
Flood
news and
notes
Dennis and Susan Thornton pose with their 26 
students aboard the Celebrity cruise ship 
Eclipse
.
When the White River flooded in Spring 2013, Holli and Rich Smithson’s 
home and business, located in Tipton, Ind., were flooded. Holli and Rich 
have owned Helvie Knives for nine years, after buying it from Ken Helvie. 
The couple saved most of their belongings by moving them to an 
upper floor. “We did shut down our web site for about 10 days and didn’t 
accept any new orders,” Rich and Holli said. “We notified customers that 
had existing orders to let them know of our situation, and everyone was 
understanding. We continued operations with the existing orders while we 
cleaned up and tore out wet materials in both our home and shop.
The Smithsons send their thanks for the many offers of help and 
support. “We can’t express how grateful we are to the carving community!”
Carving Cruise
More than 25 carvers took part in a carving cruise in 
January 2013. Aboard the cruise ship 
Eclipse
, Dennis 
Thornton, a member of the Caricature Carvers of America, 
taught a class on creating a pirate sea captain caricature. 
His wife, Susan, taught the carvers how to paint the 
carving. The 14-day trip to the south Caribbean was the 
second cruise sponsored by Cherry Ridge Campgrounds 
of Honesdale, Pa., and coordinating travel agent Mary Lee 
Cipriano. Another cruise is in the works for 2015.
Cruise participants learned to carve 
and paint this caricature pirate.
Yuma Carving Show
The North End Community 
Center Carving Club of Yuma, 
Ariz., held its 8th annual 
Woodcarving Expo on January 11 
and 12, 2013. Thirty-six carvers 
and eight equipment and supply 
vendors exhibited before a crowd 
of more than 1,200 visitors. They 
also presented demonstrations 
ranging from tool sharpening to 
chip carving, caricatures, relief 
carving, and painting.
More than 50 carvings 
competed for awards. Ed Miller, 
Vernon Brown, Fran Ladrow, John 
Bender, Al Kirk, and Larry Thorpe 
all won first-place ribbons. Vernon 
Brown’s chip-carved walking stick 
also took the Best of Show award. 
Ed Miller won the People’s Choice 
award, and John Bender won the 
Carvers’ Choice award.
The club will hold its next 
show on January 10 and 11, 2014. 
For information, contact the City 
of Yuma Parks and Recreation 
Department at 928-373-5243.
Floodwaters inundated the home and 
business of Holli and Rich Smithson.
John Bender’s relief-carved leopard was 
the Carvers’ Choice winner in Yuma.
www.woodcarvingillustrated.com
11
Woodcarving Illustrated 
|
FALL 2013
12
The Shuswap Carvers Society is hosting a unique 
contest: they invite you to carve a curling rock. 
Curling is a sport in which players slide large 
granite stones, which look like oversized hockey 
pucks with handles, across a sheet of ice toward a 
target, adjusting the slide of the stone with brooms. 
The Tim Hortons Brier is the annual Canadian 
men’s curling championship; the winners of the 
competition represent Canada at the men’s world 
curling competitions. In 2014, The Brier will be held 
in Kamloops, B.C., which happens to be the home of 
five of the eight organizers of the Shuswap School of 
Carving and Arts (SSCA).
The SSCA offers a week of woodcarving and other 
craft classes each September. As a way to promote 
both the school and the art of woodcarving, the 
carvers contacted the organizers of the Brier and