
The House That Carving Built - axiomdata316
https://bittersoutherner.com/2020/the-house-that-carving-built-brasstown-carvers-john-c-campbell-folk-school
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dade_
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.

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grawprog
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.

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aphextron
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](https://bittersoutherner.com/we-
are-bitter)

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criddell
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?

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phaus
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.

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criddell
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.

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phaus
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.

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

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

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aerostable_slug
They make quite good kitchen knives, as well.

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georgeoliver
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!

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phaus
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.

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germinalphrase
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.

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082349872349872
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/Ore_Mountain_folk_art)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pyramid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pyramid)

