Dick Weber

Background: Hi, My name is Dick Weber, I presently live with my wife Jackie on Whidbey Island, in North Puget Sound, Washington. I am retired from 30 + years of Teaching Junior High School Social Studies, in the Shoreline District, north of Seattle.

I started woodcarving in 1970 after a trip to Alaska where I saw the worlds tallest Totem Pole being carved at Haines Alaska. I told my wife that I thought carving would be a great hobby and a good way to help me unwind after some of my long days of teaching. My first classes were in the NW Indian style of carving and that's about all I carved for the first 15 years. When I started teaching carving at the North Seattle Community College, Continuing Education program, I found that not all my students wanted to do Indian style carving.. This forced me to learn new and different styles. Over the years I have developed my skills in carving NW Indian style, caricatures, Santa's, animals and even a few birds.

After retiring and moving to Whidbey Is., I started teaching 3 days a week at local Senior Centers and have been doing so for the past 11 years. I have also taught at the Missoula carving seminar, the Tri-Cities and Quilcida spit and whittle rendezvous. I have also demonstrated at the local Arts and Crafts Fair and the local county Fair. I try, at least once a year, to take a workshop or seminar to learn new techniques and methods that I can pass on to carving students.

The carvings from left to right are a Raven Plate is carved in the Northwest Indian Style, a Running Bear, and a Skier.

The Birds from left to right are an Arctic Loon and a Cinnamon Teal.

Dick and five other carvers replaced a 17 year old Salmon Wheel in the town of Coupeville, Washington. The town decided to replace the wheel with a new Whale Wheel to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Penn Cove Water Festival. They started in January and the wheel was blessed by the local Indians at the festival on May 14. The wheel is 70" in Diameter and the whales are 35" long and carved out of first growth Western red cedar 1 1/2"thick.

Shown is the presentation of the Whale Wheel and a close up of the Whale carved by Dick.

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