Newsletter Table of Contents:

Club News: back to table of contents

Sangamon Valley Woodcarvers Show, Springfield, Illinois

The Sangamon Valley Woodcarvers held their 20th annual show, September 4 & 5, 2010 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Illinois Building. Four members of the Saint Charles Area Woodcarvers showed their works at the show: Bill Kuhn, Charles Sapp, Jim Liefield, and Jack Combs. The following are some pictures from that show.

Saint Charles Oktoberfest - Pumpkin Carving

Several members participated in the Oktoberfest on Saturday and Sunday September 25 and 26: John Bouchillon, Al Westfall, Rich Weitzman, Bob Berg, and Wyatt Sample.

John Bouchillon carved both days. He noted, "Saturday was stellar and the crowd rolled in. Lots of people to talk and visit with. Sunday was darn cold but it got a few more people as the day warmed up. I sold 3 of my carvings. Two were taken before I finished. All in all, I carved 4 Saturday in 6 hours and another 4 Sunday in only 4 hours. Who says practice don't help speed things up. "

Here are many pictures of our efforts.

Recommended Resources: back to table of contents

Wood Supplies

The following two links are to sources of carving woods. Heineke comes to the Belleville woodcarving show each year and to other shows and provides excellent wood. Slim also comes to the Belleville show and has also attended our woodcarving shows.

Carving Instruction On-line FREE

Lynn Doughty is a western carver living in Oklahoma. He does a blog which provides tutorials on how he carves his characters with detailed instruction. There is no cost to the blog. It now has very well filmed video instruction - still for free. It is a great resource,check it out at Out West Woodcarving. The following pictures are examples from some of his instruction videos.

Gene Messar is a Flat Plane carver living on the Texas/Louisiana border. He has done a number of videos on youtube demonstrating the carving of santas, snowmen, Rufus and Sadie, hillbilly, wizard, hobo, halloween ghost, a scene with a dog treeing a raccoon in a tree and others. The following pictures are examples from some of his instruction videos. These carvings are demonstrated in a series of short videos. If you have high speed internet these videos are free and helpful. This is a great resource, check it out at Whittler0507

Dues: back to table of contents

There are no dues at club meetings, but be sure to pay your annual dues.   Check with President Rich Weitzman if you are unsure if you are paid up to date.   -- Club dues are $15.00 per year and include the website and electronic newsletter.

Seminars: back to table of contents

Meeting Time and Location: back to table of contents

Meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month. The meetings include a brief business meeting followed by a carving session. The meeting location has changed. Meetings are now held at the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project at 7295 Highway 94 South St. Charles, Missouri 63304. Visitors are always welcome!

Weldon Spring Department of Energy site.  From highway 40/61 or I-70 exit highway 94 and continue south toward Defiance.  It is just past the Francis Howell High School.  When you see a Quonset hut on the right hand side it is the next driveway / facility.

Member Web Pages-Update: back to table of contents

New members - be sure to get with Wyatt Sample and provide him with some pictures of your work and a background write up for the website. 

All Members, please feel free to update the information for your page on the website any time. Just send an email to the webmaster, Wyatt Sample, (link at bottom of page) with any new information about yourself.

Please provide some information about any new carving you want displayed and either send in a digital picture or bring in a picture of your carving to be scanned. You can look through the other member pages to see what type of information others have provided.

Reminders to Members

Contact us for more information on the club or activities.