Cherry Ridge Carvers

Welcome to our 22nd year for the Northeast Woodcarvers Roundup.  The dates are July 21 through the 25th, 2024. The Roundup is held at Cherry Ridge Campsites, 147 Camp Road, Honesdale PA .

The Roundup is a gathering of woodcarvers interested in learning and sharing the craft and art of woodcarving.  There are several of these types of events held throughout the US and they offer an exciting opportunity for the beginning to advanced carver.
Also, take a look at the FAQ page, it will help answer some of your questions.
If you are staying at the campgrounds please make sure to make your reservations early call the campgrounds directly at 570-488-6654. If you are searching for other places to stay, check our page titled “Overnight Accommodations”.

Check back often for updated information.

See you in July.

Class Information – Watch for Updates

Mike Bloomquist – Mike will be teaching 4 days this year.  Monday and Tuesday will be a two day class teaching the “Dancing Mouse”. Student will carve the mouse or a santa if you don’t like mice. Then assemble the base. Wednesday and Thursday will be his flat plane potpourri choice of projects.

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See more of Mike’s carvings by Clicking here Mike Bloomquist began carving fishing lures in 1985. After failed attempts carving a wood duck and a draft horse, he learned how to really sharpen tools from a Rick Butz video and realized what many others found enjoyable about the art. Then, in 1994, he attended a woodcarving show sponsored by the Mohawk Valley Art and Woodcarving Assoc. Inspired by the variety and level of talent, woodcarving reached addiction status for him that year, and now serves as an excellent example of a hobby gone horribly out of control. While Mike started out in the Scandinavian Flat Plane style of woodcarving, his skills now encompass several forms including wildlife, folk art, fantasy, in-the-round, relief, and an occasional abstract. His pieces have been adopted for collections in Canada, England, Germany, Iceland, and across the United States. He enjoys teaching, demonstrating, and writing about woodcarving and proudly takes credit for Shanghaiing his friend Harold Kaltenbach into teaching at the very first year of the NEWR.

 

Jim Hiser – –Jim will be offering various Caricature projects . He will be teaching three days Monday through Wednesday Maximum number of students per day 10. All level of carvers welcome. All projects are done with a knife and palm gouges. Projects are designed as 1 day projects.

Jim teaches several classes each year and attends various carving and art shows displaying his work. He is a member of the Caricature Carvers of America and likes promoting Caricature carving to new and experienced carvers.

Jim O’Dea – Jim will be teaching all four days this year. Jim has a large variety of projects available for the beginner to advanced. He will also be bringing his assortment of woodcarving items and tools for purchase. Additional class information will be provided as we get it.

  
Jim O’Dea has 45 years experience carving human caricatures, carousel horses, realistic freshwater fish, whales and many other subjects. During this period he has studied woodcarving with several master wood sculptors across the USA and Canada. Jim has taught woodcarving for over 20 years, including evening courses at Ledyard High School, Ledyard CT; weekend classes at the New England Carousel Museum in Mystic, CT; the New England Woodcarvers Retreat at the University of Rhode Island; the Florida Woodcarvers Roundup, Clearwater, FL; the Lake Placid Woodcarving Experience at Lake Placid, NY; the NorthEast Woodcarvers Roundup in Honesdale, PA; The Michigan Woodcarvers Roundup at Evart, MI; the Indiana Woodcarvers Summer Camp,Bremen, IN; The Buckeye Woodcarvers roundup at Fletcher, Ohio; and numerous classes for the Mystic Carvers Club in Mystic, CT, Rainbow Woodcarvers Club in Niagara Falls, NY; the Southtowns Woodcarvers Club in Hamburg, NY; the Peace River Carvers Club in Arcadia, FL; the Myakka River Carvers Club in El Jobean, Fl, and the North Port Woodcarvers in Northport, FL. Jim lives in Rotonda West, FL and spends summers on Grand Island, NY. See Jim’s web site with useful information to those pursuing woodcarving as a hobby here.

Chris O’Dea – Chris has taught for several years at the Roundup.  Her past projects have been the quilted Christmas socking.  Watch for updates to her class information.

 

Harold Kaltenbach – Bark Houses ” Harold will be teaching Monday through Thursday. He will have a variety of blanks to choose from. Please bring all your tools, no tool to big or too small and have an open mind to think outside the box. Class size max 14. Carving gnome homes from single pieces of cottonwood bark and also double pieces of bark for advance carvers

 

 

Arland Zeiler – Beginner Woodcarving – Arland will be teaching techniques for the beginning woodcarver. Students will be using a knife only. They will learn the characteristics of wood and different terms related to woodcarving. This is an excellent class for those that wish to learn woodcarving. Offered -Monday only. Arland will also be offering classes in 2 different styles of letter openers one day and mouse cup hanger or mushrooms. A new project will be the bracelets shown below.

 

Arland has been teaching beginning carving at the Roundup for many years. He also has been teaching beginning carving to Boy Scouts for more years than he can remember.

John Griscti – Chip Carving -Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday- Students will learn to identify the differences between various Chip carving knives, and what features are best for the beginner and advanced chip carver. Each student will learn the correct way to hold their knife and will then start carving several basic designs. Each student will then progress to more complex designs such as rosettes – Both advanced and beginner chip carvers are welcomed.  There will be different projects to choose from. Pictures below are samples of John’s Chip Carving projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Muller – Bob will be teaching Relief Carving this year on at least 2 days.  There will be several projects to choose from. If someone has an idea for a project we can try to work it into a relief carving.  Tools needed are gouges and v tools along with at least one knife.  Mallet size tools work best for relief carving because of their length.  Class size is limited to 9 people each day.  Stay tuned for pictures.

Bob has been woodcarving since 1998. He has carved many different styles of carving including Cottonwood, Caricature, Animals and Relief.

Joan Lech – Joan will be joining us again this year. She will be teaching Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday Joan will be teaching the Covered Bridge Relief . Wednesday will be Spoons and a Sunflower. Thursday will be any of the projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jen Nailor will be available for a non-carving class. She will be teaching three days this year. These will be a one day class making an gourd/pine needle bowl. The other day will be making a pine needle baskets. Anyone taking the pine needle class is asked to bring a small pair of scissors and nippers – wire cutters to trim off the pine needle ends if they have them.

 

 Maura Cooper – Maura will be teaching an Advanced Relief Class, this is a pierced relief carving. She will be teaching this on Monday. Tuesday she will be doing Gnomes class.  She will also be available for a night class teaching Golf Ball carving one of the evenings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken Kuhar – Ken will be teaching three days this year. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He will be teaching caricatures. He will be able to accommodate 8-10 students each day.

      

Ken began carving in 2006 and has been a familiar face at the NEWR for many years.  He is a member of the Lancaster Woodcarvers Club and the Conewago Wood Carvers Club.

Dennis Thornton – Dennis will be joining us this year.  He will be teaching Monday through Thursday.  He will be teaching caricatures. class limited to 8 – 10 students. Below are some examples of his work. The exact project/s haven’t been determined yet.   You can see some his work at https://splintersandsplatters.com/dennis.htm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis has been carving for many years.  He was inducted into the Caricature Carvers of America in 2000.  He has served several offices in that organization.

Claudia Hill – will be teaching on Tuesday this year. She will be teaching Gourd Art.  Gourds are carved and decorated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Hoban – Bill will be teaching magic wands and ornaments in the same style with some additions.  This is a great beginners project.

Leon Standish – Leon will be our sharpener again this year. If your tools need a tune up bring them to Leon’s station. Leon not only sharpens tools but is an accomplished woodcarver. So he knows what type of edge to put on your carving tools.

 

Don Swartz– Don will be available all four days.   Don’s projects this year include a Santa, Caricature Couple and Christmas Tree. He will have some tools, books and wood along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don lives in Lancaster PA is the owner of Hillcrest Carving, a carving supply store located near Lancaster. Don has also had at least two instructional projects published in Woodcarving Illustrated magazine.

Maxine Ernest – Maxine is a new instructor for the NEWR, but has been a regular attendee for many years.  Maxine will be teaching “Candles with a Face” .  Carved from a 1″x1″x 4″ block of wood with the face carved on a corner. The other project is the Sesame St. Martian.  These are great beginner classes and a fun project for anyone interested. She will be teaching this on Tuesday.

Dave Dion – Dave will be teaching on Tuesday and Wednesday.  If you want to take your carving from recreational to competitive, this class is for you!

This class (a portion of his much larger college class on the art of caricature) approaches carving from a skills based point of view. Frequently, carving classes are project based, in that, you choose a project, then you carve it with the guidance of a teacher or experienced mentor. These projects are regularly based on fictional people/animals or Santa’s ( sorry kids, the cats outta da bag). Generally, the carver makes up a merged fictional person with an array of body parts: like “Frankenstein-buffet” -a little of this, a little of that, a head, some nose, a mouth, some body. Wallah we have a made up “person”.

Dave is an artist and carves real people! Real people caricatures must be accurate, resembling and honorably noble with dignity and personality!

To do this, Dave Dion will be teaching a skills based carving class designed for the intermediate carver and above.

He will have lecture, handouts, class aids, posters, takeaways along with 4 projects to choose from so you can put your newly acquired skills to practice on a cool project.  This years projects are Joe Biden, Paul Newman, Stephen Colbert and a sad man (to add expression and body language to your carving arsenal of abilities). Rough outs are available (all Heinecke wood).

This class is to help you substantially advance in your creative skills so you can craft and make your own projects, not others ideas or projects (especially for competitions)!

Beginners should not consider this class as Dave’s expectation is that you already have strong carving skills and would benefit from the other excellent teachers we have this year at NEWR 2024.”

Charlie Brooks  –  Charlie will be teaching on Monday only.  He will have a choice of projects.  You can choose from a snowman or comical bear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie hails from Missouri and has been a regular attendee at the Northeast Woodcarvers Roundup.  He has also been spending some time carving near his home area.

Sharpening Class – Bob Muller will be teaching sharpening techniques. This is a 45 minute session on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings before the classes start. We will start with sharpening tools and then basic knife sharpening techniques. Then the following days will be gouges and the V-tool. We will identify common mistakes and problems with some of the tools. We ask that all beginners attend this class.