Our gnome village began as a simple challenge by Steve V, sadly now a former club member having moved away to Nova Scotia. He carved a selfie gnome and suggested that the rest of us may want to try to do the same.  Simple enough we thought. 

A handful of us gave it a shot and quickly we realized we may be on to something.  It occurred to us that the club had not done a group project since the SALOON in over 30 years.  Many of the members who worked on that project are deceased now or have moved on from the club only two or three remain. Still proud of that project today, we decided that maybe we could take our gnomes a step further and do our own equivalent of the saloon.  

We moved forward thinking we could mount the gnomes on a log. A beautiful log was donated by our then president, Byron G. As beautiful as the log was we just didn’t see it living up to standards set by our saloon predecessors and the concept of a village emerged.

The idea of birdhouses as being central to our design was put forward by Mary-Leigh who found us plans and examples of what that could look like. We then went off in our new direction. As the creatively crafted birdhouses began to come in from individual members our vision grew. Jerry M. lead the way and set the standard with a trio of stackable modular structures. As more birdhouses appeared we realized  we were going to need a base to secure the houses. It had to be strong, mobile, safe and yet attractive. Byron G. and Ken K. engineered a welded steel core which Dave B. clad in an attractive wooden sheath.  This was then secured to a second hand cabinet scouted over a period of time by several members visiting second hand shops, garage sales and basements.

Next it was decided we had to dress up the now structurally sound foundation of the village and Ken crafted a two piece wooden flooring system to mask the steel plate and marry it to wooden cabinet top.  This was then power carved by Dave B. and Mary-Leigh D. and then painted by Gwen H. to resemble a pebble cobbled courtyard.  But as more birdhouses came in one and two at a time it was decided we needed multiple levels to accommodate our growing village.  It again fell to Ken to engineer and attach the additional platforms using tree branches for aesthetic purposes.

With the structure ultimately ready to support the birdhouses the design work and window dressing could continue.

Unfortunately Byron lost his battle with bone cancer and had to leave his birdhouses incomplete. Dave B. however picked them up and detailed them with opening hinged doors, wood paneling and shingled roof tops and even a waterwheel. This lead to Jerry revamping his modular trio by wallpapering the interiors of each little room. Mary-Leigh’s birdhouse was given a fenced yard and shingled roof to which Ted W. added a functional weather vane. 

The gnomes themselves tumbled in as individual as the carvers themselves. Dave B. created accessories including ladders, an incredible spiral staircase and more.  Wendy A. gave us a fire pit and log wagon equipped with an axe. Mary-Leigh saddled up a toad for her gnome to ride on. Brad’s gnome came complete with a cat hunting kit loaded with catnip. One of Susie R‘s carries a bucket of berries, the gnomes equivalent of apples, and the other a field hockey stick. Mike R’s gnome is fishing. There are bridges and an outhouse, a picnic table and toadstools.  The crowning glory is a bell tower with a school bell in place just waiting to be rung.

The ultimate finishing touch to the project is the wood burned welcome sign at the top just below the below that reads “Welcome to GOODALL EST. 2024” a loving nod to our dearly departed past president who certainly would have wanted to live long enough to see the project completed and then some.

The village was unveiled to club members at our annual summer “BBQ” on June 3 and then to the Ogden House community on June 6.  Named for our past president Byron Goodall, the village is dedicated to his memory. It is situated in a place of honour in the Ogden House board room next to the fabulous saloon.  Please visit it often and do bring your friends in to see it if you choose.  

We can all be very proud of our fully original, better than we could have imagined, crowd pleasing project. Byron would have been proud too. 

Featured Carvings and Meet the Members:

Dale C. brought in a beautiful blast from the past to share at a meeting.  His Kingfisher’s detail both carved and painted impressed us all.

Gwen H. set out to carve the three wisemen but was challenged by Susie Rod to design and carve a wise woman as well.

Bill W. one of our most experienced carvers really does it all. Here he shows us the beautiful detail in one of his many bark carvings.

Kim A. is not officially a member of the club but she is our favourite caterer and she did another wonderful job for us with our Mexican themed summer social event.

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President’s Message

Our summer party was a hit we had approximately 30 in attendance, Kim did her usual great food, even those who weren’t sure of Mexican fair said that they enjoyed it. Seeing the carvings that were brought in to show were enjoyed by all.

For those who were not in attendance I announced that for our Christmas party that is to be on the first Tue. in Dec. We will have another contest open to all carvers. Prizes will be $35.00, $25.00, $15.00 same as last year. This is for new carvings you start between now and then, so sharpen your tools find a piece of wood and give it a try.

The Christmas dinner will be turkey with all the trimmings and cabbage rolls. Price yet to be determined. We can do gift exchange again so this will give you lots of notice to find a gift for exchange. We will see what we can do to make the exchange go faster this year like some have suggested. I know it is 5 months away but just wanted every one to know the plan. As always if you have any suggestions please bring them up with myself.

Dave and myself were carving at heritage park for canada day it was a great time as always,  lots of kids, questions and interest in our club etc.if you have a chance come on out and carve at one of the other dates in August or September that Len supplied. Also there will be dates in November and December to be announced. 

Have a great summer.

JERRY MURPHY

KEEP YOUR KNIVES SHARP AND YOUR FINGERS OUT OF THE WAY

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LORI F: GREAT TIP FOR SHARPENING GOUGES

Keeping our tools sharp is such an important part of being a good carver, so here is a tip from one of our best.

Small gouges can be kept beautifully sharp with an inexpensive custom made sharpener. All you need is a piece of scrap wood, some honing compound and your gouges.

Working with the grain, carve a long thin channel in your wood with each tool. Make a mark at the end of the channel with that tool to identify which one it is for future reference. (You need to sharpen your tools in the appropriate gouge) Finally coat all the channels thoroughly with honing compound.

Be sure to pull your gouge vs pushing when sharpening.

Calcarver Family Album: A Random Sampling of Life in the Calgary Carver’s Club

AROUND THE ROOM: Work in progress by Susie R., Dave B., Lori F.

Jerry M.’s latest work in progress:

Chili Cook Off Award commissioned by Ogden House and completed by Jerry Murphy:

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Mary-Leigh D.