Greetings from Bettendorf, Iowa - Three members of the Blackhawk Woodcarvers Club attended the Harley Refsal classes on Scandinavian flat-plane carving during the last week of February. Gordy Moscinski attended the first class section, from Wednesday evening thru Friday afternoon. Judy Suit and Dona & Tod Wisner were in the second section from Friday evening thru Sunday afternoon.

Evening sessions started with a brief history of woodcarving as it evolved in Norway and Sweden, and proceeded on to a brief discussion on knife sharpening. After that, we each picked out the specific project we wanted to carve, and proceeded to make chips.

Harley Refsal is considered the world’s leading expert on this subject. He teaches Scandinavian-style Carving and Scandinavian Culture at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Besides his full-time teaching position, Mr. Refsal is regularly invited to teach Scandinavian-style carving to Scandinavians in Norway! As well as having this tremendous wealth of knowledge on these subjects, he displays great skill creating figures from blocks of basswood with only his Swedish carving knife! It was from carefully studying the Refsal carvings that we drew our inspiration to create our own work. We all learned quite a lot, and had great experiences practicing Scandinavian-style woodcarving.

Thanks to Mr. Refsal for his unusually patient coaching. Thanks, too, to Carol & Larry Yudis, owners of The Woodcraft Shop in Bettendorf, for their kind hospitality and hosting these carving classes. Can you imagine . . . a retail store staying open on a Sunday, just to accommodate a small bunch of carving students?

Bob Hallstrom & Don Stansfield attended special carving sessions in Branson, Missouri, during the first week of March. We should be getting an interesting report from that trip, too.

Shamrock-Green Candy - Thank you, Rosalie Wesley for the early St. Patrick’s Day treats at Wednesday morning carving. Those little green M&M’s from "the Emerald Isle" are great. Tasty!

Dave Meyer says, "If you’re looking for REALLY fine pizza in the Quad Cities, Check out Frank’s." This is a family business, and they have places in both Bettendorf and Silvis. The one in Silvis is particularly interesting - they are still using the original tubular chrome chairs and tables. And, since Dave is a Quad Cities’ native, his word should be pretty good.

Hot Coffee is made for us every Wednesday. Thank you, Dona Wisner. She takes care of the whole setup, including all the accessories like sugar, napkins, and etc.

Our Carving Show - is August 15. This is NOT too far off to start thinking about what you will give to the Raffle. This is our best fund-raising opportunity, and we must make it good. A club runs not on fun and fellowship alone. It needs at least a modest amount of cash. How many carvings can you contribute?

Stir up your creative molecules and design your entry for our "Four-inch Spherical Carving Challenge." Entries will be judged at our Annual Carving Show, August 15, 2009, at the Tebala Shrine Center. Rules are simple:

1. Carving must be an original design.
2. Carving must be from a 4-inch wooden sphere.
3. Final outer shape of the carving must show original form of a 4-inch sphere.
4. Final finish must have a natural wood appearance from any oil or poly-finish.
5. The carving can not be painted.

Ribbons and cash awards will be given for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd Place. The cash prizes will be $50, $30, and $20, respectively.

If you want a head start on making a sphere, roughouts are available from Don Stansfield for $9 each.

Bob Hallstrom has Club Decals - copies of our Club logo. His intention is that every one of us should have one of these decals on every one of our cars/trucks. Bob is donating these to the Club ... no charge. Get yours and show your support for Blackhawk Woodcarving. Bob also has embroidered Club patches. These are $5 each.

Club Library has been getting quite a lot of play lately. You might want to check it out to see the new stuff that’s been added.

WHEN you bring an item back - Please return it into the shelves IN NUMERICAL ORDER. That way, it’s ready for someone else to find it.

ALSO - sign/date the card IN when you bring an item back, and put the card back in the item you borrowed.

Bernie has gone to a lot of trouble to organize the Library for ease of use. Let’s keep it that way.

The Woodcraft Shop in Bettendorf, Iowa, tries to keep us supplied with copies of their carving catalog. We keep extra catalogs in our library cabinet. If you don’t have a copy, take one. (Continued -> That’s what they’re for. The Shop has everything imaginable for the woodcarver.. The Woodcraft Shop’s mail-order service is as good as mail order gets. And if you are looking for a nice easy drive some day (not Sunday or Monday), just take a trip down to Bettendorf. It’s only about two hours away from Rockford, and the nice folks there would love to see you.

"You only need two tools in life ... WD-40 and duct tape.

If it doesn’t move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves, and it shouldn’t, use the duct tape."

- GL

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Gary Lundquist, Secretary’s Report - Read, and approved as read.

Treasurer’s Report -Read, and approved as read.

Membership Report - Up-dated membership lists are available for the asking. It would cost too much to mail a copy out to everyone.

Newsletter Report -(the Newsletter IS the report). Computer problems in the printing production department messed up production of the March Newsletter. We hope to have these corrected, so April’s Newsletter is on time..

Library Report - No report. Bernie’s in Florida ‘til March.

Web Master Report - There is a new library list on our Club Website that has all the latest additions to our Club library.

Carve a decorative knife handle - Denny Neubauer has in the past conducted a class on carving a knife handle. (I think Larry Christensen or Don Stansfield has such a knife.) Since Denny has been hired to be the judge at our show in August, it was suggested that he might be willing to teach class on the day after the Show. Sunday. Estimated cost to a student would be $50 for the class, and $20 for a new carving knife with a basswood handle suitable for carving. Interested carvers should get to either Don Stansfield or Bob Hallstrom to let them know. If there is not enough interest, naturally, there will be no class.

Delores Cascio is cleaning out all the extra carving wood that she has accumulated thru the years. She brings it into the Wednesday morning sessions for sale. It’s pretty good stuff, too.

Don Stansfield reminded everyone to bring in their Wood Spirit Pin Carvings for the March business meeting on March 18 for judging. What will be good, will be the chance to see how different people have interpreted the same idea.

MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 0945 HOURS

My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed. I turned to her and asked, "Do you want to have sex?" "No," she answered. Then I asked, "Is that your final answer?" She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, "Yes."

So I said, "Then, I’d like to phone a friend." ..... And that’s when the fight started.