(Click to view... 144KB)Lenard Watts of Dayton, Ohio, has whittled with a pocketknife since he was a youngster. His earlier carvings were fairly small, especially the 100 or so monkeys and baskets he carved from peach pits.
Then in 1989, his friend Bob Mason talked him into signing up to carve a four-foot-tall Indian and a three-foot-tall cowboy in John Henry Thompson's class at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. A pocketknife just wasn't going to do the trick, so Lenard bought his first chisels and gouges. He has since added power tools to his collection, but uses them only occasionally, preferring instead to work with chisels.
Santa with children has always been a favorite subject of Lenard's. "Santa Sings a Lot Like Daddy," which graces the cover of this issue, was not a carving that he worked on daily. And because he had no intention of selling the piece, he did not document the time he spent working on it. He estimates, however, that the project took between eight to ten weeks. The wood is butternut, and Santa stands 16.25" tall.
And what advice does Lenard offer to aspiring woodcarvers everywhere? "It does help to take carving, clay and painting classes," he says. "So, when your club offers classes - of any kind - sign that sign-up sheet and support those classes. They do help."
This article, pictures of the carvings mentioned here, and MUCH more can be found in Chip Chats Volume 43, Issue #6.