My Wood Carving Passion

How Basswood Eggs Ignited My Wood Carving Passion

By Lori Dickie

Many years ago, my dad, brother, and sister took up wood carving. I was afraid of “playing with knives” so I stuck to working with clay. When my dad passed away, my sister Kristie, talked me into going to the local carving club so we could spend some sisterly time together. I agreed, but I was still nervous about using knives.

The first time I attempted to carve a piece of wood, Kristie’s only instruction was to “round” it. I had no idea what to do, and I learned very quickly that once you accidentally remove a large chunk of wood, it might be “game over.” Sometimes you can do something tricky to fix it, but it takes a lot of practice to learn to carve with the grain of the wood so you don’t accidentally lop off something important. (I also learned that you don’t panic and throw your knife when you cut yourself, because you may stab your sister.) I pretty much hated carving, was very frustrated, and decided that I would quit and go back to clay while I still had all of my digits.

Basswood Egg Carving

That’s when my brother, Bill, gave me a basswood egg and a step-by-step book on how to carve a little bird. I was hooked and made a hundred birds. I got better and better at it and gained the confidence to try new characters out of eggs. I discovered that I could purchase other shapes of basswood turnings online and that a variety of patterns were available for them. After that, I let me imagination go crazy, and I started to develop and create my own characters. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t get another idea to try.