Introduction to the Art of Whittling

This beginning workshop will jump-start your skills and imagination for carving basswood. Safety, basic knife skills, chisel skills and sharpening will be covered with a generous sense of humor. Your whittled animal can be changed at any time using quick-set glues. This process allows mistakes to become opportunities for discovery.

After the two-day workshop, you will have the ability to whittle easily at home.

Stan Peterson’s approach to teaching is individualized to the skill level and interest of the students. He assists each person in finding their own voice and vision through making art. He has taught drawing, relief printmaking, and woodcarving for more than twenty-five years to a wide variety of emerging and mid-career artists. He believes storytelling, humor, and a traveled perspective from visiting carvers in Santa Fe, Oaxaca, and Bali inform the ways we sit down together with a piece of wood, some sharp tools, and a few hours.

Stan Peterson is a professional wood sculptor living in Portland. He is currently represented by Imogen Gallery, Hanson Howard Gallery, and Guardino Gallery in Oregon.

• Students should bring a Kevlar glove (safety protection for the hand holding wood while whittling)

• A new Flexcut knife(s) all Flexcut tools come presharpened

• A shallow gouge and a V tool are useful tools additions.

• Instructor provides a variety of loaner tools

• Basswood

• Bench hooks for safe carving on any table.