Photo by Mike Wine

The Lancaster County Woodcarvers (LCWC) are gearing up for their 49th Annual Woodcarving & Wildlife Art Festival in Millersville, Pa. The festival is expected to have a record number of exhibitors (over 60), including the Woodcarving Illustrated magazine team, and various vendors. Carvers will also have opportunities to carve and learn with a simple five-minute owl and hedgehog project, as well as numerous demonstrations throughout the weekend. Carvers leading demonstrations include Steve Kulp, Joe Savarese, Ken Kuhar, and Dennis and Susan Thornton. This year’s featured carver, Jim Feather, will also be giving a demonstration on caricature carving.

In addition to demonstrations, the event will also include a silent auction, door prizes, and carving competitions. The 49th Annual Woodcarving & Wildlife Art Festival will be held March 9 and 10, 2024, at the Student Memorial Center at Millersville University in Millersville, Pa. The show will be open from 10am-5pm on Saturday, March 9 and 10am-4pm on Sunday, March 10. General admission costs $5 per person. Students, veterans, and active military members receive free admission with student or military ID. Get your carving knives sharpened; we’ll see you there!

For event and LCWC information, contact Ken Kuhar, 717-682-9400, lwckuh@gmail.com.

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By the 1980s, however, Harley noticed that there weren’t as many carvings available for sale in Scandinavia. He had taught himself (and others) to emulate Döderhultarn’s simple, almost impressionistic, style of storytelling in wood, but it appeared that no one was teaching Norwegians to carve their own folk art. Harley pursued the idea when he and his family moved to Norway in 1988 so he could attend graduate school. Upon discovering that no one was teaching figure carving in either Norway or Sweden, Harley did it himself. It was the first of many classes; Harley taught so many Norwegians how to carve, in fact, that he was awarded the St. Olav’s Medal from the King of Norway in recognition of his contributions to Norwegian folk art. He was named the 2012 Woodcarver of the Year by Woodcarving Illustrated magazine for both reviving the art of flat-plane carving and teaching it across the United States and around the world. His work has been featured on numerous radio and television programs, including the PBS Peabody Award-winning series “Craft in America.”

And, Harley literally wrote the book. Several of them. He tells the story of Scandinavian flat-plane carving—and, really, the history of all caricature carving—in his book, Scandinavian Figure Carvings: From the Viking Era to Döderhultarn, Trygg, and Modern Carvers. He provides several step-by-step projects and scores of patterns in Carving Flat-Plane Style Caricatures. Material from both books has been published before, but both have been updated with new material, including extensive photos, maps, event calendars, and more.

Meet Harley and hear him speak about Scandinavian flat-plane carving at the 2016 Fox Chapel Publishing Open House and Woodworking Show on May 13-14, 2016 in Lancaster, Pa. Click here for details.

Want to learn flat-plane carving?

Take a rare public class from Harley at Fox Headquarters on May 16-18. You’ll finish and paint at least one carving; some carvers manage two or three. Click here for details or tickets.

The post Book Corner: Author Harley Refsal appeared first on Woodcarving Illustrated.