{"id":10398,"date":"2016-03-23T14:54:18","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T18:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcarvingillustrated.com\/?p=10398"},"modified":"2016-03-23T14:54:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T18:54:18","slug":"book-corner-author-harley-refsal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcarvingillustrated.com\/book-corner-author-harley-refsal\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Corner: Author Harley Refsal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10399 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/woodcarving.zeeframes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Harley-NEW_resized-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Harley NEW_resized\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" \/>Harley Refsal started carving in 1968, inspired by the wooden folk-art figures he saw while travelling in Norway and Sweden. In researching the Scandinavian style of carving, he found references to Axel Petersson D\u00f6derhultarn, a very well-known Swedish\u00a0carver who originated the rough-hewn, or &#8220;flat-plane,&#8221; style that Harley admired. Although D\u00f6derhultarn carved in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his impact was still seen in the many carvings Harley saw in shops during subsequent visits to Norway and Sweden.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxchapelpublishing.com\/catalogsearch\/result\/?q=harley+refsal\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-10400\" src=\"https:\/\/woodcarving.zeeframes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/978-1-56523-858-9-232x300.jpg\" alt=\"978-1-56523-858-9\" width=\"174\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>By the 1980s, however, Harley noticed that there weren&#8217;t as many carvings available for sale in Scandinavia. He had taught himself (and others) to emulate D\u00f6derhultarn&#8217;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\u2019s 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 \u201cCraft in America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxchapelpublishing.com\/catalogsearch\/result\/?q=harley+refsal\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-10401\" src=\"https:\/\/woodcarving.zeeframes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/978-1-56523-875-6-232x300.jpg\" alt=\"978-1-56523-875-6\" width=\"174\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>And, Harley literally wrote the book. Several of them. He tells the story of Scandinavian flat-plane carving\u2014and, really, the history of all caricature carving\u2014in his book, Scandinavian Figure Carvings: From the Viking Era to D\u00f6derhultarn, 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 pub<a href=\"http:\/\/wood-show.com\/2016\/01\/28\/come-for-open-house-stay-for-harley\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10402\" src=\"https:\/\/woodcarving.zeeframes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/harley-refsal-ad.jpg\" alt=\"harley-refsal-ad\" width=\"300\" height=\"552\" \/><\/a>lished before, but both have been updated with new material, including extensive photos, maps, event calendars, and more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Meet Harley<\/strong> and hear him speak about Scandinavian flat-plane carving at the <strong>2016 Fox Chapel Publishing Open House and Woodworking Show<\/strong> on May 13-14, 2016 in Lancaster, Pa. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wood-show.com\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for details<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Want to learn flat-plane carving?<\/h3>\n<p>Take a rare public class from Harley at Fox Headquarters on <strong>May 16-18<\/strong>. You&#8217;ll finish and paint at least one carving; some carvers manage two or three. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/wood-show.com\/2016\/01\/28\/come-for-open-house-stay-for-harley\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for details or tickets<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harley Refsal started carving in 1968, inspired by the wooden&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[21,28,106],"class_list":["post-10398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-calendar-of-events","category-features","tag-21","tag-book-corner","tag-strop-talk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - 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