Old-World Woodcarving Classes

David Calvo has been enthusiastically teaching woodcarving to adults for twenty-five years. He was fortunate to be trained by professional European woodcarvers and sculptors. He has been a featured master woodcarver at many International Woodworking Trade Shows where he has given workshops on woodcarving technique and designing skills. David has also been a featured TV guest on the PBS Television shows: "The Woodwright's Shop" with Roy Underhill and "The American Woodshop" with Scott Phillips. He writes articles for national publications to promote and share his skill. He is a sought-after teacher because his unique training is a rarity. He is also natural speaker who has the ability to articulate the mechanics of the skill of wood carving in an easily understood fashion.

Over the years, David has honed his step by step teaching process to its simplest form. He teaches his students using one of the most important factors that excelerated his own personal training. His teachers taught him in a straight A-Z line, meaning no detouring from what is essential. Each action is made obvious to you in a logical way and every step is carefully thought out for your benefit. The class size is always small in scale which allows personal attention towards your needs. Secondly, but equally important, the group structure of the class allows David to creatively keep repeating himself which is so important in advancing each individual student's learning curve. Please read the descriptions of the different classes below and feel free to call the studio for more info.

If you have tools bring them. If you need to buy tools, the school has them for purchase at our online store and at the school. If you want to rent tools we offer that as well. Regardless, feel free to call and talk to David directly with your questions.

Five-Day Bare Bones Woodcarving Classes

The Bare Bones Woodcarving Class will give the beginner carving enthusiast a solid foundation in woodcarving. You don't have to be a physical giant to handle woodcarving tools; it's all in the technique. Learning the fundamentals of woodcarving is like a tennis pro who has trained his tennis volley to be both effortless and graceful. Like a sport woodcarving can be effortless and graceful too. This is the romance of the skill.

We will Study and Explore the Following:

• WOOD CARVING TOOLS: Learn how to design and sharpen your tool edge so that you have better control and a more versatile woodcarving chisel. I will show you how to sharpen with the proficiency that was used in the European apprenticship programs. I will also incorporate some Japanese sharpening theory because it comes from the samari traditions and is an integral part of their apprenticeship. Sharp tools that easily bite into the wood and do not skate are an important ingredient for woodcarving with intent.

• WOOD CARVING TECHNIQUE: Learn how to handle your carving tools in the wood; from roughing out the beginnings of your project to the final delicate detailing. I teach an approach I call the "cradle position" and it is an integral part of good hand technique. Wood carving is a skill that incorporates the body to better assist your hand control of the gouges. It is like a baseball pitcher throwing you a ball. You swing with the bat and use your body to step into the hit. The same is true in woodcarving, you use your body strength and weight for the cutting action.

• WOOD CARVING PROJECT: In the five-day class each students will complete a wood carving project. In addition to practice exercises, you will carve a large fleur-de-lis that contains all the possible carving approaches. It is a great project because we can learn all aspects of carving thru it: seeing ,technique and design elements. Each student will do the same project which allows me creatively to keep repeating myself so the information I give you is reinforced. I have time tested this approach over many years and it is highly successful for adults.

• ART OF SEEING: Learn the mechanical steps in the process of carving. Often I hear my new students say what I call the beginner's mantra... "What do I do next?" There are mechanical steps to seeing what is the next move in your project. I also work with an approach perspective I call visual mapping. It is an activity, same as using a map, that helps you to move through the progressive steps of your carving project. It is teachable and gaining this skill is critical for the beginner's eye.

• DESIGN SKILLS: Learn how to design your wood carving projects using references that many of the great artists used. There are many basic tools and mechanical steps to designing that are unknown to the novice woodcarver. This approach to building your design will expand your imagination and the steps to creating your own projects will start to come more easily to you.

• TRADE SECRETS: Finally, among many other things, you will learn about finishing and building contrast in your piece, a necessity to having a striking, attractive look. You will learn alot of trade secrets from the old pros in these woodcarving classes that were thoughtfully passed down to me from my European teachers.

This wood carving class will give you the skills to add a creative, personal details to all your wood working projects. The class and workshop formats are three or five days in length. Calvo Woodcarving School located in Gloucester, Massachusetts is a convenient commute from Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and New York City areas. Check woodcarving schedule page for dates and prices. For more description info click on: The Bare Bones of Wood Carving Article. This wood carving workshop will give you skills that will put you on a whole new level. You will be surprisingly pleased with your new found woodcarving abilities.

Note: While you are here the five-day Bare Bones Wood Carving Class is usually followed by the two-day "Making Your own Wood Carving Tools."

Two-Day & Three-Day Woodcarving Workshops

Here is an opportunity in two and three day workshop format for the interested student to learn the fundamentals of woodcarving. It is an abbreviated version of my five-day classes for the interested student. We will cover important hand techniques and sharpening skills so that your tools have the control in cutting that you've dreamt about. Of course, we will do a carving project as well so that you learn about carving with the grain. In woodcarving you are constantly changing your approach to grain.

Bare Bones Woodcarving Class *Second Level*

Here is an opportunity to develop your woodcarving skills by becoming more aware of technique and design through progressively more challenging skills. Here we will work around your interests regarding a project. It could be a mirror design, a ball and claw foot or a more complicated ornamental design. Mature carving is built on learning the subtleties of the skill. We will build on the fundamentals that you learned in my beginners course. Among many things, we will work more with the mechanics of your hand technique focusing on intentional controlled cuts. We will continue to train your eyes in aspects of visual mapping or what I call the mantra of the beginner woodcarver - What do I do next? This course will focus on the next set of techniques that are key for you to unlock a new door in becoming a better woodcarver.

Hand Carved Keepsake Box Workshop

Here is an opportunity to make a beautiful decorative box with hand cut dovetail joints, brass hinges and most importantly** hand-carved decoration** on the surface. It will be a learning project for the techniques but it will also become a little showpiece for your home. You can also put lettering on it instead if you would like to learn more about carved letters. This class will start to give you experience in how to integrate carving and lettering into your woodworking projects by walking through the steps and seeing the final results. You will then take this skill set home. Woodworking is built on box designs and we will add the contrast of curves with the woodcarving:one will make the other look better. So if you took the beginner's barebones class and want to proceed to projects to become more proficient this might be the class for you.

Tuesday Evening Wood Carving Classes

Ten-Week Series

For those of you local enough here is an opportunity to learn your woodcarving skills on a week by week basis. Read the bare bones discription becays we will be following that format at a casual pace. The main difference is that you will be able to work on your projects at home as well. This is a unique opportunity for you to learn next to a skilled professional carver. The cost of each class is $40 and you can sign up for nine-week sessions. We are on the commuter MBTA rail line from Boston. Call for more info!

One-Day Wood Carving Seminars

Introductory Woodcarving Class

If you have had an interest in trying carving and are in Gloucester for the day, weekend or vacationing here this might be just the opportunity for you. Here is a wonderful day way for the beginner to give you a basic understanding of all the techniques involved in the woodcarving craft. How to sharpen tools, carve and design: these are all topics for discussion. All materials and carving tools for use are included. Call for more info.

Five-Day Sign Carving Workshop

Sign carving goes back to the beginning of our American history. Especially since Massachusetts is home of the Plymouth Plantation you can see how sign carving was use to distinquish the different store fronts in the newly formed colonies. (The Plymouth Plantations has a woodcarver on staff) Carving lettering is a great way to keep improving your wood carving skills. It is also a unique skill unto itself. This sign design will be one of your choice which you will send me ahead of time. I will have the sign board here and we will work on a layout for you as apart of the class. We will practice key componets to layout and carving techniques. We will also work with carving the alphabet as an exercise before you get started on your own project so you get some technique time. Carved lettering is a simple way to really personalize any woodworking project from toy boxes to hope chests to family heirlooms.

Five-Day Abstract Wood Sculpture Class

Let us abandon the formality of classical design as a handicap and see where our imagination will take us. This class is a first for me with students. We will use our wood carving tools, rasps and spokeshaves. We will study slides of modern designs and see what are the building blocks to an attractive design. This is key to giving you insight into how to approach abstract design. After study, observation and group discussion we will let our instincts lead as the idea evolves everyday as the week progresses. Some of the best ideas have humble beginnings. So lets see where the week takes us as we pursue the beauty of abstract art. You will have a work of art to take home with you.

Forging Your Own Wood Carving Tools

My German wood carving teacher, Frederick Brunner, forged all his own woodcarving tools. On evening, he proudly showed me the first tool he had ever forged that he used into his eighties. He was not only an able artist but he was also an expert mechanic in the woodcarving field as well. Surprisingly, you can get set up with a small tabletop propane forge for little money, and honestly, there is absolutely nothing more satisfying than carving wood with a tool that you have made. Learning how to forge your own wood carving tools will complete your skill set as a woodcarver. You will learn metal forging techniques, methods in how to shape the tool steel using heat. We will go over the hardening and heat treating process. You will learn how to refine the tool steel design and tempering. This is a excellent forum for the study and understanding of good tool design necessary for the control needed in wood carving. Finally, you will learn how to put handles on you new carving tools and sharpening techniques. Once you experience the joy of forging your own tools, you will never go back to a store bought tools again. I can honestly say that you will treasure your hand forged tools and they will become the favorites of your collection. Guaranteed.

Sculpture Design Class in Clay Modeling the Human Form

Here is an intensive five day class for the art, sculpture design and woodcarving student who want to learn how to see better in three dimensions. The human form is a wonderful exercise in mastering how to see and understand design. When I was studying woodcarving I also did clay modeling at the same time as well. It gave me that advantage of seeing form from the inside out by modeling shapes in clay, and outside to in by carving in wood. So here is a one week intensive to teach you to handle the sculpture and decoration medium with more skill. This is the same as my apprenticeship. It was how I built my abilities in the skill of seeing. I guarantee that working with clay will heighten your confidence and strenghten your woodcarving skills dramatically. We will work from a study cast of the human form among other things, which will give you the opportunity to explore the principles of balance, composition and proportions.

Bring Calvo Wood Carving School To Your Area

Here is an opportunity to bring David Calvo and the five-day Bare Bones of Woodcarving to your area. If you can generate enough interest and can find a workshop setting it might be a more economical approach. Call for more details regarding shop needs, group size and costs.

Note: Classes are subject to cancellation based on attendance.