-Often, I am asked how I started carving. I started carving soon after my father gave me a family heirloom - a small, gold-plated penknife - when I was nine years old, living in Parishville, NY.
Seeing me whittling away on a stick with this knife one day, my friend, Mike, introduced me to an older man in town who whittled little birds. After meeting him, I could often be found sitting quietly - by the hour - next to Walter Foster, watching him make his rustic little birds. It was many days before Mr. Foster asked if I wanted to let me try my hand at carving a wing on one of his birds. Boy! was I ready!
My first solo bird carving was a Goldfinch. It incorporated a few changes from the birds I had watched Mr. Foster carve, and I was concerned that he might take offense at my innovations. When I showed it to him for his critique, I was in suspense for several anxious minutes, while he looked the bird over carefully, finally declaring - to my great relief and pleasure - that I had done a good job on it. Before long, Mr. Foster was having me paint the finer details - “pinstripes”, as he called them - on his little birds. Meeting other woodcarvers like Hazel Tyrell from Canton, and Avis Brown from Malone, made lasting impressions on me as a young carver.
Of the more than three-thousand birds and animals I’ve carved since then, the majority of them have been Pocketknife carvings made with the very same Buck 307 jackknife I traded a 4X Bushnell rifle scope for over 35 years ago at an Aubuchon Hardware Store that used to exist on Main Street in AuSable Forks, NY. The remainder were “power-tool carvings”, shaped by using electric, flexible shaft tools with a wide variety of grinding and sanding bits along with a wood burner, or - in a few cases - chainsaws and angle grinders.
Every time I try so painstakingly to replicate a bird or animal, my appreciation for excellent artists - especially for the One who originally designed and created these incredibly beautiful creatures - increases.
Seeing me whittling away on a stick with this knife one day, my friend, Mike, introduced me to an older man in town who whittled little birds. After meeting him, I could often be found sitting quietly - by the hour - next to Walter Foster, watching him make his rustic little birds. It was many days before Mr. Foster asked if I wanted to let me try my hand at carving a wing on one of his birds. Boy! was I ready!
My first solo bird carving was a Goldfinch. It incorporated a few changes from the birds I had watched Mr. Foster carve, and I was concerned that he might take offense at my innovations. When I showed it to him for his critique, I was in suspense for several anxious minutes, while he looked the bird over carefully, finally declaring - to my great relief and pleasure - that I had done a good job on it. Before long, Mr. Foster was having me paint the finer details - “pinstripes”, as he called them - on his little birds. Meeting other woodcarvers like Hazel Tyrell from Canton, and Avis Brown from Malone, made lasting impressions on me as a young carver.
Of the more than three-thousand birds and animals I’ve carved since then, the majority of them have been Pocketknife carvings made with the very same Buck 307 jackknife I traded a 4X Bushnell rifle scope for over 35 years ago at an Aubuchon Hardware Store that used to exist on Main Street in AuSable Forks, NY. The remainder were “power-tool carvings”, shaped by using electric, flexible shaft tools with a wide variety of grinding and sanding bits along with a wood burner, or - in a few cases - chainsaws and angle grinders.
Every time I try so painstakingly to replicate a bird or animal, my appreciation for excellent artists - especially for the One who originally designed and created these incredibly beautiful creatures - increases.
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Present home of Pondside Studio. We purchased this 'cabin' as a fixer-upper on August 30, 2011, moved in on December 3, and have enjoyed it every day since. Whiteface Mountain can be seen above the roofline.
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A spectacular view of Whiteface Mountain from our home - 627 Glen Road, Jay, NY, the site of Pondside Studio, even though, as it happens, there is no pond anywhere within sight. The Studio moved to a new 'pond-less' location, but kept the name originally chosen when living beside the "40-acre pond" in the town of Long Lake.
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Zach, Autumn, Robin, Allen
Shannon, Brennan, Megan
2008
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Allen Robin Zach Autumn
Shannon Megan Brennan Makayla
2010
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Five of us on the summit of Porter Mountain.
Zach, Robin, Megan, Shannon, Allen
Spring 2011
Zach, Robin, Megan, Shannon, Allen
Spring 2011
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Christmas 2014 at the cabin.
Robin, Shannon, Megan, and Allen.
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Christmas 2015 at the cabin.
Shannon, Allen, Robin, and Megan.
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Zach, an expert bowsman,
on Union Falls Pond during a driftwood collecting trip.
May 2011
on Union Falls Pond during a driftwood collecting trip.
May 2011
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Our daughter Megan & Brennan (Megan's nephew; our grandson)
July 2011
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Shannon
on the rocks upstream from the covered bridge in Jay.
8-16-2011
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Brennan
with a pocketknife Trout.
May 2011
with a pocketknife Trout.
May 2011
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Makayla (one of our granddaughters)
playing in a warm Spring rain puddle.
May 2011
playing in a warm Spring rain puddle.
May 2011
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A 2014 Christmas photo of our daughter, Autumn,
her husband, Justin, and their four beautiful children -
Alaina, Leah, Brennan, and Makayla.
Leah was a bit fearful of Santa,
so he snuck behind them for the photo!
her husband, Justin, and their four beautiful children -
Alaina, Leah, Brennan, and Makayla.
Leah was a bit fearful of Santa,
so he snuck behind them for the photo!
October 14, 2015 A picture of me standing at the end of my driveway, in front of a sign I made over 25 years ago which hung on the front of Hosley's Country Corner store in Long Lake, NY. I am holding the very same Buck 307 jackknife I modeled the sign after and have used to do all my pocketknife carving since 1974.