Master Carver Status

**mobjack68** · 2nd March 2019, 06:32 AM

Okay carving friends... need some help.

I have been pondering this for a number of years, not sure there is a resolution.
In the olden days, there was an apprenticeship program where folks could start and learn a craft, job, vocation...
The program would allow folks new to the vocation to learn, develop, become proficient at whatever field they worked in. In the case of carvers, the apprentice would learn from the master and the journeyman carvers. If the setting was a guild, the shop would own the tools and the space and would take money from any work that was handled by the guild, for expenses. Sometimes the apprentice would actually pay for the opportunity to learn and when journeyman status was reached, they would earn according to their skill and volume of work. In some cases the apprentice and the journeyman would do the roughout work for the master, the master would then put the finishing touches on the work and add his autograph. If you do a little history work, the succession of Italian Marble carvers is an incredible list of who's who and who apprenticed in whose shop. Michelangelo was a pupil of Donatello.... Think about Michealangelo doing rough out work.....

So, why am I rambling... How exactly does one achieve the status of "master carver"? Do I have to go to Germany, Italy... Switzerland, pay to have my work scrutinized, pay my own travel, transport my own tools... you get the idea. Jury process, possibly... so many blue ribbons from local craft fairs, wood working competitions, art shows??
Pay to have Master Carver printed on my business cards and go about my business??? Make a certain amount of money from the sale of my carvings?? Write a book???

I am at a point in my life where I would LOVE to go to a school and have someone watch over my shoulder, offer helpful hints, show me how different things are done...differently than I would do them. I would like to call myself a "master carver"...

Help!!??

jerry morgan
covington virgina (the colonies)

**Robson Valley** · 2nd March 2019, 08:40 AM

Where on earth is the title "Master Carver" awarded? For which style and medium?
Have you got a portfolio, a visual showcase of your body of work?
I think that would be first and foremost for juried approval as an apprentice, somewhere.

First Nations up here in the Pacific Northwest still have a "closed" apprenticeship program.
Kids (10-12 yrs old) that show some promise are usually apprenticed to a grandfather or an uncle.
They learn to make tools and begin with the most laborious of rough out stages.
Imagine peeling 1/2" - 3/4" sapwood off an entire 40' western red cedar pole for a story!

Northwest Community College (Terrace, BC) might be running an open carving school in Kitwanga or up the Nass valley.
I've have not paid any attention to these things for years.
Maybe it's a willingness to work at it and gain some reputation that helps.

I can count some native carvers among my friends. They work in wood, silver, gold and stone, some beads & quills.
They see that I use traditional woods and make many of my own tools in traditional styles.
That seems to have opened the conversation: wood and tools, for some good visits.
Haida, Wetsu'wet'en, Kwakwaka'Wakw, Lheidli T'enneh, Dene', even Cree & Mohawk.

There is always a great deal to be learned from trying to copy other works.

**ClaudeF** · 2nd March 2019, 09:47 AM

Originally Posted by mobjack68

...

I am at a point in my life where I would LOVE to go to a school and have someone watch over my shoulder, offer helpful hints, show me how different things are done...differently than I would do them. I would like to call myself a "master carver"...
...

Jerry: A lot would depend on what you want to carve: Architectural (think church pulpits), caricature, chip-carving, human sculpture, animal sculpture...

One of the best architectural carvers I've seen is Mark Yundt in PA (I think) Fiebig and Yundt Woodcarving

A great place to get side-by-side with Caricature Carvers of America members Caricature Carvers of America: Home Page is the Renegade Rendezvous in Lebanon, TN, put on twice a year by Steve Brown. Five CCA members are the instructors and they rotate around for the whole five days. Events & Classes — Steve Brown Woodcarving I've been to 5 or 6 of the Rendezvous and would go again this year except for family medical problems.

Another resource if you have a Facebook account is the Caricature Carvers group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/418485591546954/

Claude

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