Jeff Phares Class 2006

My brain is numb, my hands and wrists are sore, and I am emotionally and physically exhausted. It is the end of the 3rd day of the most intense, in-depth carving class I have ever attended. We at Heritage Arts Studio have been quite fortunate to have as our guest, the nationally acclaimed carver and author, Jeff (A.K.A. Jeffro or Bubba) Phares. The class of 15 students came together at our studio in North Plains, OR. on August 18th, 19th and 20th of 2006.

Students in attendance were Hana Moyle, Janet Clemens, Joe Zimmer, Rita Gooding, Garland Trzynka, Ray Tenorio, Joan Stevenson, Kathleen Brunson, Jim Hall, Wally Reynolds, Dee Sutton, Bob Fairbank, Gary Fenton, and myself (Jeff Harness). Carvers had a choice of either mountain man / frontier guy, or Native American Indian. If you selected Indian, Jeff would first ask "What tribe?" followed by "Young or old?". This produces a huge number of possible carving options. In addition, he would help the carver determine what clothing and additional details would be appropriate for the type of carving selected.

To tell you the truth, the books that Jeff has written, while being excellent reference materials, do not due him justice: his depth of experience and expertise go far beyond what can be captured in text and pictures. When you see him hold a large #9 gouge up to a delicate facial structure and nonchalantly twist, flip or drag the tool, creating a perfect cleft in a chin or wrinkles around and eye, you see exactly what cannot be portrayed in a photo. After seeing him in action, the books that I purchased years ago now make a lot more sense!

The blanks that we carved were laminated northern white pine, which Bill Stadelman glued together, and I band sawed out (2 profiles) from a pattern that Jeffro provided, prior to the class. We would have loved to have carved in butternut, but you know how difficult that is to find, these days. The final blanks were about 5" deep, 6" wide and 12" tall. It is truly amazing to see someone wade in and hog out huge quantities of wood, in the 1st pass. "Git-er-done!".

			Jeffro provided carving arms and carvers screws that were used as hold-down devices. This allowed everyone to sit or stand, while carving, while maintaining a healthy posture.
Carving arm with carvers screw (hold-down) in action

Jeffro started the class out by describing 3 kinds of undesirable woodcarving students:

Pickers: Those that sit and pick at a carving making many tiny chips rather than hogging out the negative space.

Scrapers: Those that scratch and scrape the surface of their carving, rather than hogging out the negative space.

Wishers: Those that sit and stare at their carving wishing it was done, rather than doing anything.

The pace of the class was brisk to say the least. In 3 days, we learned details about the native peoples of this continent, design theory, tool usage, facial anatomy, sharpening and both general and detailed carving rules and guidelines. Jeffro is very clear in his instructions: he tells you what he wants you to do, as well as what he doesn't want you to do. "Listen up, people! I see any rulers or dividers in the room and I'm gonna collect em up - I want you to see the proportions and measure them using your eyes and your hands. I don't wanna see no V-tools either. And don't run a gouge up the side of the nose (that means you, Jeff!) - I see you doin that and I'm gonna take your tools away and put you in the time-out corner for 2 minutes!"

At the end of the 1st day, the in-the-round busts were roughed out and ready for foundation work.

By the end of the 2nd day, all the facial features had been locked in and blocked out. The 3rd day was spent detailing eyes, wrinkles, clothing and accessories, and hair masses and detail.

Jeffro packs an amazing amount of data into 3 days. The facial anatomy lessons were particularly fascinating: there is no way anyone can carve a face of this degree of accuracy and difficulty without having a good knowledge of the bone, muscle, and soft tissue structures that make up the human face.

Getting DEEP into the wood was a reoccurring theme: His goal is to carve an accurate face THE FIRST TIME! This means pushing back the surfaces, identifying the planes, cutting in the deep spots, pushing back the surfaces more, rounding the features and getting rid of the negative space waste wood as quickly and efficiently as possible. 2 handed tools (Swiss Made, Henry Taylor, Stubai, etc...) were used predominantly in the first 2 days of the class, and smaller palm tools and micro-gouges were used on the 3rd and final day.

We were fortunate enough to encounter a really skilled carver with a fantastic sense of HUMOR! Woodcarving doesn't have to be such serious business, and this class was a riot "from the git-go". As people got to know each other and became more comfortable with the surroundings, the jokes began. This escalated as time went on: everybody had a GREAT time and learned a lot.

Joe Zimmer

Wally Reynolds

Hanna Moyle

Some of the Crew: Dee, Gary Kathleen, Ray, Garland

This class had a mix of student experience levels, but I think everyone was pleased with their carvings. While none were completely "finished", everyone left with the knowledge required to finish the pieces later. Jeffro encourage everyone to send him pictures of the completed projects, while emphasizing that anyone could email him with questions or problems and he would be happy to help them out.

While teaching at Heritage Arts Studio, Jeffro's accommodations were provided by the Stadelman B&B. People are already jockeying for position in next years class (in line after me!). As soon as we get next years class locked in, it will be announced via this website. We all look forward to seeing him again, and selecting our next project. I can safely say that concepts and techniques taught in this class will positively influence all my carvings from now on (no more flat faced, square cornered, pop-eyed freak faces lacking shape or emotion, for me). I think I'm going to title my project "Irritable Bowel". Meanwhile, I will be ordering a carving screw and a carving arm, as well as picking up some more Swiss-made tools (5, 7, BIG 9 and 11, as well as 8/3 and 9/3 for those eye pupils). Can't wait to see who will be the next visiting carver at Heritage Arts Studio!


My carving after the 3rd day		Class Photo August 18th - 20th, 2006