My Story – Steve Gurnett Wood Carving

- My Story -

A Passion for Carving

Steve Gurnett

I started carving at about age 10 in Fort Dodge, IA. I was in the 5^th grade, and I remember waiting for the patrol boy/ girl to arrive at the corner so that we could continue to school. As we were waiting, a classmate showed me a carving her dad had done. It was a little stick about four inches long and he had hollowed it out leaving 3 little pea-shaped balls in it that would rattle around. Back in those days, most boys carried pocketknives so that afternoon I found a twig and tried to carve out the balls. It didn’t go so well! I did not know it at the time, but you need to “see” where the balls are in the wood in order to successfully remove the wood “around” them. Nevertheless, I began to carve simple things. The first carving that I was proud of was a scuba diver (I added the scuba tank). Who would know that 25 years later I would become a SCUBA instructor!

In high school, I carved a six-foot long chain from one piece of wood and in College I carved an entire skeleton, named JB, bone by bone. I owe a special thanks to the Anatomy professor at UCCS who would let me take home a box of miscellaneous bones every semester. JB took 6 years to carve and he is the longest project I ever worked on.

The Journey

I was introduced to caricature carving by my friend and mentor, Jon Nelson. I have taken numerous classes from Jon and I have developed my own style of carving caricatures, particularly Santa ornaments. I also like to carve stylized pieces capturing nature. From my sharks to sea rays and dolphins and now to ducks and shorebirds. I am reclaiming discarded fence posts to carve really cool ducks. Each one looks unique, and I never know quite what I’ll find when I cut into the wood. Most of the posts I’ve gathered are over 50 years old and I’m always amazed at the rich grain is still in there after I take away the weathered outside! If you’ve got a section of fencepost from your ranch or farm, contact me and I will carve a duck from it and send it back to you. It would be quite an heirloom! While my shorebirds are a simple carving, my caricature side influences the carving by giving the birds a little character, with the one bird looking over its shoulder to see what’s going on behind it.

I enjoy my time working in the garage on my carvings. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed this journey I embarked on as a 10-year-old boy with a pocketknife!