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- My Story -
A Passion for Carving
Steve Gurnett
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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!
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