Last summer the carving group taught a soap carving class for the libraries summer art and design program. ( Somehow I am always the go to person.) Later in the summer I was asked to teach soap carving as part of the Community Education Program. We taught the class last Tuesday at The Middle School.
I recruited three other carvers to help; Far Guy, Shiela and Dave. It was a fun time! Several of the participants were our great nieces.
Our safe carving tools are tooth picks to mark your pattern and small wooden spoons ( the ones that come with individual ice cream containers) shaped to a sharp point. The simple tools work well with the soap and you would really have to work at cutting off a finger. Ivory is the soap we use. Yes it is messy…we covered the tables with wax paper!
For the class everyone carved a flower step by step and then it was a free for all carving what ever they wanted. We sent home extra bars of soap and wooden tools.
I think the children enjoyed themselves! They learned a new skill and who knows…maybe someday a few will be woodcarvers.
I can carve soap….my hand allowed it…wood not so much. I hope someday to be back to carving again. For now I go along to carving and work on some other craft project…the guys always ask me “ how is your bum hand?” The answer is not good enough to carve yet. Some things just take time…luckily I have many other hobbies that I can do!
What a wonderful experience for those young students. Thank you for doing that for them. I bet they had a blast. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I have a beautiful carved candle and I've toyed with trying to learn how to do that.
ReplyDeleteI like the pretty flower carved into the soap. This is a great idea for teaching without anybody getting hurt. Glad to hear that your hand is slowly getting stronger. It sure is taking a long time, though. Slow and steady should do it. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to "start them young" in a craft. If they find it fun or fascinating, they will continue.
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Kids love hands on stuff :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like they had fun!
ReplyDeleteLooks like the kid had such a wonderful time! I know i has to be so hard to remain patient waiting, but you will be carving wood again one day soon. :)
ReplyDeleteI bet that was a fun class to work with, well I hope you didn't have one of those really annoying students ;-) I don't think many kids get a lot of experience with making something like that, these days. Hopefully your carving hand will be back at it before you know it!
ReplyDeleteWe have to give the kids the experience. You never know when they come back to it.
ReplyDeleteSoap carving with simple tools is such a great idea for a kids' craft.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that you have other crafts you can do while waiting for your hand to heal. Somehow I don't think you are ever bored.
Great way to introduce kids to it!
ReplyDeleteAren't they cute and how wonderful that you are sharing your talents with the upcoming generations. The flower that the girl is holding is awesome...I could not have done that well. I think that girl has an artistic future!
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