I have had the fortune of speaking with Marv on a couple of previous occasions and I was overjoyed to see that he is willing to share his knowledge with the rest of us. Having a dream of carving with him and learning as much as I can I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was offering a design and carving class in his home at Ivan Whillock's studio. Needless to say I leapt at the chance and made the trek to the upper midwest. The funny thing is that the majoirty of my fellow students came from the East and could have just rented a bus and picked up folks along the way. Starting in Long Island, through my hometown of Rochester, up into Canada, through Michigan and around.
As for the location Faibault is a nice place to visit, pleanty of accomodation choices, good food (nice homegrown restaraunts) and my favorite "The Coffee Shop". Accomodation prices were very reasonable and it was really a personal choice as to where to stay.
The class itself lived up to my expectations (strengthening my designs) and included a bonus trip to one of the most outstanding man-caves a carver could have...Marv's apartment. As most folks know Marv does not generally sell his work however a piece might come up for auction at a charity once in a while. The multiple figure pieces you see him compete with at the yerly "Congress" competition held in Iowa he still owns..and they are more impressive in person. The biggest item of note were the items I had not seen before and the creativity within these pieces. Simply outstanding work.
So if you are a carver and are looking for an outstanding getaway to carve and expand your woodcarving knowledge, you can't go wrong with this class.
Note: The topic of Marv's book and the possibility of a second printing were discussed and Chris Whillock has been investigating. If you have an interest drop a line to Chris at Woodcarver's Warehouse, ya just might get your wish. chris@woodcarverswarehouse.com
