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“For me, carving loses the world,” explained
Cathy Krumrei when describing her
woodworking hobby niche.
“When I start to carve, I don’t think of anything
around me except the
wood.” No doubt many of us can
relate to that wonderful feeling of immersing
ourselves in woodworking, but that pleasure has not
been part of Cathy’s life all that long. In fact,
it’s only been a little more than a decade since she
took up chisel and mallet and launched into a new
endeavor.
“Prior to 1996, I had never done any woodworking
whatsoever,” she recounted. “That year, a friend
whose father got into wood carving introduced me to
it. One day when I was visiting, I looked at what he
was doing and thought, ‘Hey, I could do that.’ I
took a couple of classes, one on caricatures and
fish, and one on birds, and I was off and running.
“The first carving I did was a caricature of a
golfer, because that year my husband had just taken
up golf. It started out about 12 inches tall but
kept getting smaller and smaller as I tried to
correct it. My teacher wanted me to abandon it and
start over, but I was adamant. Even though it ended
up smaller than I had originally intended, I worked
on it until I was satisfied with it. To this day,
I’ve never started a carving that I didn’t finish.
“After that, I turned my attention to carving fish,
because I am into fishing. I made about 10 crappies
for customers, mostly friends who were into sport
fishing. I made a sunfish for my son that was
realistic enough that he thought it was mounted
taxidermy instead of a carving. It’s hard for me to
paint on wood because I don’t like to destroy the
beauty of the wood grain, but in some cases it
enhances the carving, as with the fish. Otherwise, I
try to use paint sparingly, often only coloring
certain elements to bring them out without
destroying the overall feel of carved wood.
“My ducks, for example, remain unpainted. That’s
because once they are carved, they look as if they
feel soft, and you want to touch them. Painting
would change that soft look. Interestingly, leaving
duck decoys unpainted brings with it its own
challenge. Ducks are generally done in two pieces,
with the head added separately. Hiding that neck
joint is fairly easy with paint, but making it
disappear in an unpainted piece is quite difficult.”
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Most of Cathy’s work reflects her love of nature,
with fish, birds and animals making up a good share
of her output. In fact, it was an animal carving
that helped coax her across one significant
threshold. “The elk carving was my first
commissioned piece,” she told me. “It was requested
by an elk hunter. After that came a goat, made for a
woman who raises goats. She gave it to her husband
as a gift, and he thought it was a molded plastic
model. He did not realize it was hand carved.
“At one point, I took a class on carving antlers and
did a polar bear from an antler stub. After that,
people starting bringing me antlers to carve. I
eventually did about half a dozen or so before going
back to wood. With wood, I stick to gouges and
knives, but when carving antlers, I have to resort
to power tools and carving burrs. That’s because
antlers are so hard. They are a lot of fun, but I
like wood better, mostly because it lets me carve
with chisels and knives instead of grinders.
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“Around 2002, I took a class on how to carve on a
green log, and chose to carve a face for my first
attempt. The pattern I chose was one with only one
eye because I was a bit fearful of carving eyes, and
thought one would be easier than two. In retrospect,
I should have done two, because I would have learned
how to carve eyes better, or at least more quickly.
It was a face that represents the spirit within the
wood, with vines growing around it. Most of it was
left unpainted, but the vines were painted for
contrast and to enhance the effect of the face.
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“I fell in love with log carving right away because
it was a quick way to carve that gave me a
connection between tool and wood. Also, there is no
dust created when you carve green wood with mallet
and chisels. My sister and I are into birds, so when
the class was over, I decided to turn some of my
carved logs into birdhouses. I sent a picture of one
of my birdhouse logs with a face carved into it to a
magazine dedicated to bird lovers. They ran the
picture, and before I knew it, orders starting
coming in. Before long, I’d made and sold about 30
carved birdhouse logs. It was a natural progression
to do a butterfly house next, and sure enough, I
have sold a few of those as well. Initially, I sold
my work so that I could afford to buy more wood and
tools, but lately it has started to become a
business.
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“Sometime around 2004, a friend directed me to a web
site that showed how to carve wooden flowers. I
started experimenting and ended up making seven
different kinds of flowers, often copying them from
pictures in magazines. In order to share what I’d
learned with other carvers, I sat down and started
writing how each was done. After speaking to another
carver who had self-published a book, I realized I
could do the same. I wrote a book called
Forever Flowers and sold it online.
After selling out a 100-copy print run, I realized
it was more economical for both me and my customers
to offer it as an online download. I currently sell
it only that way.”
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Clearly, Cathy is an artist looking for an outlet,
and while wood may be her favored medium, it is not
the only one. Poke around her web site a bit, and
you’ll notice carved emu, goose and ostrich eggs
tucked in among the antlers and wood. While many of
her pieces reflect copious realism, several cross
the line into artistic flights of fancy, and perhaps
that is only partly within her control.
“In a sense, I never know exactly what I will end up
with when I start,” Cathy admits. “I let the wood
direct what comes out. Artists have a gift of seeing
beyond what others see. Sometimes there is a gap
between what you imagine and what you create, but
eventually, it all falls into place.”
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