Trusting the Process with Mary May

A scene from Mary May’s classroom in Gravois Mills, Missouri.

As I write, my suitcase sits at home on my bedroom floor still full of clothes from last week. After getting home late Saturday evening from Mary May’s School of Traditional Woodcarving, I didn’t have it in me to unpack. And then the next day, Sunday, I decided to relish the post-vacation-bliss rather than immediately getting back to my responsibilities.

I suppose the week spent in rural Missouri wasn’t technically a vacation since it was related to work, but it felt like one. Five days of carving acanthus leaves at Mary’s school flew by. After class, Katherine and I would hang out in our motel pool or I’d go on a long walk down a wooded gravel road. We’d play bingo at the local bar on the lake or sit in recliners and watch “Ink Master” for hours in the evenings.

Perhaps the only symptoms I felt from class that felt like “work” were the upper back and neck aches I got from eight hours of carving day after day. I was surprised by the physical and mental exhaustion carving brought. Those aches, however, were quickly relieved by the satisfaction of seeing what I was able to create in such a short amount of time. Five carvings in five days, to be exact.

View of the Lake of the Ozarks from Mary’s school.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed carving and how natural it felt for me. Before I dropped out of college, I studied studio arts: drawing, painting, sculpture etc. So when Mary had us draw with pencil and paper our next assignment before turning to wood, I felt at home. And even more, crisping up edges and carving detailed line work into my acanthus leaves felt familiar and gratifying.

Where line work and precision felt comfortable for me, working in the third-dimension was not. All my previous work before chairmaking had been two-dimensional. Even though I’ve been interested in carving and sculpted furniture since the beginning of my woodworking journey, I lacked the confidence and know-how to explore carving on my own.

Mary’s step-by-step guidance was wildly helpful in demystifying the third-dimension for me. Carving is a true “trust the process” art form. Where chairmaking allows each component to be completed one at a time, in carving every principle is in relation to one another. So the entire carving is carved at once rather than one portion at a time. Which made the final reveal at the end of each class all the more exciting.

If you ever get the chance to take a class with Mary, I highly recommend it. I certainly hope to learn more from her; her eye and talent are unmatched.

Below is everything that I carved in our five-day class.

Day 1 was day-of-the-donut. This was a great lesson in reading grain direction. Respect the donut!!

Day 2 was acanthus leaf number one: a low-relief intro to the acanthus leaf.

Day 3, you guessed it, another acanthus leaf. This one involved more perceived depth and new techniques. (Notice the scroll on the end.) This was my first time working with butternut! Big fan.

Day 4 was our final acanthus leaf and first applique! Double-sided tape was used to adhere the basswood to a plywood board. This is my personal favorite acanthus leaf of the bunch.

Lastly, Day 5 was "carve your own adventure." I chose a fish Mary had previously carved and had on display in her classroom. In the first pic, Mary's fish is on the right and mine is mid-process on the left. The second photo is my finished fish.