What a gift nature gave us today—warm sunshine to explore the hidden treasures of Lake Padden! In Opening Circle, we welcomed our newest Red Fox, Ellie. We are happy to have you with us! After spending time checking in with the group about our day, we set out with the intention of finding a sunny place to learn the new skill of carving.
Our explorations took us to a beautiful game grove, where we played some rousing rounds of Spider's Web. The girls dipped behind ferns, dove into shrubs, and slinked around trees during our successful games. After game time, the Red Foxes moved into classic exploration time. We spent a good chunk of our outing playing with slugs, exploring the creek, and dissecting dead fish! The Red Foxes may a solid team of scientists-- as they use nature to dig deep, ask questions, and learn lessons, which is the essence of Wild Whatcom's goals for self-directed learning about the outdoors.
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We set our intention to find the perfect spot for carving, but this meant keeping a steady walking pace to get to our chosen destination near the cascading waterfall. We were busy noticing nettles, flowering Indian plum, the sweet smell of Thimbleberry flowers, big trees, and plenty of bugs. Arriving at our spot we gathered around beneath a grove of cedar trees for a whittling lesson remembering to put Safety First. The girls listened attentively and it showed as they carved set of chopsticks for a significant amount of time. So much focus for our dedicated Red Foxes. Please see some of the carving curriculum below!
Today’s words of the day: "Banana slugs, water and knives!"
Some of our CARVING CURRICULUM:
S.T.O.P FOR KNIFE SAFETY
Check to see if everyone watched safety video. Have girls summarize what they learned, or teach if anyone didn’t get to watch it. See if they remember the following:
- How to safely open and close knife
- Blood circle.
- Never leave open or unsheathed
- Difference between a tool and a weapon is YOU.
- Stay present and keep checking in with yourself while carving- know when to put your knife away (if you feel distracted, frustrated, sad, mad, or tired).
* Show some project examples, Drew’s carvings and spoon, wand. Talk about “anatomy of a knife” (blade, handle, cutting edge, sheath) and types of knives (serrated, locking, multitool, etc. Have each girl get to know her knife and have the group identify its parts and type).
SHARE CARVING TECHNIQUE:
- Small strokes, use part of the blade closest to the handle for cutting.
- Grasp: firm, confident, use thumb to “steer” your strokes. I hold my knife almost like it is a living being- small bird or salamander. I want to hold tight enough for it to stay in my hand, but gently enough that it can still breathe.
- It is easiest to control the knife if your hand and your project are as close together as possible (don’t try to use the tip of your knife to carve!)
- Knife angle- shallow angle, almost parallel to your wood. Many small shavings are much easier to pull off than one single deep slice.
* Pay attention to the expression of the wood! Each piece has a song to sing if you can listen. The art of carving is to work WITH the wood, in collaboration.
* Before you carve, get to know your wood. Hold it in your bare hand look at it up close and at a distance, smell it, feel it on your cheek, see if it's shape reminds you of anything... Before your first cut get as much information about the raw wood as you can. What tree did it come from? Are there any nearby? Envision the tree when it was whole. What stories are in this wood?
* Finally, bring a picture of what you plan to carve into your mind’s eye, and hold it there with everything you've learned about this piece of wood. Keep revisiting your project image as you carve to remind yourself where you are going- it's easy to get carried away and whittle away all of your wood or end up with two small weird shaped pieces.
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