Fellowship, Wood Chips & Pretty Good Coffee: The Northern Alberta Woodcarvers Association
By Erin Wallace
It’s 6:30 on a Wednesday evening, and things are picking up in Duggan Hall in Edmonton. Tables are pulled out and set up, refreshments are put out in the kitchen, and people are drifting in. The Northern Alberta Woodcarvers Association (NAWCA) is starting its weekly meeting.
Since its foundation 46 years ago, the group has been a haven for people who like to work with their hands, try new things, and just love carving wood. Four decades, several venue changes, and a global pandemic later, the club is still going strong. The club’s membership ranges in age from teens to octogenarians, with the majority of the members aged 55 plus. I spoke with some of these core members to find out what makes this club great.
Llew Bertsch has been here since the beginning. After retiring from a career at Telus, he worked at Lee Valley Tools, teaching classes including bark and relief carving. Many members joined the club after taking a class with Llew, and after 46 years (with an eight-year hiatus to sing in a barbershop quartet), he’s a source of knowledge and club history, who also carves really excellent horses and cowboys. Members like Llew are the solid foundation that the club is built on, and grows from.
Mentorship and collaboration are vital features of the club. Whether it’s sharing tips on how to sharpen your knife or what type of wood to use, “everybody is willing to help everybody,” says Lance Love, 82. “Everybody grows from it…that’s why the club is great.” A member since 2009, Lance enjoys relief carving, a style which was featured in one of the biggest group projects that NAWCA has accomplished to date. For Canada’s 150th birthday, the group created four wooden “quilts” (panels of 35 individually-carved 5” x 5” bass wood tiles) in the theme of “My Canada”, one of which is permanently displayed in the International Arrivals area of the Edmonton International Airport.
NAWCA does demonstrations at various venues around the Edmonton area, including Fort Edmonton Park and the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. It was at the latter venue that the group caught the attention of their current club President and Secretary. Harold Hough, 60, joined in 2011 and became club President in 2014. Soon his wife, Faye, 61, also joined and became a show director and club Secretary. Harold enjoys carving as a relaxing, slower craft, completing a project “knowing that it is the best you can do…and [moving] on to the next one.” Faye values the social aspect of the group: “There are friendships developed here…people come because they have like-minded interests and it’s nice that you can sit…and chat with people.”
Both Harold and Faye are pleased to see the group recovering after the COVID pandemic caused membership to go from 110 to just eight or nine. Today, NAWCA is fresh from their 40th annual Show and Competition, which was held at the hall on April 18 and 19. With 176 competitive entries and 130 display pieces, plus great visitor turnout, the show was a resounding success, reflecting the commitment of the 40-plus members who now make it out to each weekly meeting.
It’s now 8:30. There is a sudden flurry of activity as chairs are stacked and tables put down. Someone sweeps up the wood chips. There are so many other members to talk to, but the meeting is done for tonight. The official mission of NAWCA is to promote and support the art of woodcarving, but the club achieves so much more: art, talent, and a bunch of really great people.
