Please note — There are two Riderwood groups who are interested in working with wood in various practical and artistic ways.
You currently are viewing the Woodcarvers page. We are a small informal group of residents who meet weekly in the Village Square Crafts Studio and are interested in the art of carving wood by hand into various art forms using such tools as carving knives, gouges, chisels, and mallets.
The second group is the Association of Woodcrafters who manage and operate the Riderwood Wood Shop. Members of the Association of Woodcrafters are proficient at both building and repairing wooden objects (furniture, cabinets, etc.) and shaping the natural beauty of wood into artistic or other useful objects. The members of the Riderwood Wood Shop are available to do furniture and lamp repairs at cost of parts. Donations of $5.00 to $20.00 are welcome. Call the Wood Shop at 301-572-8399 x 606-2950, or stop by the shop which is located on the Terrace level of the Charles Terrace building (Montgomery Station). Go straight down the hall from the entry between parking lots E and F to the overhead sign. The shop is a locked facility. Knock for entry.
Although any type of wood can be carved, members of the woodcarving group tend to use basswood due to its very fine grain and even color with very few knots. On the hardness scale, basswood is on the softer end of the scale and is of a pale white or yellow color. Finished carvings may be painted using acrylics, oils, or stains depending on the vision of the carver. Some carvers decorate their carvings using pyrography (wood burning). There are a number of methods and styles of carving wood. Some of these are: chip carving, relief carving, Scandinavian flat-plane, and whittling.
Our woodcarving group meets informally in the Village Square Crafts Studio just outside the Potomac Café on Fridays between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. All skill levels (including beginners) are welcome. Carvers select their own projects. We learn techniques from each other’s experiences and from the multitude of wood carving videos available on YouTube and from the selection of carving books we have in our wood carving library. You can see a number of our carvings on display in the Village Square Crafts Studio display cabinet “A” and in the following slide show of some of our creations.
Woodcarvers Contact Info
For more information, contact Dave at carvers@riderwoodlife.com or stop by the Village Square Crafts Studio on Friday afternoons to visit with us.