Workshop: Scandinavian Chip Carving with John Carlson

Sunday, January 17, 2027  |  9am - 3pm

Tuition: $100 (+$10 material fee)

MMAM Member + Student Tuition:  $100 (+$10 material fee)

Workshop registration closes on  January 15, 2027

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About the workshop

Join artist and woodcarver, John Carlson, for a hand-on 1-day workshop exploring the technique of chip carving. Chip carving is a decorative style of wood carving that involves incising a pattern or design directly into the wood. The name chip carving comes from the process of removing a series of precise and regular chips of wood to form an engraved design that is lower than the surface of the wood. In other words, the wood chips are removed to leave the desired design behind. This is as opposed to whittling, relief, and in-the-round wood carving, which remove wood shavings to extract the design from the wood.

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About the instructor

John Carlson is an artist and woodcarver living on a farm in the Driftless region, near Winona, Minnesota, with his wife, cat, dogs, goats, geese, ducks, turkeys, and chickens.

John has been woodcarving since 1995 and was trained in Scandinavian-Chip Carving by Walt Gritner. John is also skilled in Shallow-Relief Carving, 3-D Figure Carving, and Kolrosing. John has taught both youth and adults woodcarving through the Boy Scouts of America, at woodcarving shows, carving clubs, school programs, community education, and the Driftless Folk School. In addition to working with wood, John enjoys practicing many traditional artforms, including weaving, painting and the art of pysanky, or creating traditional Ukrainian Easter.

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Support comes from

MMAM acknowledges sustaining support from generous contributions from foundations, corporations, individuals, members and volunteers, including ongoing support from our Board of Directors and AmericInn by Wyndham.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.

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Upcoming MMAM Workshops