Coaxed From the Wood
Emporian Millard Harrell has discovered his talent for carving
By Bobbi Mlynar
Saturday, December 9, 2006
An Emporia woodcarver is receiving accolades and national recognition for his skill in turning wood into art.
Millard Harrell recently won several classes at the Kaw Valley Woodcarvers show and received a special award from the National Caricature Carvers of America.
Harrell operates Foundwood Carvings at his home in Emporia, and has an Internet business to sell his artwork at foundwoodcarvings.com.
“I’ve always just been drawn to carving,” said Harrell, who taught music for nine years and later, with his wife Onnalee, owned and operated a funeral home in Elkhart.
The couple moved here to be near their children and grandchildren, after Onnalee Harrell underwent a liver transplant in 2002.
In the living room of their home this week, Harrell pulled out his first effort at bark carving, an older Santa with flat features set deeply in a cradle of bark. The older carving looked good until he placed a newer Santa beside it. The later piece seemed to bloom naturally out of the bark, with fuller dimension and intricate detail, right down to separate, curly locks of hair and beard.
“I like the looks of the carved surface looking out from the bark surface,” he said.
Woodcarving of all types seems to come naturally to Harrell, whether he’s fashioning Santas or mountain men from barked wood, or creating an animal caricature or sleek, stylistic deer. Harrell also has done relief landscapes, using churches and bridges and even the Chase County Courthouse as subjects. But bark carving remains one of his favorite pastimes.
He gouges and chips and carves his way patiently, turning the barkwood and blocks of basswood into finely detailed works of art.
Adjacent to his work bench sit blocks of wood with faces and shapes carved randomly on both sides.
“It’s sort of a sketchpad to practice on,” he said, explaining that he tests his technique until he is satisfied that he can carve Native American features well enough for another project he is planning.
In the meantime, he is working on a carved-wood rendition of a bronze Southern Belle bust that sits covered, wrapped in tissue and packing tape, next to a chunk of wood on his bench.
“You tend to get distracted by details, so I cover up the face. ... then I can see the basic shape of everything,” Harrell explained as he unwrapped the bust.
The young woman is wearing an elaborate dress, with a stand-up flared collar with elaborately puffed sleeves. Her delicate, detailed features are topped by upswept hair that meets in a fancy topknot.
Harrell has written notes to himself on the block of wood that eventually will become the Southern Belle. “Back — don’t carve here,” one note says. That spot will be the peak of the young woman’s topknot.
Nearby lays a large chunk of flat wood that holds sketches of the subjects it will hold when finished -- a man climbing over the Wailing Wall, with the Dome of the Rock in the background.
“It’s supposed to be a little commentary on our society’s disregard for sacred things,” Harrell explained.
When he began carving in earnest, he started as many novices do, by focusing on buying a large assortment of tools.
“I was a tool buyer instead of a carver,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Techniques and skill are major components of carving, though Harrell quickly learned that preparing his tools for work carries a great deal of importance. A first priority is to sharpen the new tools to a greater degree.
“If your tools are sharp, you can do about anything you want with it,” Harrell said. “Basswood’s a very forgiving wood.”
When occasional mistakes occur, like cutting a block cross-grain instead of vertically, it doesn’t necessarily mean the piece is headed to the fireplace or needs to be re-fashioned into a different project.
Harrell finished a crossgrain-cut Santa and found that he liked the outcome.
“That makes a lot of difference in the way they look,” he said. The end grain surface absorbed more color and gave a different look and texture to Santa’s face.
Harrell wasn’t the only one who liked the new look. That Santa took first place at the woodcarvers’ show.