The Brief
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- Nature Coast Carving Club is a wood carving club that meets in Hernando County to make unique objects out of wood.
- The club has been around for nearly three decades but is seeing its membership decline because of an aging demographic of people who practice woodworking.
- The club is open to the public; no experience is needed to join.
HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. – Members of the continue to practice one of the oldest forms of art: wood carving.
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Members of the Nature Coast Carving Club making woodworking projects.
“It’s kind of one of those lost arts, and I’m all about bringing back lost art,” Lana Piland said.
About Nature Coast Carving Club
The backstory:
Piland, one of the club’s newest members, is getting a head start on creating Christmas ornaments.
While she works, she’s surrounded by a variety of carving styles and projects.
Members of the Nature Coast Carving Club do woodworking projects.
“You cannot even begin to imagine how awesome it is. He’s doing a caricature. He’s doing an owl. She’s over there using chisels. He’s in there doing wood carving. What he’s doing over there is carving inside, so he’s hollowing out a piece,” Piland said. “Just the amount of things that you can do is just phenomenal, just phenomenal.”
Some of the world’s oldest wood carvings can be around 10,000 years old. The club itself has been around for 28 years.
About the club’s members
Member Don Short has been carving for over 50 years. The process has helped him battle
“When I’m carving, nothing else in my mind is there except the piece of wood in front of me, my hands, and the tool in my hand, and it’s very relaxing,” Short said. “You can have two people do the same thing at the same time, side by side, and the projects will come out completely different. That’s what I love about it.”
Short spends some of the weekly Monday meetings helping newer members like Gracie McKeown, who joined a little over a year ago.
Gracie McKeown speaking to FOX 13 News with her walking stick.
McKeown is currently working on a walking stick.
“I got into carving because I needed some creative outlets,” McKeown said. “I enjoy all the stories they have to tell. I enjoy the stories within the carvings that they carve.”
Get involved
Local perspective:
Sharing stories is what the long-time members yearn to do, and an aging membership has dropped the club’s numbers from over a hundred to around 45.
McKeown started with zero experience in the field, and members welcome the public to give it a try.
Members of the Nature Coast Carving Club making woodworking projects.
