Greetings from California

[Rick U.]

Greetings All!

Here is a smattering about me (sorry for phone photos, my wife is the camera person now that the medium has left the dark room and entered the electronic age).

I have been carving myriad organic materials since the early 1970s.  I started out with antler, and expanded to bone, wood, ivory (elephant, whales’ teeth, boar tusk, etc.) & steel; a tool related epiphany resulted from an afternoon in Provincetown, MA where I chanced upon the workplace of Craig Littlewood (deceased), “the Ivory Carver”. 

My original inspiration came from the intricate handles of modern knives, but soon embraced scrimshaw and European styled miniatures.  In the 1980s saw the end of my 20 year College hiatus, and I returned to earn a BA in Art, with a focus on 3-D sculpting-jewelry making.

Over the years, I have attended California Blacksmith seminars, studied with Frank Turley in Santa Fe and taken knife making courses with Hill Pearce & Don Fogg at Smithville, Tennessee’s Appalachian Center for the Arts.

Recently retired, the areas surrounding my bench / easy chair are again accumulating dust and shavings!

I can provide some additional photos of past & recent work to verify my artistic claims.

Note: “Willendorf 2000” is a mixed media wearable piece-in-progress 

Cheers, Rick U.

 

Some miscellaneous items that haven’t been sold, traded or gifted away…elephant ivory, bone & elk antler