where natural history meets art
Bob Spear, Founding Director + Master Carver, is the featured member in summer Vermont Entomological Society News! (The article was written by current Executive Director, Wildlife Biologist Erin Talmage.)
The PDF of VES News is here: http://vermontinsects.org/vesnews/VES%20News%20-%20Summer%202012.pdf [5 Mb PDF]
More newsletters can be found here: http://vermontinsects.org/newsletter.html
The Museum opened its doors this May 1st with 501 birds! An incredible milestone, but of course Bob and the staff have plans for still more. But have we ever mentioned—in addition to the birds—how many carved eggs there are? So many of our bird displays are complete with parents, nest, habitat, and eggs, that it seems worth some mention. After all, which came first? Continue reading “Eggs: It All Starts Here—Or Does It?”
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
I can’t remember the first time I ever heard the “M” word. The fact that we were going to have a museum in the family happened very slowly, after a great many permutations and plot twists, and by the time it was a reality, it felt like it was meant to be from the beginning.
But it didn’t start out that way.
Continue reading “The Bird Carver’s Daughter (Part 3: Something’s Going On Here…)”
We were invited to be interviewed for a local television series, Positively Vermont. We are allowed to embed the video here, but you may also wish to see this on a larger screen. Airtimes for March 2012 are below:
http://www.cctv.org/stream-player-build?nid=115851
(if you missed it, feel free to order the show (ID: 115851 – Birds of Vermont Museum) or ask your local channel to do so)
1 Thursday March 1, 2012 at 6:00 PM
2 Monday March 5, 2012 at 9:30 PM
3 Tuesday March 6, 2012 at 2:30 AM
4 Tuesday March 6, 2012 at 8:30 AM
5 Thursday March 8, 2012 at 4:00 PM
6 Saturday March 10, 2012 at 4:30 PM
7 Thursday March 15, 2012 at 4:00 PM
8 Sunday March 18, 2012 at 3:30 PM
9 Thursday March 22, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
One summer when I was eight or nine years old, my father decided to give carving lessons. About a dozen people signed up, mostly teachers who knew him from the Audubon Society. But there were three people there who weren’t teachers–my mother, our eleven-year-old neighbor, and me. We met every Tuesday night in my father’s den. It was supposed to be a relaxed, casual gathering of people sitting in a circle making piles of shavings on the floor while they created a thing of beauty out of basswood as my father circled among them, offering his expert and benign advice.
Instead, it turned into a pain-filled bloodbath that caused me so much trauma that I have not even carved a jack-o-lantern since.
And most of it was the fault of the weather.
Continue reading “The Bird Carver’s Daughter (Part 2: the Pre-teen Years (or, Why I’m Not a Carver)”
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
When I was a little kid, I had no idea my father would one day have his own museum. I didn’t even know he carved birds. I just knew that he spent a lot of time down in his den, sitting in an old, brown, leather rocking chair with wide wooden arms, making a huge pile of shavings on the floor in front of him.
I loved the shavings. They came in all kinds of interesting shapes. Some were short and flat, some were long and twisting. No two were just alike. I would sit on the floor and make jewelry out of them — the long, curly ones made good earrings, and the shorter, curly ones could be hooked together for a bracelet. Some even curled around my fingers for rings. The flat shavings lined up to become roads or fences for my imaginary animals. And if I ever needed one of a certain shape or size, I just had to describe it, and my father would whittle off what I needed. The block of wood in his hands was not remotely interesting, not compared to the ever-growing pile of shavings. If I thought about the block of wood at all, I thought he was carving it up just to make toys for me. Continue reading “The Bird Carver’s Daughter (Part 1: The Early Years)”
As mentioned in the winter’s Chip Notes, we were eagerly awaiting the debut of Dick Allen’s Bufflehead Duck carvings. They are here!
Bufflehead Ducks are characterized as small, diving ducks that migrate through the region on their way to summer grounds in Canada and Alaska from wintering sites in coastal and southern United States and Central America. Inhabiting ponds and small lakes where they consume crustaceans, mollusks, and insects underwater, Buffleheads nest in aspen and poplar tree cavities created by Northern Flickers. The male Bufflehead’s striking triangular white patch extending from the eyes to the rear of the head inspired the bird’s name. The Bufflehead’s ability to achieve a near-vertical take-off from the water’s surface is another reason we take special notice of this notable species.
The male and female pair will take their places with other waterfowl near Dick’s pair of Lesser Scaups in the Spring Migration scene of the Wetland Diorama.
For this year’s raffle bird, we offer a wood and cork decoy, carved and painted by Leo LaBonte of Essex Junction, Vermont. The bird is about 10.5” from beak to tail, and looks lovely in its temporary home by our guest register. Many visitors have already commented that it would look even nicer in a permanent home (theirs!). Tickets are $1 each, or buy 6 for $5. You can buy tickets by phone, if you like!
Leo LaBonte started carving a little over 12 years ago. He is mostly a self-taught carver with one class under his belt that helped him to overcome a few hurdles and smooth out the process. He mostly focuses on decoy carvings but has also carved ducklings, small songbirds, and a few figurines. He has won numerous awards for his decoys including the Art Knapp Hunting Decoy Contest and the Thousand Islands Museum Decoy and Wildlife Art Show. In more recent years he has also taught his two sons to carve, resulting in 2 more award-winning carvers in the family. In 2009 both sons won awards at the International Wildfowl Carvers Association Young Guns competition!
Although generously donating the Blue-winged Teal to the Museum, Leo usually sells his decoys. He is in the process of putting together a website (under construction as of this writing). If anyone is interested in contacting Leo please call or email the Museum (802) 434-2167 and museum@birdsofvermont.org.
Beginners and experienced wood carvers are invited to this one-day carving class with David Tuttle of the Green Mountain Woodcarvers. We will carve and paint an Eastern Bluebird. Wood blanks, eyes, paint, snacks and coffee will be provided. Please bring your own lunch (and carving tools if you have them).
Best for teens and adults.
Fee: $25 for members of either the Birds of Vermont Museum or Green Mountain Woodcarvers; $35 for non-members.
Please pre-register (you can pay ahead or at the door) by calling 802 434-2167 or emailing museum@birdsofvermont.org
We’re pleased to offer again our Saturday wood carving demonstrations. Stop in (members get unlimited free admission) and find out who’s carving what this week. Ask questions, collect fresh ideas, learn a new technique.
Every Saturday from 1-2, upstairs in the Museum workshop.
Appropriate for all ages.
Free with Museum admission ($6, discounts for children, seniors, members).