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Self-taught Local Artist Finds Release in Carving

Emily McTavish
/
KSMU

CherylEdstedt calls herself a carver of wood and ivory. But the self-taught artist carves on more than just that. She will also carve on eggs, gourds, antlers, bone and horns.

“I love carving,” Edstedt says. “It’s my release. When you’re creating something it kind of flows right through you.”

Edstedt found her love of carving later in life. She used to work at a Ford assembly plant in St. Louis. She moved to Springfield when the factory closed to be closer to her parents, but found herself with idle hands.

Edstedt first took up chip carving—where chisels or gouges are used to chip away a pattern. Now about ten years later, she also practices woodburing, chainsaw carving and scrimshaw.

Whalers with idle hands, Edstedt says, invented scrimshaw. Edstedt inscribes thousands of tiny holes to create an image, and then fills the holes with ink to bring the piece to life.

“You scrimshaw with a carbide scribe,” Edstedt explains. “And I have my piece of ivory or bone, and I have it in my vice and it’s mounted into a set of clay so it doesn’t move. I’ll work underneath a visor, which is microscopic, so it brings it in closer so you can see your work. You just see all the holes that are in there.”

The animal bones, teeth or tusks from elephants or walruses that Edstedt uses, have come to her naturally. She says elephants lose teeth like humans do, or the tusks she has obtained are from elephants that died in captivity rather than were poached in the wild.

Edstedt often depicts animals in her work, such as birds into hunting calls, fish into the handles of fly fishing rods or rams in a ram’s horn.

Before putting her tools to the material though, Edstedt will create a pattern to follow.

“You have to lay a pattern down,” Edstedt says. “You can either go by it or free-hand it. I normally will transfer my pattern to the ivory or to the bone and then start scrimming it.”

Edstedt does not make her livelihood in carving. It’s still more of a hobby, she says, although she does do commissioned pieces. However, sometimes it’s hard to price her work.

“You don’t get paid for your time,” Edstedt says. “People like what they see, but they don’t think about what goes into it. They don’t think about the time that goes into it or the thought process or anything like that.”

Edstedt continues, “But something by hand, it’s something no one else is going to have.”

Edstedt says she’d like to be able to make her craft a business in the future.

“One of my [ostrich] eggs sold for an upwards of two grand,” Edstedt says. “There’s a lot of people that can’t afford that. So you have to start thinking and being a bit more creative for what you can make that’s something is going to be a little bit cheaper where the economy can afford it.”

Edstedt says this is also why she likes doing pieces that are useful or meaningful.

“It’s an absolute wonderful feeling when you see something of yours that someone has that they take value in,” Edstedt says. “It’s worth something.”

Edstedt also finds worth in teaching others to carve. She’s had the opportunity to teach her craft to children through the non-profit group Court Appointed Special Advocates, which supports children that were victims of abuse or neglect.

“It’s amazing just the whole persona that it gives a person when they realize they can do something that they never thought they could do,” Edstedt says. “It’s pretty cool.”

When Edstedt has questions herself, she reaches out to carvers as part of the local society Ozarks Whittlers & Woodcarving, or she will connect to carvers around the world via social media.

“I’ve been pretty blessed in my life,” Edstedt says. “Things come pretty natural to me. You know I can be shown something once, and I can do it.”

Edstedt, who does not have a storefront, can be found through her website or social media.