In 2024 I applied for the North Dakota Council on the Arts Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program to learn more about carving Acanthus – a method using long-handled gouges and a mallet. July 2024-April 2025 I was chosen to learn with Master Carver Izo Becic. We first met at the 2023 Wahpeton Carving Weekend where I took his “Greenwoman” class – afterwards he suggested I apply.

We met together for multiple multi-day sessions of carving. Starting from the ground up with pattern drafting, transferring, stop-cuts, gouge & mallet work, hand work, and of course finishing up the background with the “most expensive tool” – a nail! Click on the images below to read the captions on each.