By Susan Corica
Correspondent

It's an ancient art and a modern pastime. Every Thursday afternoon at the Little Red School House, the Nutmeg Woodcarvers gather to work with their hands.
For three hours or so, they work at a leisurely pace on mirror frames, walking sticks, figurines, whatever strikes their fancy. It's an escape from the hectic world of high tech, 24-hour news and instant communications.
"There's no technology to it," explained George Crede. "I don't use any machines. Just a hand saw and a coping saw, that's all I use to start." Though other members use specialized sets of knives, he prefers an X-Acto knife for most of his work.
His specialty is Colonial soldiers, each about a foot high. A Newington resident, Crede said he's been carving for decades but took a break for a while. Then a year or so ago, he started up again, joining up with the informal group at the Art League's School House space on Wells Road.
There are about a dozen woodcarvers from all over the area, though not everybody shows up every week, according to Wethersfield resident Filomena "Fil" Vincenzo, who took up the hobby when she retired in the mid-90s.

The late Robert G. Low founded the group back in 1980, as part of the Art League, she said. For a while they were known as the R. G. Low Woodcarvers. "Now we call ourselves Nutmeggers," she noted.
On the School House wall there's a wooden "quilt" of carved squares surrounding a central photo of Low. Each of the 33 squares was done by an early member of the group. Designs include animals, emblems, and local historic buildings (including the School House itself).
Ted Sheltz of Wethersfield was one of those early members. He recalled that a friend brought him to a meeting. "When I got here, Bob Low handed me a knife and a piece of wood and I got hooked."
Sheltz's first carving, a bird, is now part of the quilt. "The quilt is good to have so we can refer back to our history," he said.
Lately, he's been working on a cane with a patriotic theme. The top is shaped and painted like a bald eagle, below that is the Spirit of '76. He plans on adding the Liberty Bell and a B-17 bomber (he flew 51 missions on a B-17 in Italy during World War II).
Crede, as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, draws his inspiration from a book called "Uniforms of the American Revolution," full of color illustrations of historical figures.
He's done 32 wooden soldiers so far, all different. He recently finished a Green Mountain Ranger figure and is working on a Massachusetts Militiaman. "I've done British, Hessians - that's the Germans, Scotch Highlanders, French, Indians," he said. "I do four or five a year. They're on display at the Oliver Ellsworth Homestead in Windsor."
Vincenzo has worked on all kinds of projects, from coasters and spoons to birds. Recently she decided to do an 18th Century British infantry figure taken from Crede's book.
Louis Gerolami of Portland is working on a mirror frame. "My first project was a small owl, just last year. I always wanted to do hand carving all my life, but I was too busy making fine furniture. Now no more machines!"
"Ideas come from just about anywhere," according to Marygrace Larke of Hamden.
She's currently working the same mirror frame design as Gerolami - with a cartoon Grinch on top, a penguin and a mushroom on the sides, and Tom & Jerry the cartoon cat and mouse on a bottom shelf. Fellow woodcarver Betty Tichy came up with the design.
The mirror frame uses all three kinds of carving, explained Tichy. There's relief carving - which is making a design in a flat piece of wood, there's carving in the round - like sculpting a three-dimensional figure, and then there's chip carving - usually used to make decorative patterns in wood.
"Chip carving is a design you make with little triangles," she said, using a knife to demonstrate shallow cuts to chip out a triangular shape. "You have to be able to see the design in the wood before you do it."
"We usually use basswood. It carves easily," she added, but there's a store in Manchester where a carver can get all kinds of common and exotic wood to work on.
Tichy is currently working on an angel, which will have a little nativity scene in front. She also likes to carve small animals from scraps of wood. "Whatever interests me I do. I do it while watching TV and when I go to concerts in the summer I bring a little something to work on."
Everyone is welcome to join the woodcarvers, she said. "If you don't know how to carve we'll teach you."
The Nutmeg Woodcarvers is affiliated with the Connecticut Woodcarvers Association, which meets in Middletown monthly and hosts an annual show at the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol. The web site is www.ctwoodcarvers.org.