Carving in Brasstown

There’s always something happening in the evening at the Folk School.  There are square, contra and circle dancing, music concerts, craft demonstrations, storytelling and bingo.  And those are only the scheduled activities.  There are also informal get-togethers for music jams and shared making sessions.  One of these informal activities is Thursday evening wood carving.  A small group of regulars‒Folk School employees, work study students and members of the community‒get-together under the cherished guidance of Richard Carter.  There’s a little bit of carving and a whole lot of camaraderie and laughter.  It’s quickly becoming my favorite part of the week.  This type of shared making and informal support group is the heart and soul of the Folk School.

Here’s my first attempt at woodcarving… nothing spectacular but good enough to make me want to keep trying!
The traditional craft of woodcarving has a special place in the Folk School’s history.  A number of experimental programs were put in place when the Folk School was first established in 1925.  Back in the day, a group of local men would gather on a wooden bench on the porch of Fred O. Scroggs’ general store in Brasstown.  These men would whittle wood with their pocket knives to pass the time.  When they ran out of wood, they started carving the wooden bench on which they sat.  Scroggs tried to stop this activity by driving nails into the bench but the local men simply carved around the nails.  The original bench, known as the Carving Bench, is on display at the Folk School History Center today.
You can still see the nails that Fred O. Scroggs used in his attempt to deter the local men from carving away his bench.
As the story goes, Olive Dame Campbell (co-founder of the Folk School) noticed the local carvers and asked them what they were making. “Shavings” they replied.  She saw past their response and recognized the potential of their woodcarving skills.  She proposed a woodcarving class to teach these men how to create shapes with their knives.  In this program, the Folk School provided the men with blocks of wood, equipment, instruction and bookkeeping.  In turn, the men would carve wooden figurines and bring them back to the Folk School to sell.  Over time, the program evolved to a weekly routine whereby the carvers would come to the Folk School every Friday morning to deliver their finished carvings, meet with the carving staff and fellow carvers, and pick up new blocks of wood.  This illustrious group of carvers became known as the Brasstown Carvers.

The woodcarving program was one of the Folk School’s most successful programs.  The program models John and Olive Campbell’s intentions to improve the quality of life by education while preserving and sharing the crafts, techniques and tools used by the mountain people in everyday life.  The woodcarving program exemplified the community collaboration Olive Dame Campbell knew would be critical to the success of the Folk School.  As documented in the unique history of the Folk School, Campbell “realized, more than many reformers of the day, that they could not impose their ideas on the mountain people.  They would need to develop a genuine collaboration.”

The legacy of the first Brasstown Carvers is honored and treasured by the Folk School to this day.  There’s a great exhibit in the Folk School History Center that highlights their history and features the work of several of the woodcarvers.  In addition, the Folk School has an extensive collection of Brasstown Carvers’ work.  Here are a few examples.

This bear was carved by Dexter Dockery (1931-2015).  Dexter began carving at age 18 and was a lifetime member of the Southern Highland Handcraft Guild.  He was best known for his graceful, hand-carved birds.
Ben Hall carved this squirrel.  Ben was one of Brasstown’s most prolific carvers.  At a time when opportunities to earn a cash income were scarce, Ben Hall and his brothers John and Elisha chose to stay put and carve.  “In 1936 Ben Hall reported that he would rather carve than work at building a TVA dam and noted that carving enabled him to buy glasses for his son. … By the 1940s, 45 carvers received pay for their work. … A 1942 roster lists their income for the year.  Ben Hall was paid the most—$758.00.”
These next two carvings, the doe and the pair of owls, were carved by Sue McClure (1916-1994).  Sue was known for her wide range of subject material including bears, deer, and chicken.  In a Dec 1, 1947 letter, from Sue to Murray Martin, the carving instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School, she wrote:“… seams as though I haven’t seen you all in a very long time and it has been over 3 weeks you see how much I think of you all and my carving when I hatfo stay away for only 3 week I think it is years…”.  Sue went on to say that carving was the most enjoyable work she’d ever done.


Martha Coffey (1916-2014) carved this rooster and chickens.  Martha  was featured in the book The Brasstown Carvers (1990).  At the time, “Martha carves six to eight hours daily, first roughing out a piece in the evening and doing finish work every morning. She carves on her couch that sits beside her front door. A view of her flower garden and spectacular cannas lies just beyond the porch. Martha is the only carver in her family, now carving for over twenty years. She started carving after someone gave her an elephant napkin ring. “I bought a knife and tried to copy it.  Soon thereafter Martha was studying under Murray Martin. “She showed us the process and made us do them over until we did them right.”

You may have noticed that 2 of the 4 woodcarvers included here were women.  While the Brasstown Carvers were mainly men at the outset, women did much of the sanding and finishing.  It’s reported that “Little by little women entered the cooperative, with an influx of women during World War II. By 1946 women made up the majority with 33 women carvers and 18 men. Carving turned out to be a craft that crossed the lines of gender and age, in some cases allowing entire families to carve together providing an income while creating a tradition.”

The Brasstown Carvers were at their peak in the 1930s and 1940s but the tradition lives on including through our Thursday evening woodcarving get-togethers.  I’ve only been attending for a few weeks but already I can relate to Sue McClure’s thoughts that when she had to stay away for only 3 weeks, it felt like years!

Special thanks to my new friend and fellow work study participant, Patty, for her assistance with the photo shoot for this post.

More Info

If you missed my post on First Impressions as a Work Study Student, check it out to learn about the John C Campbell Folk School and my participation in the Work Study Program. Here are links to my previous posts about the Folk School:

. Weave a Market Basket

. Artistic Details Around Campus

You can also learn more about the Story of the Brasstown Carvers or the John C Campbell Folk School on their website.

Today’s Takeaways

1. Consider how genuine collaboration between humanitarian organizations and the communities they strive to support can lead to successful programs with life-changing benefits.
2. When learning something new, explore opportunities to get-together with others in the same situation for sharing and support.
3. Remember the importance of practice and experience. Most of the Brasstown Carvers carved every day for many years before creating their beautiful carvings.