I hadn’t been there long, but had heard plenty about the legacy of the Carvers. “This is one of the new work studies,” she told him, turning toward me, “Richard’s one of the Brasstown Carvers I’m sure you’ll see him a lot around here.” He came knocking, and Darcy Holdorf, the Folk School’s then-Outreach Coordinator and my supervisor at the time, enthusiastically introduced us. I met Carter my second day at Campbell, a few minutes after reporting to the Folk School office for my first day on the “job” (but more about that later). “There was a long period there where it nearly died out,” Carter told me, and he’s determined to not let that sort of thing happen again. Since 2017, Carter’s been teaching a free, weekly class at Campbell to further save the tradition from extinction. His childhood passion of carving was revitalized after taking lessons from noted Carver Jack Hall and, later on, Gibson, too. Carter came into the fold after working at the Folk School’s dairy farm in the late ‘60s (when agriculture was still a core part of the curriculum). There’s only a handful of them left - aside from Carter, there’s Carolyn Anderson, Hoyt Brown, Terence Faries, Helen Gibson, and Ed Hall. He sets up the tools and wooden blanks on a shelf near the doorway, laying out a pattern for every skill level and a number of half-finished examples for amateurs to use as inspiration.Ĭarter’s one of the Brasstown Carvers, a group of area residents keeping a generations-long whittling tradition alive through their own sustained devotion. Once there, Carter pulls out the utility tables, locks the legs in place with a swift tug and a jam of the palm, and arranges them in a U-shape in the center of the room. He says hello to the staff, grabs some supplies, and makes his way down the narrow wooden stairway, sure to duck his head as the ceiling lowers dramatically. He parks his truck in the school’s gravel lot and heads over to Keith House, the school’s main building and administrative hub, to get the basement ready. Seventy-year-old Richard Carter does the opposite, though. (This was 2019, before coronavirus made attendance and other such gatherings a major cause for concern.) Campbell Folk School, an Appalachian craft school for adults located in the westernmost part of North Carolina, students are wrapping up for the day - finishing their pieces and cleaning the studios before the supper bell rings. on a Thursday, one of those August afternoons marked by scattered showers that end almost as quickly as they begin.
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