Carving an Artistic Life

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

It started quite modestly. Wes Ripple was helping his wife, Suzanne Connor, with the Evergreen Fair, an event she ran at the University of New Hampshire. Many artisans were selling and exhibiting at the fair, organized by Suzanne, who is a talented quilter and artist (www.suzanneconnor.com). 

“I was there to help Suzanne,” recalls Wes, “and there was a bird carver at the show. I got talking with him about his bird carving and I was interested in what he was doing. He had kits for sale and I bought a chickadee bird carving kit.” The carver was Erwin Flewelling from Maine. (His website is http://www.nestlewoodbirds.com.) He has been a great resource and mentor to Wes over the years.

The first kit was a learning experience for Wes, but he soon realized he could do more if he got additional tools. “I bought a wood burning pen, paint and brushes,” Wes says.

Once his first bird carving was completed, Wes was hooked and he bought another kit. By this time, he began to see the possibilities of artistic wood carving and while he is modest about his skills, saying, “I can’t draw and I am not an artist”, the finished products say otherwise.

One of the first things Wes probably realized as he began to pursue wood carving in earnest was that this is not a hobby or art form for an impatient person. “It takes me about two to three months to complete a bird carving,” he explains in his quiet voice. He adds that while some carvers complete projects much quicker, he enjoys taking his time to research and plan out, as well as carve, each bird. 

From time to time as was speaks, Suzanne joins in to further add encouragement; clearly, this creative couple are a perfect match, with Suzanne being outgoing and husband Wes quiet and measured in his answers to questions about bird carving. 

“I have been doing bird carvings for about 15 years,” Wes goes on to say. “I’ve been retired for 2 ½ years and it gives me more time to dedicate to carving.”

Over those 15 years, Wes has continued to learn more and more about bird carving, talking to other carvers, and studying all he can about the many thousands of birds around the world. He looks at photos of birds online, in books and magazines, and even has traveled to the Cornell School of Ornithology, where one of the world’s largest collections of stuffed birds is housed. That trip, according to both Suzanne and Wes, was an amazing experience, with a huge collection of birds available for Wes to study and measure. That was a great help for his bird carving, because it allowed Wes to get measurements exactly correct and to see many of the lesser-known, as well as popular birds, up close.

Wes has a small studio in his house, which is located in a peaceful, beautiful location right on a pond in the Tilton area. Wildlife is abundant at the pond, which is just steps from Wes and Suzanne’s home. While he works at bird carving, Wes can see birds coming to the bird feeders and visits from wildlife at the pond, right from his studio window. (Suzanne also has a studio in the home for her quilting projects.)

Wes has outfitted his studio space with all the tools necessary for bird carving. If one assumes the studio is a huge shop with all sorts of massive wood cutting machinery, that could not be further from the truth. The tools in the studio are not large and everything fits seamlessly in the modest space where Wes works. 

One of the first pieces of equipment Wes bought as he really got into wood carving was a Dremel, a hand-held rotary tool to aid in finishing a carving. “As I progressed,” he recalls, “I bought more kits and bigger tools, such as a high-speed grinder for detail work. And I have learned air brushing for painting and fine detail painting of the birds I carve. “

All the tools are quite helpful in bird carving, a “hobby” anyone with some time and a desire to do something with their hands could probably accomplish. But Wes is a natural talent and his work long ago was elevated from hobby status to that of a working artist, although he is modest to acknowledge that fact.

Perhaps his philosophy is a key to understanding how he approaches the art form and one of the reasons Wes has won many awards for bird carving. “I am trying to tell a story when I carve a bird,” he explains. “I think about how I want to show the bird and how it should be displayed. I started simple in bird carving, but I now know it is also about storytelling.”

To clarify, Wes uses a bird he carved as an example: A White Breasted Nuthatch perched on a branch with pine cones. A sculptural piece of beauty and grace, the carving won a number of awards at the Ward World Championship in Ocean City, Maryland in 2016. 

The idea for the carving came about a few years before Wes retired. “On my lunch break at work, I would take a walk near my office. One day on my walk, I found a branch with some pine cones attached. I thought to myself that it would be a good branch for a bird to perch on, and later, I remembered it and used that idea as a habitat for the bird I wanted to carve.”

The habitat, or object the carved bird stood on, was an important part of the overall piece. Wes could have simply carved a White Breasted Nuthatch and it would have been acceptable and lovely, probably displayed on a small stand. But, as an artist, he went beyond and imagined a setting for the bird, in this case, the branch with pine cones. This is what Wes means when he says he wants to tell the entire story when he does a bird carving.

Storytelling, or providing a habitat for each bird carving, has led Wes to hone additional skills. He now incorporates carved flowers and vines crafted from copper wire covered in a putty and painted appropriate colors into the overall finished piece. Birds he has carved can be perched on a vine with berries or near large flowers with twisted vines wrapped around a piece of driftwood or a tree stump. 

“Every part of carving is a challenge,” Wes says. “It is all handmade and I have to be a sort of master of all trades to do a carving, but I enjoy all of it.”

The wood used for carving is mostly tupelo, which is a southern hardwood that comes from the swamps of Louisiana. The portion of the tupelo tree that is in the water is what Wes uses, and he surely cannot find this specialized wood in NH. He special orders tupelo wood online and when he can, he buys it from wood vendors at shows.

The wood comes in large blocks and Wes uses every piece as much as possible. For a bird carver such as Wes, a piece of tupelo wood is as desirable as diamonds would be to a jeweler. He explains that when he starts, he must find the grain of the wood and cut the bird template following the grain. It is painstaking work that requires planning and knowing ahead of time what bird he wants to carve, its pose and size.

The most popular birds among collectors are Cardinals and Blue Birds and Wes has created carvings of each. All the birds he carves are incredibly lifelike, but also works of art because of the skill Wes brings to each project. And again, they are works of art because each is placed in a habitat, perched on a birch log or emerging from a hole in a tree or on a berry branch, for example.

Wes refers once more to the memorable trip he and Suzanne took to the Cornell School of Ornithology, spending a few days to see the birds. He reiterates that it was extremely helpful to see just about every stuffed bird species one could imagine and to have the opportunity to measure the birds and take photographs for reference. 

As a skilled carver, Wes creates birds to actual size, almost always knowing what he wants to carve ahead of time. “I plan to carve a Cardinal soon,” he says when asked what projects are upcoming.

Along with the bird carvings, Wes does feather carvings. Because it is illegal to own a real feather, the carved feathers are a great opportunity for someone to have a lifelike feather that has been carved from wood. Those who love nature and birds will appreciate the carved feathers, which are very lifelike. Called Spirit Feathers, each large feather comes with a printed explanation on the back of the display box that tells a story. For example, the Red Tailed Hawk Spirit Feather, the printed information says, symbolizes guardianship, strength, and farsightedness.

The feathers also come in lapel pin size and make great and unusual gifts or pieces of jewelry for nature lovers. Both Spirit Feathers and the smaller feather pins have proven very popular with those who appreciate Wes’ carvings. “I just did a farmer’s market and sold a number of the Spirit Feathers,” he says.

Currently, Wes is between projects, but will start soon on a carving of an Eastern Bluebird, then a Cardinal. His eyes light up as he mentions a bird that is on his carving wish list: a shorebird. One can only imagine what Wes will create when it comes to a shorebird, in its special water habitat.

To view the carvings of Wes Ripple or to purchase his work, visit www.wesripple.com. Wes will be at an open house he hosts with wife Suzanne called Gallery in the Garden on August 1 and 2 on their property (information at www.GalleryintheGardenNH.com.) Wes will also be exhibiting at the Button Factory in Portsmouth, NH on Saturday, December 5 for an artisan event.

What started modestly with a bird carving kit and a small carving knife, has become a passion and art form for Wes Ripple. It encompasses all kinds of skills, the opportunity to travel to bird exhibits and to talk with other bird experts, as well as a passion for the graceful, sometimes elusive, but always fascinating, birds around us.