Turning wood into art

Mike McCoy photo Mike Clippard sits at his work bench in the basement of his home in Dexter. He started the hobby with six chisels and a mallet, but now how has numerous tools. He says of woodcarving, the key is to have to the right tool for the job. Clippard has pieces on display in Silver Dollar City.

Clippard tells a story about his first meeting with Engler. He said Engler asked him, "Are you a carver?" to which he responded, "No." Then Engler asked him, "Have your ever whittled?:" He said "Sure." Clippard was hooked. He bought six chisels and a mallet from Engler and returned to his home in Dexter.

"I had no idea what to do with them," he laughs. For 10 years Clippard honed his skills with the help of a book he bought on woodcarving and a lot of trial and error and hard work.

In fact, some of that trial and error took a toll on him physically. He was working on a Santa Claus head with a very large beard and it required removing a lot of wood. He worked the wood with a mallet that was too light for the job not knowing that it was a bad thing to do. The work was so hard that he wound up with a torn rotator cuff which required six months of therapy. He learned from that experience never use too light of a mallet when doing a job.

Clippard's visit to Engler's Block had some origins in Dexter. His minister at the time was Duke Tolbert, who knew a man who took woodcarving classes from Engler. So while he was in the area it was only natural that he pay a visit to the man he had heard so much about.

He had lots of help getting started. That trip to Branson was made when he was 40 years old and still the band teacher at Dexter High School. He knew Alan Gibson of Dexter from school and talked with him about his craft. Gibson was well-known for his bird carvings and even won the International Bird Carving Competition in Maine. Gibson received cash and a set of tools for winning the competition. Clippard talked with Gibson who was a "power" carver and really didn't need the intricate hand tools. Clippard bought them from Gibson who in turn introduced him to some of the carving teachers in Branson.

It wasn't long until Clippard was taking classes at Branson. It was there he met Christopher White, a woodcarver from Colorado. He took classes from White. One of the projects for his class was taking some juniper wood from Colorado and some mesquite from Texas and turning it into a flying eagle. The juniper wood was approximately 2,000 years old, he says. The project called for the natural wood color to be used to highlight the piece. Clippard set about his work, only to have White reject his work. This happened five times before White finally felt that Clippard had gotten it right.

"It was one of the best classes I've ever taken," said Clippard.

He has a lot of respect for White who he calls a "good Christian carver." He says White writes a poem that goes with each piece that he creates. The poem is developed from scripture in the Bible.

The most valuable lesson Clippard learned about wood carving is "there are no mistakes in carving." Early on he was fearful that he would mess up a piece of wood and that kept him from developing. He learned that a mistake can lead to discoveries and lead in a whole new direction. The other major key to carving he found was, "having the right tools for the job is a necessity."

Clippard still attends wood carving classes in Branson from time to time. He has work on display at Valley Road Wood Carvers in Silver Dollar City, some of which are for sale. One of the requirements for attending classes is to keep work on display at Silver Dollar City. He said there are over 80 wood carvers from this region with works on display. The hope is that the few people still practicing the craft can preserve it for future generations.

Clippard is a little disheartened by the loss of interest in handcrafted items and specifically, wood carvings.

"Most people would rather buy mass produced pieces from overseas which cost much less to buy than original art," Clippard says.

It takes time to make a woodcarving. Clippard spent nearly 40 hours working on a cigar store Indian. He adds that the 40 hours included painting, drying and finishing. Still, 40 hours is a lot of man hours. The most time consuming piece he has done is the flying eagle, but that may have had something to do with the teacher.

"People have lost their appreciation for craftsmen," Clippard sighs.

Still, they like to watch a woodcarver at work.

His most recent projects have involved cottonwood bark that he gets from Minnesota and North Dakota. The bark is thicker than in Missouri due to the prolonged winters, Clippard speculates.

Turning cottonwood bark into an art piece is much like working with driftwood. He started out using driftwood from the Mississippi River. Each requires the craftsman to study the individual piece of wood and then determine what it can become.

"Every piece is unique," notes Clippard.

Most of his woodcarvings are made from basswood that comes from the Lindenwood tree or the Butternut tree. Both woods are brought in from northern states.

He has developed something of a sideline with his carving, finding a local market for hand-carved rolling pins. He also likes carving Indian flutes and, given the opportunity, can make one sound haunting and magical. His background as a band teacher comes into play when the flutes come out, and he notes with a little pride that he can play "just about anything."

Clippard was born in Gideon, but grew up at Wolf Island. He laughs as he says that Wolf Island had a population of five, all Clippards. It was east of East Prairie. He moved to Dexter (his father bought a farm between Dexter and Bernie) when he was a junior in high school. He graduated from Dexter and then attended Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia, Ark. Upon graduation he took a job at Osceola, Ark. Three years later he was contacted by his old band teacher at Dexter, Howard Jones, who wanted to know if he was interested in being an assistant. He took that job. A few years later he took the job as high school band teacher when Jones moved to junior high in a move to create more family time for Jones. Clippard came to Dexter in the fall of 1971 and retired 28 years later.

It was while attending Ouachita Baptist that he met his wife, Gail. She was from North Little Rock. The couple have two sons: Michael John, a doctor in Cape Girardeau, and Brandon, a teacher at Osceola. They have grandchildren who love the pool and the large yard at the Clippard residence south of Dexter.

The den at the home features a very large musket which belonged to his grandfather. His grandfather took that musket to the California Gold Rush and it was the only thing he brought back. He starts to relate the story of his grandfather and all the Clippard family that is buried at Oak Grove in Clippard Cemetery, but that is yet another story.

Meanwhile, Clippard has his tools and work bench in the basement of his home. When the mood strikes him, he can be found there developing possibilities from his collection of wood.

"It's a growing and learning process."