There are very few wood carvers that still create original basswood figures. Conrad Hartz is a master of the art. Enjoy the final part of our eight part interview!
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Video Transcript:
Without a doubt you are this
generation’s Frank Marshall um you are
you know so prolific everybody knows the
Conrad Hartz figures and the quality
speaks for themselves there’s not too
many people that want to sit down and
bang a piece of wood all day long I find
it therapeutic I really do it really is
now when I first started I got so
frustrated I I was telling people uh and
uh Larry LaFontsee can tell you he he
started and went through the same thing
but I I would get so frustrated that I
couldn’t do what I wanted to in Wood yet
uh I would take a hot cup of coffee and
I would pour it over the wood and throw
it in trash can and U I would um you
know give it last rights and throw it
away go stomping in the house or
whatever like that you know it it wasn’t
easy yeah but uh now I know you know I
can I can see what I want to in a flat
piece of wood and it’s hard to describe
how but uh I can see it you know yeah
yeah
I I do I do basically 2D carving I’ve
done some Santas that are primitive but
uh uh yeah you can you can kind of yeah
I I understand exactly where you’re
coming from there and I I used to get uh
my Basswood off of eBay uh because I
don’t have a a source for it where I am
yeah and uh every once in a while I’d
get a piece that was uh kind of Punky or
just not right right and you’d carve
into that stuff and it was like oh this
is miserable yeah um uh Bass would was
used in case you want to recheck some of
the lumber places around it used to be
used
commercially uh for the
skeleton framework inside kitchen
cabinet MH and now they’ve got this
stupid horse glue press
board that everybody use it so they
hardly use Basswood anymore which drove
the price up and um but luckily down
here uh in South Carolina we still got
bwood sources you know but um anyway
um um but it’s still the best best in
the world to use but uh you’ve got to
figure out if you’ve got 34 inch boards
or 1 in boards you’ve got to figure out
then what depth you want to use and
whether you need to trim them down or
whatever uh because that was a problem
when I started uh my figures uh I didn’t
have the right depth so I knew I had to
trim at least one of the boards down to
get it down the where I wanted it okay
and uh so anyway it’s just it’s a hard
it’s a hard thing to get into but gosh
uh if I had somebody I could have gone
to see like Frank Marshall I would have
learned in two days what I had to learn
in 10 years
here there nobody was around here that
knew anything what I was doing well
would for a self-taught you have you
know you have mastered that craft and
well the uh there was no communication
back then you know it’s hard to
communicate with people hard to make
friends with somebody through
letters and regular us naal and of
course now on Facebook you can see
videos of things you know but uh Lord uh
back then you know you had to uh um you
know buy a figure to look inside or
whatever like that you know yeah yeah
well Conrad I will um I really again I
appreciate everything youve you know all
your time this morning and all the
information you have a wonderful day and
I’ll give you a call if I’m ever down
that way okay you’re welcome okay thank
you sir all right bye bye
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