A miniexhibit of her carved painted birds now at the Troy-Hayner-Cultural Center runs through May.
Belcher, 67, has carved out a comfortable career for himself and his wife, Barb, with a hobby begun at age 11 in West Milton. His father would not let him have a knife.
“Father had cut off a finger,” he said.
Not to be defeated, Belcher fashioned his own knife out of a roofing nail he filed an edge onto it. He used tape to wrap a handle. A small wooden sailboat was his first carving.
“I was determined,” he said.
Carving out a career
Carving proved therapy for a sometimes rough childhood. He liked the challenge of shaping something out of a block of wood.
After high school, he worked in payroll at NCR for 14 years.
However, following a strike against the company in 1975, Belcher was let go.
Consequently, he began turning his hobby into a business, carving and selling and then teaching classes and also selling carving supplies.
He and his wife run their own mail order carving supply business for knives, books, gouges, burs and cutters, sharpening, and other carving needs for area carvers.
He does commissioned and special order carving, including restoration on antique furniture.
He and a friend, Roger Vissoc, started The Dayton Carvers Guild in 1972. He became president and last year was named president again.
The club has grown to about 160 members, with usually 80 or more meeting.
The groups meets at the United Rehabilitation Services facility at Ohio 202 and Needmore Road from 7 to 9:30 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month.
The club had met at the Riverbend facility in Dayton, but when it closed last year, they had to move.
Belcher taught wood carving at Riverbend for 30 years, but now teaches out of his home studio, as well as at the University of Cincinnati, where he became adjunct professor and then professor.
He and his wife travel about 30,000 miles a year going to 16 wood carving shows throughout the country.
They do demonstrations and sell his carvings, carving tools and books and other items.
On June 26-27, they will be at the Brukner Nature Carvers show at the Brukner Nature Center, 5995 Horsehoe Bend Road.
On Nov. 13-14, they will help put on the largest woodcarver’s show in North America, Artistry in Wood, at the Dayton Expo Center, 3900 McCauley Drive at the Dayton International Airport.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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