Joan Casale pictured with her three sisters kachina woodcarvings
Jim Brown
Why would anyone carve three of the beginner kachinas? That was the question posed to Joan Casale. The answer was very interesting, Joan has two sisters and she wanted to carve everyone a Kachina to celebrate their sisterhood and living in the Southwest.
Joan is one of the few people who had carved prior to joining the PebbleCreek Woodcarvers Club in February of 2023. She had taken a beginning woodcarving class at the public library in Lancaster, Penn., back in 1997. Yes, that Lancaster, Penn., land of horse and buggy and great food. In that class she carved a small dog and a cat using knives. As we all know, work and life gets in the way, and Joan was not able to keep up the carving hobby. When she moved to PebbleCreek and encountered the carving club in the Creative Arts Center, she was able to resume that carving bug. She found that using power tools such as a micro motor, which is a Dremel-like device, was much easier than the knives she had used before. The beginning kachina class consists of carving, wood burning, and painting a stylized kachina. Joan had the idea to carve one for each of her sisters, and the three sisters kachina project was hatched.
As you can see in the photo the three kachinas are similar, but each one is unique, just like sisters. Since joining the club Joan has taken several other classes, but has had the perseverance to complete the three kachinas. Congratulations, Joan, on a project well done!