Don Wimperis: Carving his niche - Star News
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Don Wiimperis posed at the kitche table with several of his woodcarvings. (Photo by Bruce Strand)
by Bruce Strand, Arts editor
In a ninth-grade art class 64 years ago, Don Wimperis learned how to make woodcarvings with a single-edged razor.
Few people ever got so much mileage out of a lesson in junior high. Wimperis has produced hundreds of woodcarvings using the same technique in the decades since then, and brought smiles to many faces with them while earning batches of honors.
The 78-year-old Elk River retiree entered his handiwork in the state fair since the 1950s and garnered at least one ribbon (blue, red or white) every year he?s entered, a remarkable feat.
This year he got a third-place ribbon in Chip Carving for the frame shown in the photo with his wife, Von, who made the embroidery, and a blue ribbon in the senior class for another work.
Don got a third-place ribbon at the State Fair this y ear for this frame of an embroidery made by wife Von. (Photo by Bruce Strand)
His work has appeared in Chips Chats magazine on two occasions. The Bank of Elk River displays a Wimperis oval carving featuring an Elk in its lobby, presented as a gift during an anniversary.
Even better, Wimperis? woodcarvings are cherished items for his three grown children (another is deceased) and 14 grandchildren and three great-grandkids.
One granddaughter with kids of her own has a ?Grampa Room? filled with his works. Each grandkid has a clock carved by Wimperis. Two little girls wear little monogramed hair clasps he made for them. Photos in their homes have frames made by Grampa. If the kids like the Twins or Vikings or Wild, or cartoon characters from ?Toy Story? or ?Sponge Bob? or ?Sesame Street,? a carving depicting them will spring from Don?s razors.
?I have always liked to create things,? said Wimperis. ?I like to make things for the kids. When we are gone, they will still have these.?
Wimperis knows that most woodcarvers use sets of carving tools with different sizes and cutting edges. That?s fine for them and he admires their work, too.
?But I could not do that,?? he said. ?For me, it would be clumsy, for making all those fine little cuts.?
Wimperis is a patient man, and has to be, working with such a small carving device. He is supremely comfortable with the single-edged razor and claims he never botches a project with an errant cut.
His biggest work was a hope chest for his daughter that took nine months, followed by a coffee table for his son that took two months.
Normally he works smaller, such as? clocks, plaques, jewelry boxes, salt-and-pepper shakers, playing-card boxes, picture frames, checkerboards and tissue boxes.
Basswood is his favorite because it?s soft and has a pleasant grain. He also works with redwood and pine. On each project he draws the elaborate design on the untouched surface before getting the razor out. A small workbench in the basement of his Elk River home is where it all happens.
Don and Von ran a concrete masonry company for many years. His projects included the Medina Ballroom, an addition for the a church in Rogers, a warehouse for a carpet company and many residential houses. He?s been retired since 2000 and has stepped up his woodcarving.
Von is an artist herself, doing counted cross stitching. Along with the project shown on this page, she recently got a third-place ribbon at the state fair for an illustration of a girl in a garden.
The couple?s other creative passion is gardening. They raise hibiscus flowers and were featured in the Star News for their garden in 2002.
Wimperis has always grown things. His parents owned a nursery raising chrysanthemums and a farm that produced vegetables for grocery stores, located in Osseo along Highway 101, long gone now.
Wimperis got his wood-carving training at Jordan Junior high in Northeast Minneapolis. He then opted to attend Minneapolis Vocational High School rather than Osseo because ?I wanted to learn a trade.? The trade he learned there was machine shop.
He spent four years in the Navy in the 1950s, mostly in the engine room of a destroyer. He saw the world, visiting the Acropolis, French Riviera,? Tokyo, Hawaii, Nice, France and? lots of other places. In the Korean War he served? on the destroyer USS Owen, which, he explained,? would creep close to shore and sit ?dead in the water? to draw fire from the enemy, enabling the massive USS Missouri farther out to learn their positions and hit them with 16-inch cannons.
Don and Von met during his Navy years. On a leave, he had befriended a 5-foot-9 girl at a dance, but being only 5-foot-5 himself, he suggested to her: ?Next time I?m home, see if you can find me a short girl and I?ll find you a tall guy.? The next time, he brought a 6-foot-2 buddy of his, and she brought the 5-foot-2 Von. They?ve been married 56 years.
Wimperis put his hobby aside during his Navy years ?because Uncle Sam kept you pretty busy? and during a 15-year stretch when he and Von were establishing their building business. But he?s always gone back to it. And now he is enjoying retirement considerably with something fun to get up for every day.
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