Linda Churchill on Carving and Her Dad

[My goals are to] be a better adzer and try and work on my own at home. And I want to try and make a mask. My dad made several masks that I can look at and try and study. And he made beautiful, beautiful eight-foot long medicine paddles or shaman paddles and he used my hair on them. If I could get good photos of what he has left here, I’d like to try and make my father happy even though he’s not right here with me. In fact, there’s a two-finned killer whale he did down at Chief Shakes grave. A couple of years ago I noticed the wind had blown and one fin was missing. I got hold of three different people trying to get somebody replicate it while the one fin was still there [to copy]. And no one did anything and last year the second fin disappeared. So, I mentioned it to John Martin, and he said he’s going to get a special piece of wood, and make a template, and I get to do copy my Dad’s fins. So that’s cool.

Susie Kasinger on Wanting to be a Carver

I took a JOM class in middle school and we made a plaque. So, carving is something I’ve always been interested in and appreciate. I mean, I could stand and look at that bench out in front of Wells Fargo for a long time. A couple of years ago, I signed up for the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan to do the carving class. I already took the power tools class. But then our rear end went out of our truck, so we had to use the money to get that fixed. I was going to sign up for it this year but then this job came along. So maybe next year if I’m not doing anything, because you have to take the introduction to carving and design. You have to go by step by step and take each class. About eight years ago, I took a class with Steve Brown. I still have all that stuff. I want to go somewhere. I guess there’s a place in Terrace too that’s really good. And he [Steve Brown] said that if I got that on my resume, I could go anywhere.

One of my girlfriends, she’s like, you’re not going to be able to make a living doing a hobby. I don’t consider it a hobby. It’s more serious to me. I’m just a late bloomer I guess. It’s always something that I’ve wanted to do but then you got your kids, and you got this come up and that come up. I told my husband, why do I have to wait for my kids to graduate before I do something I want to do? I just want to do something that I want. I keep telling my daughter too, find something you really like—don’t do it just to make money.