Ken Beckenhaupt

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From the time I was a small boy trying to shape a boat from a block of wood with my fathers rusty chisels I've been interested in carving and sculpture. In 1990 while shopping for a decoy the owner of a store on 6a sandwich Cape Cod could see how interested I was and offered me a phone number of a carver who gave lessons in decoy carving. I took the phone number not thinking I would ever call. Several months later while cleaning my wallet out I ran into that phone number and called.  As they say the rest was history from the time I walked in the door I knew I found something that was always in me but was never brought out.  The instructor was master carver Roger Mitchell from Kingston Ma. I studied under Roger for 7 years went off on my own for awhile but in the last 5 years have returned to Roger for further mentoring and a good friendship.

I've learned that the art of carving is a continuous learning process.  While most of my history was carving decoys, song and shore birds I now specialize in whale carving traditional to cape cod but still try to retain the skills of wild fowl carving.

 

Carving are made from new England northern white cedar and pine.

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