The goal is to enjoy sharing our carvings with other carvers. Each person sends the host up to 20 (depends how many are in the group) original prints of our carving, (pay the postage annually) and receive the same number back in the mail. The commitment is to participate for a year. Go HERE to my Jan. 15 post for carving instructions.
I had joined a similar group called RAPLICA, in 1998, and participated for 6 years. Carving images for prints was considered folk art, and was not an art form with a large following in the 1990’s; it has since become more wide-spread.
RAPLICA was a bi-monthly swap. I lovingly came up with 6 carvings a year. RAPS is now a quarterly swap: 4 carvings year. Pages are 8 1/2 by 11 inches. The carving can be any size. Some people use calligraphy, writing a quote, or write about what they are doing; others simply send carvings.
Tim Blackburn was the host when I joined RAPLICA in 1998. He asked for someone to take over hosting at the end of 2000 and I volunteered. How I managed that while I was working 60 hours a week and trained 6 assistants in 4 years, I'll never know.
Twelve were participating before I started hosting in 2001. Then seven dropped out! Luckily I was active in the Carving Consortium online group, so I invited ten and seven accepted.
I hosted for four years, then ended one Corporate job and started another. Wendy Gault returned to volunteer hosting RAPLICA in 2005; she had started RAPLICA in 1993 to have more than 20 RAPS carvers involved.
I usually combine calligraphy and carving, sometimes book arts on my pages. It has been an enriching experience and I’m happy to participate again now that I have more time.
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