l----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!--------R A VISIT WITH PHILLIP ODDEN AND ELSE BIGTON AMERICAN WOODCARVERS IN THE NORWEGIAN TRADITION Written by June Grayson Photographed by Richard Grayson we are r##inded of sagas of old "#ecauseare proud of the !and we ##rsook, Can it be that the b!ood of t|# Vikings sti!! f!ows In our veins like a still-running brook?" -Frank!in Petersen, Norwegian-American poet, 1900* In pursuit of their past, American co!lectors have made fo!k art one hot item. Forget the old me#ting pot theory. Ethnic is in. And that is just fine with Phi!!ip Odden and Else Bigton. Not oniy do they g!ory in a|| aspects of their Norwegian-American heritage but their professiona! woodcarving skills have enab!ed them to construct a who|e way of !ife, and not just a living. '##ie Promise ofAmerica: A History of t## Norwegian-American Peop!e by Odd L>vo11, University of Minnesota Press In these days of doom and g!oom, how refreshing to meet a young coup!e who can say with all sincerity: we !ove our work, we !ove our !ife, we hope that we can do this unti! the day we die. Odden was a Wisconsin farm boy who !eft the fami1y dairy farm in search of an easier and more adventurous !ife. "I did not want to work sixteen hours a day as my father did," he says. "Litt!e did I know that someday I wou!d be working sixteen hours a day in my own shop." He hunted and trapped in the American West, fought forest fires in A!aska, and went to the Phi!ippines and Nepa! with the Peace Corps - a!! part of what he now ca!!s his free period. He took up simple carving to pass the time. But it was not unti! he went to Norway to visit re!atives that he met a master woodcarver - a distant cousin. Odden knew then that he had to become a woodcarver, too. He enro!!ed in the prestigious Hjerled Trade Schoo! at Dovre, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. E!se Bigton of Aalesund, #orway, was also a student thero. Sho ho!ped him with his Norwegian. He gave her a mang!e board he had carved himse!f. So they were married in traditional Norwegian costume in her home town where her fami!y sti!! !ives. He promised her the moon. In rea!ity, he promised her that if she would move back to Wisconsin with him they would have their own home in three years - which to Else seemed just as unobtainable. "In Norway, some peop!e work for years and can never afford their own home. It is #ust a !ife!ong dream," E!se exp!ains. But Phi! kept his promise. The#moved to Wisconsin in 1979 after graduation, opened the Norsk Wood Works, and moved into their own home on Christmas Eve, 1980. Home is a converted country schoo! house surrounded bv the !akes and forests of northwest Wisconsin. Their woodworking shop in Barronett is ri#ht across #he street from the house that Phi!'s grandfather bui!t when he immigrated to the United STates in the 1890s. The country home in which they !ive is one on which Phil's unc1e was the bricklayer in the 1920s. A orevious owner ha# a!readv converted it from a school, partitioning off rooms with wood panelin#. But Phi! #dded the carved and paneled entry doors, so reminiscent of a Norwegian Stave church. He carved the doors from oine in the ro#ust and powerfu! Medieval Viking sty!e of which he is esoecially fond. They own the 45 acres surroun#inq their hom# so that Phil chops the wood for their kitchen stove and basement furnace. #hey have a backup furnace that uses #rooane qas, but it is not often needed. The country kitchen has windows that look out on a fragrant !ilac bush in the sprin#. #he curtains are traditiona! Norwegian. E!se measured the windows and her mother hand crocheted the curtains in Norway. Now they hang at the win#ows washed and stiff!y starched. The coffee #ot perks on the stove. A fresh!y baked oran#e-raisen cake awaits company on the trest!e dining room ta#le. The tab!e was the first piece of furniture E!se ma#e for their home. She a!so carved the four dining room chairs. "Whenever I get an order for chairs, I a!ways make two extra ones for us," says Else. "I hope T wi!! have time someday to make six of them that match." E|se a!so carved the !arge #ining room hutch which won honors at one of the carving competitions at Nordic Fest in Decorah. A kubbe sto#, Phil's favorite piece of fo!k furniture, sits in front of it. The !arge !iving room is fi!!ed with comforta#!e #ieces . that they have made during the last seven years as we!| as the family keepsakes from E!se's grandmother and greatgrandmother after whom she was named. Every one shou!d #e ab!e to have a "junk" room. #lse is lucky enough to have one. #ero #s whcre she keeps her Swedish loom, bou#ht when she studied weavin# in Norway. "Carvinq is my life work," E|se says. "#ut weav|n# and knife carving are what I do for fun." E!se #uys her wool from Norway because she is used to the qua!ity and colors she can #et there. "I used weave a!! of mv c!othes. Now I just do small pieces for fun." She especia!!y enjoys knife making. This is what she works on when the#sit around the firep!ace during the !ong winter evenings or when Phi! is away hunting or fishing. "I took a week course at the Vesterheim; it he!ped that I was the on!y pupil who cou!d understand the visitinq Norwegian instructor." She made a be!t knife and sheath for Phi! which he wears#!! of the time. Now she p!ans to make him a "twin" knife set for his be!t. "Twin knives are common in Norway and are passed down as fami!y heir!ooms," she says. A twin knife set may take E!se one hundred hours to make and wou!d se!! for over $125.00. Else is left-handed but she has never a!!owed that to be a handicap. "You just !earn to work around it, even though most machine too!s are designed for right-handed peop!e. A carver is supposed to be ambidextrous so you can switch your hands to carve rather than the wood on which you are working. T did fina!!y get a jigsaw made to a new design. The ol# one blew #ir in my eyes every time I used it." Else and Phil have an equa! re!ationship whether at work .. or at home. "We leave together for the shop every morninq about 8.00 am. We work on our orders accordinq to the efficient Procedure. Sometimes we wi!! start and finish one piece by ourse!ves. Since Phi! specia!ized in carving in schoo! and # specialized in cabinet making, I wi!| do the cahinet work, especia||y if it is comp!icated, and then give the piece to Phi| to carve," E!se says. Some women buyers have requested that E!se create their order from beginning to end and then sign it, since a professiona! woodcarver who is a woman is still unusua!, even today. A carver's wOrk is as in#ivi#ual as a signature and professiona! carvers are ab!e to recognize each other's work whether signed or not. Phil exp!ains how their sty!es differ. "My work tends to be !arger and more robust. I !ike to use anima!s and peop!e in my designs. And of course I !ove the power of the Medieval Viking sty!e. E!se's sty!e tends to be finer and she prefers the Acanthus sty!e of carving. Of course, both of us can do anything the design may ca!| for." You wi!! not find the many pieces of furniture in a modern home in Norway that you find in the Odden home, which is #lmost !ike a sma!! museum. "You cou!d on!y find such a collection in an o!d farm home where the furniture has accumu!ated over many generations," Phi! exp!ains. "The fami!ies never get rid of any- #hing and the wood never wears out. Look how !onq some of the Stave churches have survived in Norway." "Because Norway is a !and with just four mi!!ion peop!e and because their furniture is of such good qua!ity, new carvers coming up in Norway usual!y can't expect to make a !iving with their carving," Else continues. "That is why so many peop!e from Norway now order from us. It seem funny to me that people should have to come to Wisconsin now to get the old traditional Norwegian furniture." As far as they know from their friendships around the country with other carvers, the Oddens are the on!y coup!e to #e a#!e to earn a fu!!time !iving with their folk carving, either here or in Norway. A#!e to survive from the first, they are now almost one year behind on some of their custom orders. That does not mean that they won't fi!! specia! rush orders, however. "Grandparents who want our crad!es are a!ways impatient," E!se laughs. Phi! achieved Go!d Meda! status in the 1983 Annua! Exhibition of Woodcarving in the Norwegian Tradition at Nordic Fest at the Vesterheim in Decorah, Iowa. Now he can no !onger compete but he sti!! exhibits and teaches. He a!so accepts private students every year for a week's training at their Barronett shop. E!se has amassed seven of the eight points needed to win her Go!d Meda!. When she wins that !ast coveted point, they wi!! be the first coup!e to ho!d that honor, as far as they know. If you visit Decorah, Iowa, p!an to eat at !east once at McDona!d's. It is decorated in the Norwegian Viking sty!e Or catch the Koh!er Trave!ing Fo!k Art Exhibit now on a.two year tour in Wisconsin. The Odden have three pieces in the co!!ection. visit the Norwegian Pavi!ion at Epcot Center, Disney Wor#, F!orida, when it is finished in 1988. Their names are a!ready on disp!ay as two of the three American woodcarvers and the two Norwegian woodcarvers asked to contribute their work. When you are driving on Route 63 in northwest Wisconsin, you can visit the showrooms of the Scandinavian Import Shop, owned and operated by Phi!'s mother in Barronett across the street from their workrooms and where an assortment of their carvings are disp!ayed and .for sa!e. Or visit the workrooms themse!ves for Open House the ..three davs of any Thanksgiving weekend. The !atest honor to come their way is that they have been asked to lead a September, 1988, tour to China and Russia. Participants wi!! be any interested American furniture makers, carvers, or wood workers. The program is sponsored by the American Peop!e Ambassador Program. The purpose of the tour is to promote understanding and good wi!! at the grassroot !eve!. Life for the Oddens is not a!l work, however. Some peop!e might say that they are a!ready 1iving the idy!!ic !ife of which others can on!y dream. "I can step right out my front door to go fishing, hunting, or cross-country skiing," Phi! says. Every year he enters the Birkebeiner at Hayward, Wisconsin, usually finishing in the top 10 percent. This comin# spring the Oddens wil! be in Norway when the Norwegian Birkebeiner is he!d, so Phi! p!ans to compete in that, too. A!though they are now estab!ished professiona!!y and their reputations are secure, this has not !essened the excitem#nt they fee! in their work. Phi! says, "Our goa! is to ho!d onto the o!d and bui!d on it, but inco#orate new patterns and vita!ity as we mature. We are a!ways seek!ng inspiration, #specia!!y from Norway's ancient history." #Fortunately, there is no cu!tura! vacuum in the United States," Phi! continues. "Ever since ROO#S (A!e# Ha#ey's te!evision drama of the b!ack experience) there has !itera!!y been an exp!osion of interest in the past, and it shows no sign of s!owing down." "We enjoy our work and fee! that we are sharing something important with others - our persona! expression of our Norwegian heritage. We are thankfu! every day that we #re ab!e to !ive a !ife that is free and at peace with the wor!d and that we are ab!e to do it together." ##### For further information about the China-Russia tour, or about carving c!asses at Norsk Wood Works, p!ease contact: Phi!lip Odden or Else Bigton, NORSK WOOD WORKS, Hiway 63, Box 66, Barronett, Wisconsin 54813. telephone 715-822-3104.