You may not recognize Eau Claire woodcarver Denny Williams, but you’ll recognize the faces he creates. While his 5-inch-tall wooden caricatures have been a staple on The Local Store’s shelves for the past few years, you’ve probably seen these faces elsewhere. Maybe at the grocery store or the bait shop. Maybe swinging an axe in the back 40 or cheering at the Packer game. While every face Denny carves is unique, they’re all, somehow, quintessentially Midwestern.

Denny began woodcarving as a hobby after taking a vocational class more than 40 years ago. He quickly adopted a style he still employs: caricatures with furrowed brows, inspired by the work of nationally known wood carver, author, and educator Harold Enlow.

“I like the act of carving,” Denny explains. “Every piece of wood is just a little bit different. There’ll be a different grain or a little bit of a knot, so you’ve got to work with it.”

“I like the act of carving,” Denny explains. “Every piece of wood is just a little bit different. There’ll be a different grain or a little bit of a knot, so you’ve got to work with it. … I’m not good enough to make them exactly what I want to be, so it’s kind of interesting to see how they turn out. After I stain them, they take on a little bit different personality, too.”

Inside his cozy basement workshop, it takes Denny about an hour and a half to carve and paint each figure, transforming a block of basswood into a humorous little Cheesehead-wearing Packer fan – or maybe a UWEC dad, a fisherman, a lumberjack, a wizard, a Santa Claus, or perhaps a pointy-hatted gnome.

Denny cheerfully admits he carves the figures mostly so he can create their goofy little faces.
“I like the faces, and hopefully they make people kind of smile.”

CREATIVITY TAKES SHAPE

Each of Denny Williams’ creations has the same starting place: a 1¼x1¼x5-inch block of basswood sourced from Heinecke Wood Products in Cumberland, Wisconsin. Then with a handful of simple tools – a couple of knives, some gouges, and a V-tool for shaping small details – and some thinned-out acrylic stain, he creates something unique and giftworthy.