Rick Wiebe
Woodcarver Rick Wiebe was born in Saskatchewan but spent all his childhood and youth in British Columbia. Since high school, he has lived in Saskatchewan and Ontario as well as BC which has been home since 1977. He has a wife, Helen, and two adult children.
Rick has been whittling and carving for as long as he can remember, (Some 60 plus years), and is mostly self-taught. He credits his father with getting him started. Though his dad was not a carver, he did have the conviction that men and boys should carry a pocketknife and know how to use it safely to make many of the items that people want and need.
Rick’s first projects were toys such as canoes, boats, peashooters and the like. Later, wooden chains and totem-like dolls were produced. Still, later decorative sculptures, waterfowl decoys, and realistic wildlife carvings were successfully attempted. More recently, he has continued to produce waterfowl decoys and wildlife but has also been at work on rocking and carousel horses as well as cowboy caricatures, which reflect his love of the outdoors and the western lifestyle. In the last few years, he has also been developing a very unique style of carving fan-feathered birds out of one piece of wood. He has also done some chainsaw carving and large log carvings.
He has been teaching carving since 1987 in schools (both public and private) and through recreation departments in British Columbia and Alberta.