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Carving comes naturally to Scheimo. First of all, he was born in Telemark, Norway, where wood carving is a popular hobby and lifetime work of many men. Although, he was brought to this country when he was six years old and went west to Iowa in a covered wagon, he carried enough of old Norway about him that he "just plain likes to whittle."

Second, working with his hands appeals to him, and while he probably carried his share of nicked fingers when he was a youngster he was always carving out toys for himself and even filling special requests from his brothers and sisters. In the following years his handwork took the form of fixing up the broken corners of the furniture from the perpetual games of hide and seek by his own children, and adding new shelves or cupboards around the house. As his children married and left the Scheimo home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he discovered that the need for repair work lessened, and he had time on his hands. It was no surprise to anyone that he turned to carving again. In fact, after he retired from his full time work as a draftsman one of his sons gave him a carving set for Christmas, fondly remembering some of the fancy gun handles and funny faces his dad used to carve to amuse him,

"I don't need fancy tools—my old filed down jackknife has served me fine," Scheimo told his son. "But I can't stand to have these gadgets be wasted so I'll see what I can do with them."

TOM SCHEIMO has gone way past the whittling-with-a-jackknife stage, but he still maintains a person does not need an elaborate set of carving tools. As he puts it:

"Basically you need some kind of saw—a band saw is best, but a hand jig saw will serve to rough out the outline of the figure to be carved. Then, an ordinary spear knife (for outlining), a chisel and a gouger (for effecting depth, and realistic details).

"Gouges vary in width and the angle of cutting edge. The finer the details to be shown, of course, the narrower the gouge. They come as fine as ¹/64-inch but I don't try for that. I started with a medium width and bought one or two up and down from this in size.

"I followed the same idea with knives—I started with an ordinary sheep foot blade and as I got the feel of carving and saw what could be accomplished with different curves on the blade, I added a few variations to my tools.

"Now and then I exchange shop talk with other wood carvers, and I find many of them make their own tools as they have their own ideas of the type of work they want to produce.

"A lot depends on the way tools are handled as to how many are needed. For instance, I use a skew gouge for cutting up on an underside while some other carver might insist on something entirely different."

AFTER CONSIDERABLE experimenting with different woods, Scheimo has settled down to using bass wood for his figurines.

"Ideally, I'd like to do all my carving on lime wood from Northern Germany, but this is expensive stuff and hard come by," he says.

He finds bass wood is generally available in Minneapolis lumberyards, and it is reasonable in price. Soft enough to take carving satisfactorily, it has practically no grain to detract from the details of carving. Nor does it have loose fibers to destroy the smooth effect desired. Ideally, a finished carved piece should reveal the minute strokes from the carving tools as witness of hand carving; thus the wood used should be fine-textured enough to eliminate the necessity of extensive sanding, which would destroy the carving strokes.

Bass wood comes 2½ inches thick, and Scheimo buys it in pieces short enough to carry home in his car. Then he marks it off into blocks, usually about 2½ by 2½ by 6 inches for the average figure—or larger for the three-figure ones, and cuts out the blocks. Each one is a potential figure. With his outline pattern drawn to this scale, he traces it onto the block by means of carbon paper.

Now, it is ready for the band saw—the first step toward carving the figure. Only a rough side view outline of the figure is achieved here whether it is ultimately to be a front or side view figure, and from then on it is a matter of his using those little gouges, chisels and knives as the pattern indicates to his imagination. Cutting in the block at the shoulder line, Scheimo slopes it to the neckline, working up to the natural width of the head, and works around all sides completing the shoulder-neck line. Then he pencils the cuts he wants to make on each of the four sides of the roughed out form for the details of the arms, legs, chair rockers, canes, or any other part included in the design and cuts within a quarter of an inch of the finished line. This allows for the effecting of details of folds, wrinkles, etc. Working around the figure on the same part produces better proportions, he has discovered.

While any carver will probably develop a favorite technique, Scheimo strongly advises consulting the man he considers the master—E. J. Tangerman. Tangerman's book, "Whittling and Wood Carving," recommends carving "in the round" and is excellent on all details of carving.

And here Scheimo advises, "Chances are, if you're interested in carving you will have your own idea about the outline figure you want to produce. But if you do have trouble getting it started, or want to concentrate on the technique of carving, it is possible to use a pattern from magazine advertisements, illustrated books—especially children's greeting cards, gift wrapping paper, and even wallpaper. You will have to match the size of your carving to the pattern rather than deciding on the size of the carved piece first."

WHEN THE last details of the folds in the clothing, the face, hands, cup or cane have been carved down to the proper fineness it is time to paint.

"I wish I could get Norwegian wood paint, but since I can't I have settled on showcase colors," Scheimo says. "These are true in tone and hold up well through the years." Using a fine camel's hair brush, he begins with the fine work first and finishes up with the larger surfaces—skirts, for example. Again, authenticity enters in—the peasant design on the apron, the lumber jackets of the men, etc.

Several figures are kept going in different stages all the time. This keeps the work from becoming monotonous even if there are several figures under the knife at the same time. By mounting the figure to be painted on a peg with a sharp nail in the end of it, and supporting them in a simple rack, the figures can be turned about for a complete painting and left to dry without smearing them.

When they are thoroughly dry—usually after standing overnight, Scheimo gives them a complete coating of clear white shellac, keeping them on the peg in the drying rack. After this is dry, he gives each figure the final touch—a coat of prepared wax and varnish. This gives a finish of semigloss and permits sponging off when the figures become dusty from exposure in an open room.

WHEN TOM SCHEIMO first started to carve with a purpose, he decided to do horses. He went to the public library, looked through all the books he could find with illustrations of horses and ended up by checking out veterinarian books for study at home. While he doesn't carve horses any more he still thinks this procedure helped him in understanding structure and form of people as well as animals. He learned to observe critically and analytically.

"Being able to draw a man or woman is not enough," he says. "Old men and women, and people from certain nations have typical physical characteristics which must be caught if you intend to portray them accurately. For example, most Norwegians are large in stature—tall as well as large boned. Their feet and hands are square—the women's as well as the men's. Their faces are usually long and narrow, and should be handled this way. While a typical Norwegian's facial expression is not glum, neither is it broadly smiling but rather more serene and placid."

Even the colors of his "little people's" clothes suggest their Norwegian nationality. He uses clear, strong reds, yellows and blues for accessories and practical blacks and browns for skirts and trousers. Long, white aprons are a favorite for the women and he even effects colored embroidery or lace through carving or painting details. The choice of these people is never frivolous in clothes or accessories, but more on the utility side—warm, wearable, in quiet taste, lasting. The skin tones attained by Scheimo are a warm tan that suggest the glow of his countrymen.

Another aspect of authenticity which Scheimo has practiced is in the type of clothes and accessories he uses for his figures. The cap for men, for instance, is typically Norwegian. The old settlers from Norway smoke pipes, they drink coffee from saucers, make coffee in pots, the women carry large, utility umbrellas in sun or rain, and many men play the fiddle while their wives knit and rock contentedly. While he knows his subjects from actual acquaintance, the same accuracy could be obtained from study in the library or careful observation of any group of people one wanted to portray.

Even the type of carving Scheimo uses reveals the bold, forthright and unsophisticated nature of these Norwegian folks. He says this is just his way of working, but what could be more in keeping? The most genuine compliment he ever received was from a blind woman. Dubious of how to handle her order, Scheimo decided not to deviate from his usual practice and made the figures for her in his usual manner. When she received them, she ran her fingers over them and said, "Just like our folks!"

TEN OR fifteen years ago when he first started to carve his little people Scheimo had no intentions of getting into a business. But as neighbors and friends saw them they were eager to have some for themselves and insisted on paying for them. He finally came to the point where he accepted a nominal charge in an effort to protect his time. It was getting so he couldn't keep a set of the little figurines for his wife's shelves and this brought legitimate complaints.

Friend-to-friend advertising kept fanning out away from Minneapolis until Scheimo was receiving orders from all parts of the country. This served as encouragement to enter his work in the Minnesota State Fair which is one of the largest state fairs in the country. His name was necessarily on his work, and soon orders and letters were coming to the prize winning carver—grand sweepstakes, one year—from all over the United States. Of course, the local orders jumped until working his way through those ordered for Christmas presents became quite a problem.

Another indirect effect of Scheimo's awards at the state fair was being listed in the national files of the Agricultural Department in Washington. A resort owner from upper New York wrote this department for prize winning wood carvers, and another successful contact was made for both parties.

Whether it was at the fair or through a friend, someone at the museum in Decorah, Iowa, saw Scheimo's carved figures. This is actually the Norwegian-American Historical Museum, and you can imagine his justifiable pride when the officials wrote asking him for some of his work to put on permanent display. Naturally, he has had many orders from Iowa since then.

This friend-to-friend method of selling has worked well for Scheimo because of the genuineness of his portrayal and he has not felt the need of pushing many of the other sources open for sales. However, he does give this credit:

"Actually, it just happens that a friend of ours owns a gift shop in California. He saw my people and took some out to offer his customers. I had my doubts because I didn't think tourists in California would be interested in Norwegian figurines. But they did, and I was swamped with orders and am still getting them." All of which goes to prove people recognize something good whether they are in California or Minnesota.

HOSPITALS IN cities, especially, have gift shops and welcome good handmade objects. Some of Scheimo's first figures went into the shop of one of the large hospitals in Minneapolis. But such a high markup was put on them that they are moving slowly. "If sales here were paramount, this could probably be adjusted," Scheimo says, adding, "It is a mistake to overmark your work. The results of not selling are discouraging and embarrassing."

If there is any one prize group of customers for the figures it is teachers. As a class, they seem to recognize the merits of Scheimo's work, have an everlasting need for presents, and do not quibble over his prices. One of Scheimo's married daughters showed her collection of her father's carvings to a teacher friend and before she knew it she was without a collection. And soon she was forced to conduct a letter order service between her father and the other teachers in her town. At Christmas time in 1954 this daughter saleswoman was forced to give up her replenished collection again and even borrow from her close and understanding friends to fill the teachers' orders.

PRICING THE figures was difficult and reckoning the number of hours spent on each one entered in, of course. Scheimo did some feeling around on this point and finally settled on prices running from around $3 to $7 or $8. Some people may want special colors used in the scarf or some other part and these special requests may involve quite a bit of extra preparation or individual supplies so the prices do vary. Since he makes many over the same pattern, he can level off the time spent on one pattern and perfecting the figure.

Scheimo has been approached by different sources on the possibility of supplying the figures by the gross lots. This is contrary to his purpose in the beginning. It is a hobby with him, not an assembly line business which it would have to be in this case. The personal contact with his customers by letter and indirect messages from those friends are the real reward—no "so-much-a-dozen" type of work for Tom.

Packaging for mailing has not presented a problem for Scheimo because he is fortunate enough to have a neighbor who is a drug salesman. Disposing of many corrugated little boxes was a problem for this man until the two men got together and a satisfactory solution reached for both of them. Wrapping the figures well in tissue paper and stuffing the box if necessary to eliminate rattling around seems to work out very well. In spite of the long trips the little figure people make, the casualties are practically nil.