Canton Observer for July 16, 1992 - Canton Public Library

THURSDAY, JULY 16,1992
Appointments
C
AROUND
CANTON
anton Township trustees voted Tuesday to
reappoint Ron D'Avanzo and Ralph Shufeldt
to the Downtown Development Authority
board.
Both men have served on the DDA for several
years. D'Avanzo has been DDA chairman for four _
years.
Their new terms will expire June 22, 1994.
Meetings canceled
C
anton Township Board of Trustees meetings
for July 21, Aug. 4 and Nov. 3 will be canceled
due to elections.
The township hall is an official polling place and
won't be available on those dates.
Business gathering
he Canton Chamber of Commerce will hold a
Business to Business gathering 5-7 p.m.
Tuesday, July 21, at the office of Dr. Robert
Goldenberg. D.D.S., located in the McAuley Health
Care Building.
Local business people are invited to attend and
meet other chamber members.
To make a reservation, call 453-4040.
Candidates speak
he Canton Chamber of Commerce and the
League of Women Voters will sponsor a Meet Tthe
Candidates program 8 a.m. Wednesday,
July 22, at the Canton Public Library, 1200 S. Canton
Center.
Registration will begin 7:30 a.m. and refreshments
will be served.
Local, state and national candidates for the upcoming
election will be available for questioning by
the public.
• Judy Shellhaas is carving out a
reputation as a talented woodcarver,
as she's graduated
from making miniature pieces
of furniture to producing more
imaginative carvings.
BY BARBARA WILSON
STAFF WRITER
If we were all to live in a world carved
out of the imagination of Judy
Shellhaas, we would be bizarre beings
with haunting eyes and enchanted livaa.
Unfortunately, we can only visit ber
world by glancing at the figures this
Plymouth resident carves from chunks
of wood.
Eighteen years ago Shellhaas translated
her artistic talent into miniature
pieces of furniture. Her pieces sold
across the country with price tags as
high as $3,800. *
Now Shellhaas prefers to find more
animated and imaginative figures in the
blocks of wood. —
"I'm still trying to decide what I want
to be when I grow up." Shellhaas admits
proudly as she sits in a room that
she built in the family "homestead' in
Plymouth.
When Shellhaas began carving 18
years ago it wasn't as a hobby. The very
detailed miniature furniture site created
was highly regarded by collectors, but
they were not pieces she would select
for herself from a gallery.
"They weren't exactly the kind of
pieces you would have your 3-year-old
play with. As a matter of fact I couldn't
afford to even buy some of my pieces,"
she said.
She studied the
turies of furniture and yet never copied
the pictures she saw in the books.
"I studied the designs, but never felt
it was mine if I copied it from a picture."
Shellhaas said.
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Canton (Dbseruer
NEWS
Wood carver: Judy Shellhaas has sold her work for as much as $3,800.
For the first 15 years of her career she
worked 80-hour weeks carv ing pieces for
galleries and shops across the country.
She took care to make sure her creations
were sold by only one dealer per
3* become
comrrfonplace. In those first years of her
career she carved 4,600 pieces.
She also built two dollhouses drawing
on her love of architecture and recreated
Mark Twain's legendary bed for a mu-
seum in Connecticut.
"1 was trying to gracefully get out of
the business, but people kept tracking
me down, so I decided to go back to
school," she said.
Shellhaas attended Schoolcraft and
then went on to Eastern Michigan University
where she studied under sculptor
John Pappas.
"He got me to make things bigger and
bigger and made it more interesting to
INSIDE:
Editorials, Page 16A
Points of view, Page 17 A
PAGE 13A
BU I. BUCKLER STAJT PIWTIM.HAPHJM
me," she said.
Now, Shellhaas has happily expanded
her horizons, She still teaches a class
in miniature furniture carving for the
Miniature Makers Workshop in Royal
Oak and she taught for awhile at Green
field Village, but she finds greater
rewards in teaching her small class of
carvers in her home and exploring her
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