A visit to Santa's workshop

In the itchy hands of Ron Nelson, a hunk of wood becomes a work of art. ¶ His knife and eyes guide him as he painstakingly chisels out a bearded face, merry eyes and a stocking cap.

Every Christmas for five years, the Stillwater woodcarver has created a different Santa figure for the Washington County Historic Courthouse to sell in support of its restoration projects.

This year's Santas are all sold out, but Nelson is still as busy as a Christmas elf, carving new figures for other charitable causes.

For the Stillwater Public Library's fundraiser, he makes a carving of different people who were important in the Stillwater area's history.

He donates his creations to his church in nearby Bayport to sell at its annual Harvest Festival.

"Basically, I'm in it for giving them away to help the community," said Nelson, 68.

The Santas have generated about $1,800 for the Historic Courthouse, where he also repairs woodwork and furniture. He creates a Santa design for each year, he carves a dozen of each, ranging in size from 4 to 8 inches tall.

It was a wooden pin, and until a few years ago Nelson hadn't carved anything else.

But he loved working with wood and taught industrial arts for 35 years, mostly in Wisconsin. He and his wife, Mary, lived there for many years.

After he retired, Nelson returned to his Stillwater roots, buying his childhood home. It's a small Victorian cottage built in 1894 and overlooking the St. Croix River.

Not long after that, he stumbled upon his original woodcarving, tucked inside a bureau drawer. Seeing it piqued his interest.

He bought a carving book from Ingebretsen's, a Scandinavian handicrafts shop on Lake Street in Minneapolis, and decided to dust off his carving skills.

His first pieces, human figures, didn't show his creative flair.

"They were really out of the book, step by step," he said.

But the more he practiced and learned tips and techniques from other carvers, the better his carvings became.

These days, Nelson knows he must wait for the wood to reveal itself. "The wood kinda talks to you," he explained. "It comes alive."

So engrossed has he become in carving that he no longer refers to it as his hobby.

He said he finds it hard to quit carving when he has a nice block of wood to work with. And during the winter, when he works out of an upstairs bedroom, he's been known to leave a few wood chips around the house.

Allie Shah • 651-298-1550