Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511200004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-16 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PARROTT LENGTH: Long
Giles doesn't spend a whole lot of time flapping his jaws.
"I ain't got much to say," he says.
No sir, you won't find Harry Giles leaning across the fence, chattering with his neighbors on Parrott Mountain.
He might invite those neighbors to sit a spell in his comfortably cluttered garage, amid the smell of gasoline and woodchips and ripe red apples.
He might fire up the cast-iron stove and pop a chunk of pungent Red Man chewing tobacco into his mouth.
Then, he just might fish out his Old Timer pocket knife and settle back to do what he does best - whittle.
When he's whittling, Giles is perfectly content to keep the small talk small.
Listen to this exchange between Giles and cousin "Poo John" Hamilton, one of his whittling companions:
"Whatcha makin'?" Hamilton asked as the two scraped the blades of their pocket knives against blocks of wood.
"A bird," Giles answered. "What are you makin'?"
"Shavings," came the hapless reply.
Not many can match Giles' skill with a pocket knife and a piece of basswood.
"He carves the most delicate wildlife sculptures - turkeys, hummingbirds, squirrels," noted Clarence "Sam" Viers who has worked with Giles at Poly-Scientific for over 30 years. "It's intricate, quality work."
"Harry's got a lot of talent in a lot of different areas," Viers added. "He's what you might call a jack-of-all-trades."
Giles, 60, didn't start carving seriously until five years ago, but it wasn't because he didn't have the know-how.
He just never had the time on his hands.
"I went down to my sister's to stay two weeks and when I came back, he had whittled a bird for me," explained his wife, Shirley. "I guess that's all he had to do while I was away."
Shirley Giles liked her husband's carving so much, he made another for her ... and another ... and another.
"After I got quite a few of 'em, I had to go buy her this cabinet to put 'em in," Giles said, motioning to a large curio in the living room of his home.
The shiny glass shelves of the cabinet display a meticulous menagerie.
Giles' collection of wooden carvings includes squirrels, raccoons, skunks ("polecats," he calls them) and deer. The figures are miniature replicas of the creatures he has spent most of his life hunting and trapping in the Appalachian woodlands.
"I started hunting when I was big enough to carry a gun," Giles said. "I was probably 12 or 13 years old."
Giles spent his childhood splashing through the creeks and traipsing the trails of Parrott Mountain. He found his love of nature in those rambles.
He also found his feathered friends.
"I love the birds," he avows, and it shows.
The greater part of his carvings are birds: wild turkeys with intricately detailed feathers, jenny wrens with stubby tails, ruby-throated hummingbirds with long, slender bills.
Eastern bluebirds, goldfinches, cardinals, woodpeckers, robins, orioles, snowbirds and chickadees - Giles has created the likeness of each from little blocks of wood.
"When I first started out, I said I was going to make one of every kind of bird in this part of the country, and I've just about done that," he noted.
Giles never uses books or pictures to create the patterns for his carvings. Instead, he relies on his keen mind's eye.
"I know what a robin should look like," he says, shrugging. "I've looked at 'em often enough."
He starts by drawing a freehand outline of the bird on a piece of wood. Then he saws around the outline and begins to whittle.
"I bought a carving set, but it wasn't worth two cents," he scoffed. "I'd rather use my pocket knife."
When the carving is done, Giles applies acrylic paints that he mixes himself. He also has an eye for color.
Although Giles has never thought of himself as an artist, he admits he's always had a knack for sketching, painting, modeling and carving.
"Most people are simply amazed at what Harry can do," said Shirley Giles. "He can take a lump of clay and make anything out of it."
She said her husband often entertains her youngest grandchildren, 7-year-old twins Dustin and Eric, with his talents.
"Children give him their requests [for drawings and clay figures] and he obliges."
"The insurance agent came over here and saw Harry's carvings," Shirley Giles added. "He said, 'What in the world are you doing working? If I had that talent, I wouldn't work another day!' "
Harry Giles has had some offers from folks who want to buy his carvings, but he's not in the market for a new job.
"It's just a hobby," he said. "I don't want to be tied down to whittlin'."
He has made several carvings for his children and friends. He gives them as gifts.
Maybe he figures it's rightful recompense for the gifts he was given.
No sir, Harry Giles didn't miss out on all the bounty.
When God was handing out the gift of ingenuity, he undoubtedly came back for seconds.
by CNB