At 93, Berg’s talent is a cut above the rest

Geraldyn Berg’s first-ever carving earned her $50.

That may not seem like a lot, but consider this: It was in 1949, when Berg was in high school.

She did the carving in Ivory soap, “then my teacher sent it in to some national contest for Ivory, and I must have won it. They kept it, and they sent me $50.”

Today, that would be the equivalent of about $680.

“I was supposed to go on some kind of tour, but I never heard any more about it,” Berg said.

If you’ve done the math, you may have figured that she is somewhere in her 90s – 93, to be exact, and she’s still carving – wood, not soap.

Her intricate, beautifully hand-painted designs continue to win awards, including at the Steele County Free Fair.

Much of Berg’s work involves animals, including a charming “Northwoods nativity” that she spotted in a magazine. There was a carving pattern for a bear, but the other animals – a raccoon, a moose, a beaver and a duck – weren’t pictured, “so I made the patterns from their picture.”

The finished product took her nearly a year to complete.

She also carves several varieties of fish, birds – and lots and lots of Christmas items.

In fact, Berg’s first question to a reporter wanting to do a story was, “I suppose you want to see some Santas?”

Though Santa is a popular figure, Berg lets the wood speak to her.

“I tell people, ‘I just look at that piece of wood and I think, ooh, there’s a horse in there,’” she laughed.

She creates her patterns with a band saw, “then I break out the blade.”

When she started carving wood in 1996, she had one knife, “and I had that for a long time, just one. I even made a mountain goat, a polar bear” and, of course several Santas – the very thing she carved at that first adult education class at Blooming Prairie High School.

“It’s kind of a beginner’s knife, but now I have several boxes full of old knives,” Berg said.

They saw her through carving classes and meetings from Forest City, Iowa, to Wahpeton, N.D., and points in between.

She has done commissioned carvings – if it’s an animal, “I need two pictures, one from each side,” Berg said, with pricing dependent on the size and time involved.

She advises beginning carvers to “just follow the rules. Wear a cut-proof glove.”

Berg smiles almost guiltily when asked if she’s ever cut herself.

“I never went to the doctor,” she said, “but it was pretty bad. I just held a Band Aid tight on there and taped it up.”

That independence is no surprise to people who know her. Berg still lives on the farm west of Bixby where she and her husband Ralph moved in 1967.

She said she carves as a means of relaxation.

“I’ve got my broom and dustpan in the kitchen, and just operate in there,” she smiled. Her bird feeders provide her with plenty of models – including a wild turkey and a pheasant. Deer, too, make regular appearances.

Basswood is her favorite wood, followed by butternut. Everything else is too hard, Berg said, though she isn’t losing strength; it’s just harder to carve with precision.

Each spring, she donates a Santa carving to the BP Education Foundation auction, and a miscellaneous carving goes to the annual BP Cancer Group auctions every fall.

Earlier this month, Berg answered the call from Fox 9 news in the Twin Cities, which holds an annual “Primp Our Tree” event.

The station solicits ornaments that are donated, along with a Christmas tree, to deserving families.

Berg’s ornament – a University of Minnesota gopher, holding a football – made it to air, as did her story.

“I told them I had designed the pattern, carved it and painted it; my name is Geraldine and I’m 93 years old,” she said, but brushed aside any compliments.

“My real claim to fame is, I was our high school homecoming queen,” she said – a year after the soap carving that started it all.