1.
GV House with large wood carvings outside (2 shots)
0.08

2.
SV PAN FROM Name on house TO Mrs.Peters talking to reporter (2 shots)
0.19

3.
CU Mrs. Peters carving
0.27

4.
CU Carvings (5 shots)
0.58

5.
CU Mrs. Peters of camera
1.23

6.
CU Mrs. Peters carving new works (3 shots)
1.31


TRANSCRIPT:



REPORTER: "Now to practice as a trade, there must be a bit more to it than just cutting figures in wood. You don't make all that much money?"



PETERS: "No, but as a working commercial woodcarver, which is quite unusual in this country, I have found that I can take a few boards and some sharp knives and be beholden to no-one and be in business for myself. That's gratifying, very gratifying."




Initials CL/1915 CL/1927


TELERECORDING
This film is serviced with an English commentary, a transcript of which appears overleaf and a Sound on Film interview, a transcript of which appears below.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Elaine Peters' home in the United States is crammed with carvings which she has done over the past forty years. For her, carving is both a hobby and a full-time occupation.

She carves from the finest wood ... walnut and mahogany ... and just about everyone who is anyone in the United States has some of her work.

To earn money, she carves school plaques and mementoes and her average selling price for those is about two hundred dollars.

She works an average of five hours a day and produces about forty-five carvings a year. She has a workshop in the basement of her home where she prepares the wood.

SYNOPSIS: Woodcarving could be considered a dying art, but there's one woman in the United States for whom it still provides both a living and an interest ...

This house is crammed with forty years of work. Eile Dana Peters has been carving wood that long, the last fifteen years full time. She uses the finest wood around ... walnut and Honduran mahogany. It comes in sixteen foot boards, which she laminates and rubs in her basement workroom, using a chainsaw and rounders for the initial work. The long arduous process of carving begins, at the carving bench. Now, with a chisel, she is cutting one chip at a time. Eileen Peters' home is full of carvings ... some, original carvings she just created for fun. Others, copies of plaques she has carved for some of the greatest names in America. Astronauts Bean, Lousma, Schweickart, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. People like racing greats A.J. (indistinct). Just about everybody who is anybody, except the President, has something made by Eileen Peters. As a commercial woodcarver, she makes her bread and butter by carving school plaques and mementoes. Her average plaque costs about two hundred dollars ... not that much for handcarved mahogany.

Eileen carves an average of fiveours a day producing forty to fifty carvings a year, and she has a year's backlog of orders.