By Marjorie Meyers Graham
Marjorie Meyers Graham, granddaughter of Winifred and Donald Boynton, is owner and director of A Woman's Place in New Buffalo, Michigan, offering retreats and seminars celebrating women and creativity.
Of the several artistic components that grace Winifred and Donald Boynton's chapel at Björklunden, it is their many woodcarvings that stand out as perhaps the greatest "adventure in craftsmanship." They had help building the Chapel itself, and the wrought-iron work and stained glass were made by expert craftsmen. Winifred's years of decorating furniture and creating large murals in the lodge had prepared her for the task of designing and painting the various fresco panels in the Chapel. But, surprisingly, neither she nor her husband had done any previous woodcarving. They were starting from scratch, inspired only by the traditional church and folk carving they had seen in Sweden and Norway. Today, an observant visitor to the Chapel can appreciate their incredible achievement even more by noticing the huge changes in design and execution between the earliest carvings and the final masterpieces.
During the summer of 1939, the site was excavated, the stone foundation was laid, and the exterior walls and roof were constructed. The first carvings consisted of 52 "simple" gargoyles under the eaves and the small dragon heads that appear at the ends of the long scalloped beams that edge the gables. The garage was turned into a woodcarving workshop, and the Boynton children were pressed into service, but they soon retired from carving and left the work of the next eight years to their parents. The following winter a pattern began that would continue until 1946. During the winters, they carved at their home in Highland Park, Illinois; in the summers, the carvings were installed, and Winifred painted the frescoes on-site.
All of the pieces carved during 1939-1940 were done without training. The arch over the exterior doorway, with its dragons and masks, and the two small guardian bears have relatively simple, large-scale designs. The elaborate and detailed baptismal font, completed five years later, presents all 12 apostles. These human figures, carved in relief with symbols and stories in a complex design of panels, took many hundreds of hours to complete. The Boyntons considered the font to be their woodcarving masterpiece.
An important reason for their increasing skill was the discovery of a master woodcarver from Denmark who taught an adult education class at New Trier High School in nearby Winnetka, Illinois. This instructor taught them the all-important theory of resistance, which Winifred called "the beginning and the end of all true carving. We learned the necessity of equalizing the thrust of the right hand bearing the implement, by resisting with the left, an entirely new technique in our experience." The first carving project that reflects their new skills is the altar with its unique Cross of Peace.
Their carving was done as a team. Winifred researched and designed the carved pieces (as she did all the frescoes) and executed the rough carving, giving shape to the forms she visualized. Don, being a more meticulous and careful mechanician, finished to perfection what his wife had created, by smoothing out all the messy little corners she had left. He also was responsible for keeping the tools razor-sharp for them both.
One wintry Monday night in 1941, after working on the Cross in woodcarving class, they emerged into an ice storm and had to walk in darkness down the center of the street. A passing car's headlights caught Don trudging along under the weight of the heavy wooden cross, while Winifred followed with a heavy suitcase full of tools. In surprise, the car's driver slammed on the brakes and skidded sideways while heads popped out of the windows to stare. No one was hurt, but the Boyntons realized that they must have presented a very strange sight.
The following summer, during a dinner party at Björklunden, they harnessed the free labor of their guests. The 12 pew ends had been carved but needed polishing before their final installation, so the Boyntons' friends were put to work using old woolen golf socks to rub sour cream vigorously into the wood. "The whole room reeked of sour cream, but the finish was beautiful," Winifred wrote. "With plenty of rubbing and buffing with the palm of the hand, the wood took on a soft and satiny patina. Each dinner guest was given a pew end to buff. A novel evening's entertainment!"
The next time you venture into the Chapel for a quiet moment of reflection, stop on the porch and bend down to pat one of the guardian bears at the entrance. Thank her for not only protecting the Chapel from evil for over half a century but also for being the earliest ancestor of the beautifully carved apostles and the Angel of Peace on her cross.
Follow the links to the left to continue the history of Björklunden vid Sjön.