Working with her hands seems to be second nature to Bluffton resident and wood worker Jackie Frey.

Maybe it's in her family genes. She owns a wooden ball massager that her great-grandfather carved. Also in her collection are several items created from metal that her maternal grandfather created to prove that he could do the job of a machinist.

Frey, a former staff member at Maple Crest Senior Living Village, Bluffton, shared many of her own pieces and talked about her hobby during a Feb. 10 program attended by nearly two dozen persons, mostly residents, at Maple Crest.

Concerning her parent's involvement in woodworking, Frey said that they worked as a team, with her dad doing the carving, and her mom staining and varnishing.

Taking her first carving class in 1994 at the Brukner Nature Center in Troy, she made her first two items - a penguin and a whale, although she never painted them.

The first item that she actually finished was a figure of Santa Claus. Many of her carved items are made of basswood from a linden tree, which can be purchased at wood carving shows.

Today, Frey's husband planes down the block of wood and usually cuts out the blanks for her, although he has taught her how to use a scroll saw to do that part herself.

She says that she often purchases small, carved ornaments to "imitate" on her own. When she first started her craft, she said that it might take her a day to finish carving one ornament. Now, she can do something like a Christmas tree ornament in one hour.

Some of the practices that Frey put into her hobby were learned in the carving clubs of the Brukner Nature Center and the Dayton Carvers Guild.

Finishing touches include painting the items with acrylic paints and spraying with a clear Deft product.

Frey also enjoys teaching her grandchildren to carve, and starts the process whenever the child shows interest and a willingness to listen. "Age doesn't really matter," she says.

Her ultimate goal is to be able to carve birds like her dad carved, but she has yet to give that dream a try.