A town sprung up on the pingpong table in Frank Koch's basement.

So far, there's a hotel, bank, school, assayer's office and church. It has about a dozen residents. This week the town will pull up stakes and move to the Gateway Mall.

The town and its residents are carved by Koch and other members of the Flickertail Woodcarver's Club. The club has its annual show Saturday and Sunday at the mall. Woodcarvers from North Dakota, Canada and the Midwest will exhibit their work and give demonstrations. Vendors will have tools and wood for sale.

"There will be about 16, 17 buildings replicated, and then the street activities," Koch said of the town. Each year the club comes up with a theme for a display, and this year it was an Old West town, like the one in the television show "Gunsmoke."

Also part of the show is a guest carver. It is mammal carver Desiree Hajny. She represented the United States at the International Woodcarvers Convention in 2005. She is giving a class on carving a wolf and carving bunnies. Both classes are sold out.

A beginning woodcarving class taught by Koch starts in a few weeks. It meets on most Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. for six sessions. People can register at the show, as well as buy some of the tools for the class. Basic tools needed to get started in woodcarving are a carving knife, a small vee tool and a gouge.

When a person starts woodcarving, they won't get the same results as those that they see of more advanced carvers. It takes time to refine techniques, learn how to compensate for wood imperfections or correct mistakes, such as carving away too much wood.

Koch picked up the tips he teaches to students from fellow carvers, seminars, shows and books. He's been carving since the early 1980s.

He had a double dose of carving in a short period of time that got him hooked. It started with a visit to his wife's relatives, and a neighbor who was a woodcarver sent him home with a blank to give it a try. Blanks are bandsaw cut shapes that give the general outline of the final carving. Soon after, he attended a carving competition.

Now his basement has one room filled with finished carvings on shelves, the ping pong table, chairs and the window sill. In his workshop, he has his tools. Carvings hang from the cabinet fronts and ornaments hang from the hinges and knobs. He has many projects going on at the same time.

"I carve almost every day, four, five, six hours a day," Koch said.

The 38th Annual Flickertails Woodcarvers Show is open noon to 4:30 each day at the Gateway Mall. It is free to attend.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)