Delivery day, two carvings for friends. The honey bear is yet un-named, but the gnome has been named, “Belsnickel”. According to Wikipedia, he is a “…crotchety, fur-clad Christmas gift-bringer figure in the folklore of the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany along the Rhine, the Saarland, and the Odenwald area of Baden-Württemberg”. I can see that!Sylvie joined me for a 3 hour trip to the “Ridgeway Rendezvous“, in Ridgeway, PA. This was the first such event I’ve attended, and it was AMAZING. There were carvers from around the world, from all skill levels and walks of life. There were television and social media personalities, and people like me who just want to learn more. I was privileged to talk to one carver who was trying to grab a bite to eat after 3 days of carving (oops!). Anyway, he told me he a story of his alcoholism, where he’d knock out some bears during the day and sell them at the bar for beer money. Now he carves full time, and was full of humility and appreciation for the talented carvers present, and their willingness to teach.Here’s a “test fit” for a climbing bear I’m carving for some friends. They asked me where I got my “mailbox bear”, because they wanted one for their birdhouse tree. I said they were in luck because I made it myself! I started work on their bear with only a picture of the tree, and some measurements & diameters taken from two places. My first task was to “simulate” the tree by cutting log to match the stated measurements of the tree, then carve a bear to fit the simulation. Since I didn’t want to go too far out on a limb (pun intended!), I took a rough cut bear over to their house for a fitting, and that was the precise moment a month-long drought was broken by a rain storm! Pictured here is one of several hasty shots I took of the bear, being propped up by the simulated tree I had carved.In early June, a mamma bear and her 3 cubs paid a visit to my carving yard, where the cubs played in a sawdust pile and on some rejected pumpkins I had carved, and climbed EVERY tree in the yard. I was able to capture a truly once in a lifetime video of their antics, thanks to an alert from my next door neighbor.Meet Bailey, a dog I carved for a friend. Among my carvings, this one takes the “prize” in at least two categories: (1) Most time spent, with three iterations including a version carved in soap, and (2) it’s the heaviest, at 79.7 pounds! I had two pictures to go on, and I would occasionally see the dog around the neighborhood as well. This was my first dog, and one of my first attempts at “realism”. The learning curve was pure joy.So it’s been a busy Spring, I like to have multiple projects going all the time, and in various stages of completion. Otherwise, the time-consuming processes of crack repair, sanding, painting, would guarantee month-long gaps between the “block cutting” tasks, which I find to be the most challenging, fearsome, and rewarding.
