On April 3rd I officially retired from my longstanding career in Information Technology. Now I’m devoting my full attention to family, and of course, carving!
As a newly retired guy, some of the first things I did was to drive 3 hours to visit my dad on a Tuesday, and 3 hours in the other direction to attend the Ridgeway Carving Rendezvous (as a spectator) on a Thursday. Also, for the first time I am free to participate in multi-day carving events! My first event will be the Erin Wood Festival. Wish me luck, I hope to see you there!
Another big development is that I’ve sold my Harbor Freight tent/workshop to make room for a new shed/workshop. Carving conditions will be “primitive” until the ground firms up and I can take delivery, but that’s OK. I need to practice these conditions for the Erin Woodfest! Here I’m working on a Pelican on the empty workshop site. Still trying to decide whether to I should fill the gap on the front of the new shed with another window, or maybe a large “John’s Carving” logo:
Finally, I wanted to mention two special requests I carved over the winter that were really fun. The first was a Pokémon character (Sudowoodo), and the second was “Bluey”. I hadn’t heard of either until I was asked to carve them and ended up falling in love with both! Gotta stay open to new ideas!
Otherwise, I’m working on booking some other carving and vending events through the Fall and will keep you posted.
