March – April

I am very deliquent in getting this blog updated, it has been one of those things that I was going to do tomorrow, but tomorrow never came.  Today is tomorrow and I will get on with business.

I am writing from  Kerrville, Tx where the Texas Woodcarvers Guild Spring Roundup is well underway. There are lots of  classes underway with some great instructors.  Attendance is off a little from last year which is most probably because of the economy.  One thing is certain the quality of the class and the enthusiam of the students is not off.  There are students and instructors from all over the country.  There are great vendors with plenty of tools, books, rough-outs, and wood.  What you notice most is the quality of the instruction.  Everyone seems pleased with the results of their classes.  Another thing you notice is the friendliness  and fellowship the is going on, great people doing fun things.  TWG has run into some glitches in setting classes and show for the fall and on going.  Those glitches have been over come and the schedule is set thru 2012 (check the schedules section for those dates).  The final bit of business for the Guild this spring was to elect me President for the coming 2 years, I appreciate the honor and confidence.  There is one problem in this, however, I have some very, very big shoes to fill.  Bill Clark, the out going President did a really outstanding  job and is going to be a tough act to follow.

A little Operation Cane News, I will be leaving here Sunday and going on down to San Antonio, Brooke Army Medical Center to present some more canes.  If the count on canes presented holds to what previous trips have done we most likely will break 400 canes presented.  This has been a long journey covering 5 years since the orgainzation of Operation Cane in late 2004.  This trip will be our 9th visit to BAMC to  present canes.  I really appreciate all those Texas carvers that have helped with this project by carving and donating canes.  You cannot understand how great a program this is until you look into the face of one of the recepients recieving a cane, they really appreciate them.

In the way of carving news I have completed a couple of new pieces.  That is not much in the way of production since my last posting but a lot of time has been spent in preparing for and giving classes and in carving canes for Operation Cane.  One piece completed is another pair of Giraffe’s, mother and baby again, that will be the basis of my fall and spring classes.  The second piece is a single Giraffe done in Oklahoma Red Cedar.  This piece is stylized and is not so much beautiful for its carving as it is for the color and presentaton of the wood.  Pictures of both pieces are below. 

I am cheating here, I am back from my trip to Brazoria which is several days after the Kerrville trip.  I am just to lazy to do another page so I thought I would just add to this page and call it a day.  I spent two days with the Brazoria County Woodcarvers, what a blast that was.  I always look forward to meeting with that club, I think that is because they are nuts.  They enjoy their meetings and work hard (one or two exceptions, of course ).  They carved the “Honey Bear” (below) and for the most part got it carved.  As that is a 3 day class and we only had two days no one finished but several were ready to paint.  All in all it was a fun and, I think, successful event.

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