Hoge-Poge

It has been far too long since I updated this mess and now I have a lot of ground to cover so I am going to do it in one posting.  Here goes!

I will start with an update on Operation Cane.  Operation Cane has presented over 500 canes to date with a group of 49 given to Wounded Warriors at Brooke Army Medical Center this past October.  With that group of canes we are scaling back our operation.  We are no longer doing the “Texas Eagle Cane” and concentrating on the special request canes that are keeping us very busy.  It was getting impossible to keep up with the demands of furnishing cane kits and carve special canes also.  The long and the short of it is that we carve 4 to 6 canes a month and that is for each of the two of us.  I failed to mention that Ed Ramsey has started carving the special canes also and that is a great help.  This is one job that it would be great to work ourselves out of a job, but it appears that we will be in business for awhile if things continue as they are in Afghanistan.  It is, and always will be, a pleasure and honor to do these canes for our troops.

We have been attending shows for the last three months and have found that attendance is down all over.  Talking to some carvers from Wisconsin who had attended several shows all over the country and they said that they found that attendance was down from 20 to 40 percent everywhere they went.  I know that things are tight all over but do what you can to support these shows and events, a lot of people are working hard to keep the art of woodcarving in the eyes of the people and advance our art and favorite pass time. 

Speaking of shows, I was fortunate to receive Runner-up Best of Show at the Texas Woodcarvers Guild show this fall in Kerrville.  The piece that won was the “Circle of Life”, a mother giraffe and her baby. 

Needless to say I was very pleased to receive this award and proud of the carving, the down side of that is that this piece is the only thing I have had time to carve in a year between teaching classes and carving canes.  That is why, if you are a frequent viewer of this blog, you have probably noticed that the page with my class schedule is missing.  Actually it is not missing, it is deleted, as I am not teaching any longer after my class in Aransas Pass in February 2011.  After that class I will continue an occassional class in my studio but will not be teaching otherwise.  I am going to use my time to carve and take classes myself.  I love the art of carving and going to continue full-bore ahead!

I spoke of low attendance at shows earlier, such was the case for the TWG show in Kerrville this fall.  Part of the problem was having the show before carving which was not a good situation but we had no control of that, it was the only time we could get a facility.  That will not be the case for 2011 and beyond, in fact we will be having the carving and show in the same facility so we will not have the logistical nightmare of having to move from one event to another.  I think we can say that problem is solved, we just have to wait to see what the next problem will be.  The reason I am so interested in this subject and in what is going on is that I am now President of the Texas Woodcarvers Guild.  I started my two-year term as of October 2010, wish me luck.

I know there is something else I want to put in this up-date, alas a senior moment has set in so will close by saying:

Keep carving and drop me a line when you can.

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