a picture is worth a thousand words

I just wanted to share these wonderful images from the Caricature Carvers of America. These are the carvings that garnered me my ribbons for this year's competition and yes I am very proud of each of them as well as the ones that didn't place this year.

But right now I am not focusing on the carvings, right now I am focusing on the images of the carvings. I like many am trying to have an online presence and the visual part of this sometimes eludes me. I have two cameras; one a point and shoot model and the other is what I believe is what is referred to as an SLR camera. This one has multiple settings and honestly way above my level of expertise. But look at the images from the show, aren't they wonderful. They make me look better than I am and that is exactly what a good photograph is supposed to do. The problem for me is there are a lot of words in the camera manual and not many pictures, you see I am more of a visual person by nature. Like with carvers and cartoonist, it's amazing what someone can do when they have mastered the tool at hand. My thanks to the Eastern Woodland Carvers Club and the Caricature Carvers of America for once again putting on a great show and representing carvers in the manner that they do. I wonder if they photography 101 classes?

 as always, 

Good night and May God bless

new soldier part 3

In the last posting I showed the movie of this guy and then mostly spoke about the soldier heading to Afghanistan so I thought today I would share some images of this guy and share some other info. For now back to the man of the hour, my WWII pilot. Many may know that I have always had a fondness for the pilots of old and the early days of aviation. Many also know that the majority of my pilots are done with the leather flight cap and a Christmas cap on that. Well I thought this time I would do one with the crushable pilot cap. I am not a military historian but I would bet they called these crushable because they would be crushed down by the head set, yet as I say not a historian by any stretch of the imagination. I plan on doing a few more in this style as I was extremely happy with the way he turned out.


On a completely unrelated note (besides the obvious, it's about a carving) I got a package in the mail the other day and it was from the CCA, a third place ribbon. Somehow it got missed in the shipping and was delivered separately from the carvings and the other ribbons. the irony here was I had shortly after the first package arrived joked with my family how I may never get a third place ribbon which would give me a royal flush. Of course when I opened the package my youngest son was quick to point out that once again my predictions were wrong. (See blog posting Saturday, August 20, 2016) What a wonderful surprise especially since my carvings had by now made it home and I was no longer expecting or hoping for anything. I also am very fond of this carving and was hoping he would do well on the day of competition.

as always,

Good night and May God bless

new soldier pt 2

Well I got my soldier painted and dipped along with another soldier I had recently done. The first one is modeled (loosely) after a pilot back in the day and the other was done especially for a family member who is serving in the Nebraska National Guard. They are currently in Afghanistan at the present time. I took portions of the unit design and used it in different areas of the carving. Also gave him a football jersey cause you know how we Nebraskans love our football.  He will travel over to join the unit shortly along with some well needed goodies.

With the talk of troops overseas and with the upcoming holidays I am posting a link to a page that gives a list of companies that will ship packages overseas to our troops, most with free shipping.

Companies with FREE SHIPPING to APO/FPO military addresses

as always, 

Good night and May God bless