0 for 5

Well my carvings made it back today and I am zero for five. None of my carvings placed this year and yes it is a bit disappointing and at another stage of my life I would milk this for weeks. Maybe it's cause I am older and wiser or maybe I am just to lazy to play the game. Maybe it is because this was just one contest and this doesn't make or break my growth as a carver. One of my favorite quotes is from "A League of Their Own", no not "there's no crying in baseball" although that is a classic.

It is as follows;
"It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!" 

No truer words have ever been spoken. Isn't this why we cheer for the under dog, over coming great obstacles to achieve a goal or level of success. 

So I hit a bump in the road and walked away empty handed. This is where someone always says, "what lesson can be learned from this experience", first let me say I am not a big fan of those people. I am more of a "I am happy but that doesn't mean I have rainbows coming out of my bum" type of a guy. But actually I realized there is a lesson here;

1.  I have a wonderful wife and children that love me ribbon or not
2.  I have carvers that I admire that are not only mentors,  but friends without ever meeting in person
3. I woke up today casting a shadow and the Lord willing I will do so again for many mornings to come
4. my true ribbon is from a woman who was given one of my carvings from her daughter for her birthday and I was told "she absolutely loves it", now there's a blue ribbon moment

So the lesson is simple, I love carving and cartooning and with the support of my family and some dear friends I will continue to work on transforming my, cartoons 2 carvings. Nice segue. 

So Lord willing and the creek don't rise I will carve again tomorrow. And as the song says from Collin Raye's CD, " His Love Remains" "I don't always get what I want I get what I need".

Carpe diem carving 

Another carvers has gone home

It was posted on the Eastern Woodland Carvers Facebook page that Tom Brown passed away on the 23rd of August. I never knew the man personally but was inspired by his carving style and in his efforts to support the carving community. You can, for those who haven't already, read about Tom Brown on the Caricature Carvers of America's members page. We can all hope that when God calls us home we will look back and know we made a difference in someone's life as Tom obviously did for many. If you want to send a memorial gift in Tom Brown's memory, send it to: EASTERN WOODLAND CARVER,S CLUB, P. O. Box 139, CONVERSE, IN 46919. I was told by someone that knew him that "Tom was the founder of this club and it's SPARK PLUG."

Please keep his family in your prayers as they adjust to their new lives without him.

Carvers competition 2013

Well the judging was done yesterday and except for a few pics I received of the best in show, no word yet on how I did. I didn't hear anything last year until the package showed up, so don't expect any different this year. I don't know if I have said but the competition was the Caricature Carvers of America's annual competition. We don't have many around here and most shows need you to be present to enter so this gives me a chance to enter a show and compete with other carvers. I will let everyone know good or bad as soon as I know something. A carver once told me; "Never expect to loose, never expect to win, but always expect to be surprised.” and this seems to be the best approach to any competition as well as life in general.

Also as you see the voting closed on the entries and the vote closed out with four votes total and the winner was AAC (army air corp) pilot with two votes. This makes me wonder if the content benefits/entertains those stopping by.

I am getting ready to begin to refocus on a possible book idea that will involve my one line or single panel cartoons, as seen in the sample shown. Here you see both the original pencil sketch as well the cartoon recreated in water color. The illustrations for the first go round at this point will be pencil sketches, at least that is my thinking for now. Possibly the sketch minus the words and then the words will either be at the back of the book or on the nest page. The idea came from many people looking at my cartoons and either laughing or not at my caption then coming up with their own.

carving competitions

So today I thought I would touch base with the whole carving competition thing. It's heavy on my mind since I have sent off five of my carvings to an annual competition.

First a little background information, I carved for a few years in the 80's and then life got busy and I stopped for a long while. Then in 2008 for a Christmas gift my boss Eddie gave me some rough-out duck heads he had from when he was trying to learn the process of carving ducks. From what he told me he could shoot 'em just not carve 'em. Well I got out the old X-acto knives, it's what I used back then and began to carve away. This got me started again with my long lost passion. I then got a magazine or two, and in one was an article about a caricature carver and that was when it all came together. The light went off and I realized that I could learn to carve these characters and someday carve my own cartoons, my own illustrations.

So nowadays I consider myself a caricature carver in training continuing to study and learn to hone my skills, hoping to always see an improvement over the previous carving and/or consistency in my carving. I hit a mild stone last year when I entered my very first contest and got a fifth place ribbon for Durante Claus, my Christmas ornament. It was no small task as it took the encouragement from my family and a carving mentor, Mr. Akers.

This year I have entered again with five carvings that at least from my perspective are stronger carvings from what I was doing last year. So no matter how the competition comes out I know I have improved as a carver. So back to the main topic; carving competitions............

You see I am still not sure how I feel about the competitions, it ain't cheep to send these off and to have them returned postage paid of course. Then there is the worry, did I pack them careful enough that they will survive the trip? What about the pipe did I wrap enough that it will make the trip? There is a reason my nickname is Ricardo-monk-a-bond after all. Finally there is the competition itself, I was told over 200 people entered last year, so I say this completely understanding why but, you get no feedback on your carvings from the judges. You see I don't have any groups that I have found around here so far except for one an hour or so away and with my family schedule it's hard to make most if any events. So I ponder is there value to the contest. I can't be there to see the faces of the judges (it's closed judging any way) so unless I can snag a ribbon is the investment worth the cost? Well either way once I get them home safe and unbroken I will breath a sigh of relief and rethink this at that time, with a tainted view point to be sure. If I win a ribbon then maybe I will think it was worth the cost and time and if I don't, well you get the idea.

Either way remember,

Carpe diem carving

100 post but who's counting

Well my previous post was my 100th post since beginning this blog. Not sure this is a note-able or even a milestone since after all this is just blogging, not earth shattering stuff. About the only thing note-able would be to look back at my carving style and my carving strengths and weaknesses and see what if any progress has been made. I do believe I am a stronger carver and believe that I am seeing a bit of a style emerging in my finished carvings. I still need to work on my carving style and form while in the process.

Do you have a carving style, do you approach carvings the same each time or do you rely on a magazine or video to work through the process? Reference material is always worth utilizing and many of the carvers I have come to know still to this day go back to reference material whether it be a video, book or magazine in the carving process. At least the ones that are continuing to grow as carvers will say so. One thing they don't do, they don't rely on them to get through the process, there's the difference.

Woodrow Kroll of Back to the Bible says he gets a new bible each year or two. he then at times after reading and making notes in his new bible will go back to last year or the year before and review what was marked in the previous bible. Many times it is similar and many times it is completely different due to new circumstances in his life that have changed his perspective and his walk. If this works for Gods word in our lives then it could also work in something as simple as carving. On a side note many believe in making notes in their bibles and many don't and that is for everyone to decide on their own. I to this day am not comfortable with this, for me, if this is God's word and it is then there should be a certain reverence for it even in the form of a book. After all when Moses came to the burning bush he was told to remove his sandals, he was standing on holy ground. this is just me and everyone forges his/her own path in his/her own way. I just can't write on His book, it's just not in me.

So back to carving, I try not to take my carving to serious but honestly I get caught up in it's importance too many times. I know guys who are successful carvers who never sell a single carving and some that carve and sell just enough to keep fresh wood and tools coming in. A few even get out of the red, not many. Bottom line is we all carve for the joy of carving first and then if we find a way to do something with our carvings that is icing on the cake.

Bottom line try to pick some milestones in your carving and look back at the previous months, years, whichever, and see if there is any progress being made in both the finished piece and in the carving process. Also in the variety of carvings. I was once told not to continue to carve the same subject (Santa ornaments) or sooner or later I might loose interest, not only in the subject but also with carving itself. That would be a loss for anyone who enjoys the joy of carving.

Carpe Diem carving