Aggiornamento: Cultural Exhibition

Ever since December I have been participating in an Art show. A good friend of mine Mark Thomason, who heads up Thomason Art Group and is the main instigator of the show, hunted down the hall for us and has put in all kinds of time and effort. Each month we've been trying to add something. From the beginning we have had my own pipes, several painters, a ceramics artist, and a couple of photographers. Last month we had a iconographer join us and a sketch artist. We have had live music Friday night for a couple of months. Last month we had our first Art Demo for kids on Saturday afternoon. This next month we are calling for writers looking especially for short stories and poems to post on the walls. And drinks are available throughout. 

Our next show is this weekend. Friday, February 3 our show is open from 6-10 p.m. and on Saturday, February 4 our hours are 1-5 p.m. Are show is located down at the Knights of Columbus Hall near the Cathedral, 1555 Grant St. Denver, CO. Please do show up, bring a friend or several. It is a blast.

The Elephant

I have been fascinated by a pipe I recently saw that had ridges and so I decided to experiment with that technique. Ridges are difficult. The ridges on The Elephant tobacco pipe did not come out perfectly but I still satisfied with them.

A lot of different names were suggested for this pipe, probably the most common name has been the snail but someone suggested that it looked like an elephant head, with the stem as the trunk and know that's all I can see. I hope you enjoy.

The Trunk and the Branch

People frequently ask me where I get the ideas for my pipes. Specifically, I am asked if I, like Michelangelo, chip away at the wood until I bring out the briar's true form. Until now my usual response  has been a confused look and a nondescript grunt. However, after having carved The Trunk and the Branch tobacco pipe I have gained an inkling of what all that means. 

I am still amazed at how far I deviated from my initial design which was similar to Gimli's Travel Pipe. As I started to shape the pipe different and better shapes presented themselves to me from the block of Briar. What could I do? I discarded my designs and followed the fantastic shapes the briar presented to me. I am beyond pleased with it's final form, a great little sitter that looks like a tree trunk with a branch veering off from it. 

The Cross

I needed to make some crucifixes for christmas rosary gifts. I think they turned out rather nice. The crosses are made of maple. I played around a bit with stain's on the edges and then used my new engraver tool to sketch on the corpus. We bought the beads and my wife did the bead and cord work.