[Woodcarver] NEWR - Thanks to all my new carving friends!!!

[Charles Trella]

Cross Posted from the NEWR Yahoo Group for all those over here on this list:

Hey - just wanted to drop a quick note off to everyone to say thanks
for the awesome time and the warm welcome to NEWR. It truly lived up
to what everyone described and has given my (and now my wife's)
carving the kickstart we needed.

The facilities and food were EXCELLENT, the instructors awesome, and
the folks excellent company. From the time we arrived and had such an
easy time getting checked in and signed up for my workshops (so MANY
choices) I new this was going to be a great time and it was.

Mike Bloomquist's Swedish Luck Trolls worked their magic and we had
wonderful weather. Thanks Mike! ;-) [George - you gotta make sure he
brings those EVERY year from now on!] Next year I'll have to carve
one to bring some of that mojo home.

The three workshops I took were FANTASTIC! Mike's woodspirit/greenman
in cottonwood bark taught me a lot about faces.

Barbara's cypress knee class was great and I loved the piece I
started (a small full figure old world style santa - however, for
beginners like me I'd recommend just doing a large face - on mine the
whole figure was only about 12" tall and the face about an inch or 1
1/2" long and it was tough to carve detail in at that size for me).

Bob Muller's sharpening class was very informative and a big help to
all newbies. Learned a ton and now I gotta get a decent strop.

Special thanks btw to John Dunkle for sharpening my gouges. My mom &
dad did well!

Finally, Tony's gnome home class was great fun and he really helped
me learn to visualize the possibilities in a piece of cottonwood (not
to mention how to use a good knife - thanks for the Denny Frost knife
pointer Tony).

For my wife Theresa - The fan birds were a challenge since her knife
technique hasn't developed yet but she love the design and is looking
forward to completing it. Thanks Sally & David! But Herlene's 2 day
Alpine relief carving really got her creative juices flowing and
brought out the artist in her. She loves to paint and adding the 3
dimensional relief carving element got her quite excited.

So Maura, George, and all. Thanks for the advice and I am looking
forward to seeing everyone there next year! From this pair of new
carvers I would highly recommend the NEWR as THE way to get off the
ground with carving.

Cheers,
Chuck