[Woodcarver] ?Nativity Scene?

[Ivan Whillock]

Crèche Carvers:

It was interesting to meet Stefan Lanthaler in Austria and discover that
there are carvers across Austria, Germany, indeed, throughout Europe,  who
are Krippen (Crib) scene specialists.

They have seminars, exhibits, conventions, and meet to exchange techniques
and ideas.  It is
customary for them to create Crib Scenes that include entire villages, often
using their own traditional architecture--the Spanish carver will put the
crib in a Spanish village, etc.

 I saw one amazing scene by Lanthaler that was a few feet deep, but looked
like it stretched for miles because of the unique perspective the artist
used, reducing the relative size of the figures along a vanishing point.

The site below, though in German, will show some of the work and give
interested Crib, Crèche, Krippen carvers other links they can explore:

 http://www.krippe-tirol.at/steinach/privatkrippeO.htm

(Many search engines have a translation feature.  If you're on a page in a
foreign language,  highlight some of the text,  scroll over the search
symbol, and Yahoo or Google  may
offer you an English translation option.)

Ivan Whillock Studio
122 NE 1st Avenue
Faribault, MN  55021
Visit my website at
http://www.whillock.com
Visit my Picture Trail album at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=ivancarve