I enjoy watching the progress of our students. It seems when they first arrive they are shy and tentative, but after a day of being around Joe they really open up. Joe isn't a grumpy teacher and he really is good at sharing his knowledge in way that is engaging while being easy going. He is able to connect with them and once the students open up its great to see the enthusiasm as they start working on their first bears and eagles. Joe is very particular about taking a step back and looking at your work to really make sure things are in proportion and going the right way, and he passes that along to his students. I think its a very important skill we can all learn in our own lives. When you think things are getting rough take a step back and evaluate. I do have to admit that I am a bit jealous that they are learning such a unique art. I'm always listening, about everything, so if I'm lucky and someday get to pick up a saw I can put his words to good use. The last group of students that came through our school left with some great carvings they had made themselves and ear to ear grins.
As Joe focuses on getting some inventory built up for spring he also has this new obsession gaining facebook likes to our fan page. He even decided to give away a bear carving when we hit 1000 likes. I think that has something to do with not being able to work on his large eagle carving. He has been doing a lot of looking at it though. The last he worked on it he got quite a bit done. He took out a section of the log between the two eagles to make it look like the tree y's. Joe also sculpted the shape of the tree about another 5 feet down. Here is a pair of pictures, one is from the front and the other from the underside so you can get an idea of width of the wing span. I couldn't get a good picture of the backside of the carving with the sun where it was, but Joe has carved an adult owl perched and then a baby owl in a hole in it. The log you see sticking out from the main part of the tree will be one of two that will support an eagle's nest that will probably have a baby eagle in it that Joe carved from a part of the tree he cut away. Maybe now that the sun isn't so bright I can go and brave the cold and snap a picture of it, maybe, I'm really cold. I'll probably just go get some hot chocolate and tweak our website. If you want to see pictures of this from earlier you can view them all here.
While we wait out this cold spell Joe and Ben are working on this really great log entrance for our booth at the Home and Patio show at the St. Paul Rivercentre Feb 14th through the 17th and also a home show we are going to be doing in Duluth in the first week of April. If your in the area you will have to come and see it. Joe carved a bear poking it's head our of the end of one of the logs and it is adorable. There was talk about a bear hanging over the top of the log and another one climbing up the side of it. We pack for the show in 12 days so we will see how far we get. The great thing about it is that we can always add to it.
