Little Big Man

My eight year old grandson spent his first day afield last week with his dad and a few hunting buddies, and the proudest Gramps on earth is glad to report that, armed with his new 20 gauge, he bagged a few quail!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rite of passage that took me a few more years to attain, I'm sure that this experience will lead to many happy days with his dad and others - a lifetime of enjoying our 2nd Amendment rights and the bountiful harvest that God has provided.

 

 

Way to go Grant!

We're on TV...well sort of.

Our long awaited video featuring the Trout Unlimited Veterans Service Partnership is finally available for viewing on the small screen.  Yes, with a simple click on the link below, you will soon be transported to Harman's North Fork Cottages up in West Virginia, and along the way you'll meet some very special friends of ours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVhsRRM2cw&feature=youtu.be

You'll meet Todd Harman, the proprietor of this special destination and Curtis Fleming of Fly Rod Chronicles.  You'll meet Ed Nicholson, the genious behind Project Healing Waters, and you'll meet me.  But most importantly, you'll meet two disabled veterans who helped us share with you the healing and rehabilitation that can occur through our sport.

So steal away for eighteen minutes or so, grab your favorite beverage, pop some corn and enjoy!

The Silent Fisherman

Way back in 1979, in one of my very first efforts at wildlife sculpting, I decided to honor the greatest fisherman of all time. . . The Green Heron.  Having watched these stealthy birds outfish me on a regular basis, you'd imagine that I learned a thing or two.  Nope, not a thing, but I might try this technique

A Salute To Service

This past Thursday evening supporters of Trout Unlimited and our Veterans Service Partnership gathered in Washington, DC in the palatial law office of Arnold & Porter to salute the service of our nation’s veterans.

Our 3^rd annual fundraising dinner began with a Presentation of the Colors by the US Navy Ceremonial Guard and a beautiful rendition of our National Anthem sung by MUC Yolanda Pelzer of the US Navy Band.  As our 200 honored guests settled in for a great meal they were treated to comments by Chris Wood, our President and CEO, and following Chris I had the honor of introducing Adm. Dennis Blair (former Director of National Intelligence) and Mr. Jeffrey Smith (Senior partner at Arnold & Porter and former General Council of the CIA), our co-hosts for the evening.

Following their inspirational remarks, I introduced our Guest Speaker, former Army Ranger Capt. Chris Yasher.  At each year’s event we strive to have as our speaker a veteran that has experienced first-hand the healing and rehabilitation that our program provides and we could not have done better than having Chris address us this year.  Chris’ story was representative of the commitment to service and sacrifice that we honored throughout the evening.

The evening concluded with a rousing live auction that augmented the funds raised through the silent auction and the many raffles.  My thanks to every attendee and to every vendor (like Scott Hunter from Vedavoo on the left)that donated items for the auctions.  With the funds raised on Thursday evening we are assured that our work with veterans will continue to expand and thrive.

Winter Music

Anyone that has hunted ducks or geese with any seriousness at all has heard about the great hunting to be had on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  The town of Easton, MD is right up there with Stuttgart, AR as far as waterfowl hunting goes.

Well, this past weekend I participated in a “Train the Trainer” seminar put on by Project Healing Waters.  The event was put together to give interested volunteers the information and training that they will need to organize and run a local program for disabled veterans.  As Ryan and I have been planning the same sort of event for the southeastern US, I though it a good idea to attend and compare notes.  The event was held a Point Pleasant , just outside of St. Michaels, MD.

It was a 12 hour drive for me so I was really hoping that it would be worth the effort.  Mapquest told me that it was a 10 hour dive, but they didn’t take into account that I would be hitting the DC Beltway at 4PM.  How do those people stand this!  I spent two hours in stop and go traffic.

It was dark and raining when I finally pulled into town so I saw nothing of the fabled Eastern Shore.

I awoke to misting rain and fog.  Breakfast was scheduled at 8AM at the lodge.  This place was amazing.  Formally owned by the DuPont family as a private hunting and fishing preserve, it encompasses 1,000 acres with 7 miles of shoreline on the Chesapeake Bay.  When I exited my car at the lodge I heard the music.

 

While others were bemoaning the lack of warmth and sunshine (keep in mind that these were all fishermen) I was relishing the “atmospherics.”  As soon as my car door opened I heard it.  What must have been 10,000 Canada Geese and who know how many ducks were engaged in the chorus that brings goose bumps (can’t believe I said that) to a wingshooter.  And the weather?  This was no “Bluebird Day” with nothing flying but songbirds – it was the sort of day with the cacophony of sight and sound that waterfowl hunters dream of.  It brought back memories of the Great Salt Plains area that Roger and I used to hunt in north central Oklahoma.  Throughout the day the sky was alive with birds.  Birds that continually distracted me from the subject at hand, and birds that western North Carolina, for the most part, is devoid of.

I have been invited back, and given the chance, I’ll do it.  But I’ll avoid the Beltway, and I’ll have my trusty 12 gauge with me.

 

Musky

Okay.  No more late nights!  Finally finished the pen & ink of the Carp, the Channel Cat and now . . . the Musky.  Now comes the color as I try to bring these cold illustrations to life.

 

 

The Bench

Hidden away in the deep recesses of our humble abode is a room . . . a room where my past is coming to life.  A tiny room that contains this bench and not much else.  I bought this jeweler's bench back in 1972 when I was beginning my apprenticeship as a goldsmith.  It served me well for many years as I sat at it whittling out custom jewelry and creating my own line of fine gold trinkets.

If you look close you'll see a few tools of the trade.  The wax, from which everything comes; the tools for shaping that wax; the "eyes" that make it possible for actually seeing the wax, and if you look really close you'll see a few of the recent wax models that I've created and a couple of sterling silver castings waiting to be finished.

Carp

Here is another illustration to go along with the Channel Cat in my last post...another image that once colored, will go to Riverlink for their signage plans along the French Broad River.

I have not succumbed to the current rage of catching these guys on a fly rod, but in my misspent youth I confess to impaling a few with arrows.  After all, to my mind these guys were just muddying the waters of my favorite bass coves.  What did I know!

Anyway, according to McClane's Standard Fishing Encyclopedia, this Old-World minnow was first successfully introduced into this country in 1876 from Germany.  Indigenous to Asia, carp were so abundant on the European continent that that they were mentioned by Aristotle as early as 350 BC.

Wonder what old Ari would think of landing one on a modern fly rod...

Whiskered Trout

Of course it’s a Channel Catfish – at least, I hope you can tell that it is. 

I was asked by Riverlink, a non-profit here in the Asheville area, to provide them with some fish images to be used on a number of interpretive signs they’ll be placing along the French Broad River.  They asked for a Bluegill, a Smallmouth, a Largemouth, a Carp, a Musky, and a Channel Catfish.  I jumped at the chance to do this as it will help highlight the fishing opportunities on our local big river and it gives me a good excuse to do the art for the Carp, Musky and Catfish – three species that I haven’t had  reason to do until now.

Riverlink, in their words, “is a regional non-profit spearheading the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River and its tributaries as a place to live, work and play.”  A worthy cause , for sure.

This pen and ink needs some color and I’ll be adding that as time allows.  Stay tuned!

Catch & Release Brown

I just put the finishing touches on my neighbor's C&R piece.  Chas is still escorting his clients around Yellowstone, teaching them the finer points of photography - so he hasn't seen it yet.

I know that I've said it before, but I really do love doing these.  I got to spend a lot more time with this fine speciman of a fish than Chas did, so I got to know it pretty well.  Living vicariously through the exploits of others is some kinda fun!

Thursday  night, at our monthly TU meeting ( the Pisgah Chapter) we were honored to have as our guest speaker Chas Glatzer of Shoot the Light photography fame.  Chas is a neighbor of mine and he just happens to be one of the top wildlife photographers on the planet.  I've seen most of his work before but unless our members were avid readers of National Geographic and other mags featuring high quality wildlife images, they weren't aware of his work.  Chas wowed them...as I knew he would.

The image you see here (and my apologies for the picture quality) is the pen & ink stage of a really nice brown that Chas caught on a local stream this fall. I've been fortunate to have Chas photograph my recent Native Faces series and the Skin Series that I've been working on, and as a way of payback I suggested this catch & release rendition of his catch. I'll be adding some color to it in the coming days and hopefully he will be pleased with the finished work.

2012 - What a year it was!

The Trout Unlimited VETERANS SERVICE PROGRAM

From once a year family outings to weekly fly tying sessions at the VA; from rod building classes to casting lessons at a local pond; from overnight stays at 5 star destinations to drift boat excursions through pristine wilderness – during the past year some 600 Trout Unlimited member volunteers donated over 45,000 hours towards the healing of our nations recovering veterans.

Whether casting poppin’ bugs for feisty bluegills, or drifting woolly buggars through the lair of a brutish brown trout, TU members from 91 Trout Unlimited chapters in 34 states conducted some 300 outings with their local veterans.   As over 1000 of these veterans experienced the thrill of the strike, they also experienced the therapy of the water – the healing that comes from sharing with their fellow veterans the beauty and  rejuvenating power of our sport.

The Liberty Tree... The Patriot's Dream

On 14 August 1765, a crowd gathered in Boston under a large elm tree at the corner of Essex Street and Washington Street, originally called Orange Street, to protest the hated Stamp Act. It was the first public show of defiance against the Crown and spawned the resistance that led to the American Revolution 10 years later.

Because the Act applied to papers, newspapers, advertisements, and other publications and legal documents, it was viewed by the colonists as a means of censorship, or a "knowledge tax," on the rights of the colonists to write and read freely.

Back in the day I created a few different ancient coin replicas, and with what's going on in today's world the idea for this new one came to my wife. I created this to celebrate the ideals of our founders and to remind the current generation of their sacrifices and wisdom.  Not taking sides politically, I truly believe that we must re-embrace those ideals.  The pendant, the first in a separate line of jewelry titled, PATRIOT DREAMS (See America the Beautiful), is done in .925 Sterling Silver and is a one- of-a-kind.  I've signed it on the back and and its slightly larger than a US quarter.

If you are interested in this at just 75 bucks...just shoot me an email at clearwatermemories.gmail.com

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth”
Geo. Washington in a letter to James Madison dated March 2, 1788

Am I Obsolete?

Two posts back, in the one titled Back to the Future, I told you that I was re-entering the custom jewelry field after an absence of nearly thirty years.  Man have things changed!  As I made my way from one retail jeweler to another inquiring about their custom work and asking about the possibility of them casting up a few of my pieces (to keep my initial costs down I decided to farm out the casting process) I was amazed at what I was hearing.  Yes, a few of them did their own custom designs, but the idea of them doing them "by hand" was a quaint and ancient concept.

Nowadays, like so many things, the art of hand carving a piece of wax into a functional and beautiful design has been replaced by modern technology.  Have you seen those TV shows where automotive parts like wheels are made by a machine?  The ones where they simply enter a design into a computer, push the start button, and a few minutes later have a finished product?  Well, they are doing the same thing now with jewelry . . . rendering my hard earned skills obsolete.

Oh well – so be it.  Even if I could afford one of of those CNC machines, I would never consider using one – even on a rental basis.  There is something to be said for craftsmanship.  Will they someday invent a machine that can replicate Michelangelo’s work?  Let’s hope not.

What I’m offering here is jewelry done the old fashioned way.  The idea for these pieces came from my own imagination and their creation was accomplished with my own hands.  Sure, I use mechanical devices like polishing wheels affixed to electric motors to achieve the brilliant sterling silver shine, but these and the ones to follow will be done my way – the old way – the artistic way.

Each piece shown here is a one-of-a-kind creation.  No molds are used and each has its own personality and uniqueness.  They will never be duplicated.  They are each .925 Sterling, as marked on the back of each, along with my signature.

 

This one above, like the others, is one-of-a-kind.  This antiqued and highly polished pendant is an inch and three eights long and an inch and an eighth from the top of the bail to the bottom of the piece.  She weighs nearly 1/2 an ounce and is available for $80.00.

 

 

This one is two inches in length and weighs over 1/2 an ounce.  If you order soon it can be under your tree for a mere $110.00

 

 

This pendant, a fine brace of trout, comes in at over a half ounce in total weight.  The individual trout, all one-of-a-kind, measure, on average, one and seven eighths in length.  The entire piece is available at $140.00 and if you wish, the individaul trout are available for $45.00 each.

 

And finally let me stress that these are not "cookie-cutter" pieces, mass produced and taken from a well used mold.  Each was created by my own hands, at my jewelers bench from a piece of wax, a few carving tools, a few years of experience and a true love of the subject matter.

 

 

 

Woodies

Today is cold, cloudy, rainy and very reminiscent of the days I spent standing waist deep in my waders pass shooting Wood Ducks with my buddy Roger.  We'd set a few decoys of course, but these fast flying little guys usually paid them no mind at all.  As they would come whistling through the trees we'd blast away, and I'll never forget the day that I got a triple - three shots and three drakes down.  Shown here is a detail from an oil painting I must have done 20 years ago.  Ah...the memories.