The prairie weather was cranky April 6 & 7 but the mood inside the 27th annual Prairie Canada Carving championship was jubilant. The success of this remarkable competition is attributed to the involvement of carvers (competitors and non-competitors), carving clubs, a bevy of supporters , an admiring public and of course a devoted board of directors. Association directors once again pulled together in grand fashion to host an exemplary carving show– kudos to Lynda Baxter, Doug Danell, John Frye, Paul Giasson, Helen Hafke, Jean Mousseau, Bill and Sandy Nitzsche, Tom Park, Bonnie Trodden and Don Young. It goes without saying that we are always on the lookout for members with new ideas and approaches to keeping the show relevant and attractive. The 2013 show attracted 274 wood, bone, stone and antler carvings from 96 carvers (20 of whom were new to the show) along with a collection of 50 cocktail carvings acquired by one collector from previous shows. Not counting the feature collection the number of carv-ings was down by eight. The caliber however was spectacular and the inclusion of more high quality turned wood and decorative fish was rewarding. Judges as usual had their work cut out– thanks goes out to Ron Davidson, Ray England, Ken deSmet, Ron Jackson, Sylvain Marin, Randy Mooi, Shawn Nicol, Brian Parker, Peter Sawatzky, Jill Town and Larry Van-derhyde. We are also appreciative of show retailers Canadian Woodworker, Copperfield Books, Jennifer LaBella and Robert Taylor for their support. Members of Les Gens de Bois Woodcarving Club, Adanac Carvers Association, the Oak Hammock Marsh Carvers Guild and Wildlife Haven complete with a live barred owl and kestrel added to the ambiance of the show. Once again volunteer students from College Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau helped keep the show running smoothly. The 2013 workshop slate consisted of a one day workshop on clay sculpture and design by Peter Sawatzky and a three day miniature American white pelican carving workshop by Tom Park. Thanks to Artists Emporium and Lee Valley Tools for hosting these events. The 60 minute carving seminars offered Sunday morning were very popular, covering the es-sentials of stains and natural finishes by Don Young and Bill Nitzsche, fish carving essen-tials with Carl Robblee and Jean Mousseau and bark carving with Robert LeClair. Professional bronze sculptor Peter Sawatzky capped the award’s banquet with an excellent illustrated presentation on the making and installation of life-sized bronze pack of wolves on Chief Peguis Trail in Winnipeg. As many of you know we may have run the course with the selling of raffle tickets as a fund-raiser and will step up our efforts in offering a greater selection of evening and Sunday carving workshops. Our endeavours in this area are paying off– see the article in the body of newsletter. Thanks to everyone who sold/purchased 2013 raffle tickets. Harry Williams won the Razertip sponsored northern oriole carved by Tom Park, Jack Yellowlees won the pair of stylized otters by Bill Nitzsche and Pat Pennycook claimed the rainbow trout completed by Jean Mousseau. All winners are residents of Winnipeg. Keep your edges sharp and have a great summer. The 2014 competition will be back at Canad Inns Polo Park April 5 & 6. Ted Muir, President PCCA

27th Carving Competition Outstanding

Prairie Canada News

April 2013

Prairie Canada Carvers’ Association Inc: www.prairiecanadacarvers.com

Intarsia by Perry Kon 2nd Best of Show Novice

Workshops Key to Association’s Success

Once again the Association hosted a number of introductory carving work-shops at Elmwood/East Kildonan Active Living Centre in Winnipeg through-out the winter months . Workshops encompassed the carving of rusty nail shorebirds with Ted Muir, the carving of a miniature rusty nail snowy egrets with Ted Muir (two offerings), the carving of rusty nail fridge magnets with Ted Muir, the carving of a miniature orca with Tom Park and the carving of butternut hooded mergansers with Ted Muir. Two fish carving workshops (crappie delight) had to be postponed as Jean Mousseau underwent heart sur-gery after the competition– he is in full recovery. Two traditional carving workshops offered by Murray Watson had to be cancelled due to low interest (hummingbird in a picture frame and moody Manitoba bison head). We will continue to offer new and exciting carving workshops at a reasonable cost. Ideas in the works include– feet making, flower carving, painting, air-brushing, fish carving, natural finish great gray owl, antique hooded mergan-ser decoy, and rusty nail shorebirds in the looking position. If you have any ideas for workshops contact John Frye at jfrye@cc.umanitoba.ca. We are also always looking for feature show instructors. If you have any ideas share them with Bonnie Trodden at trodden@shaw.ca.

Upcoming Events to Check Out Here in the mid-west we are lucky to have a strong carving community. In Manitoba alone we can lay claim to having three vibrant long-standing carving competitions and 24 active carving clubs. One of the ways we collectively stay strong is to support one an-other by taking in a carving competition (as a competitor or non-competitor) or by enrolling in a carving course. An incredible amount of volunteer time goes into these events and the surest way to keep them alive is to be supportive.

May 4 & 5– The Oak Hammock Marsh Decoy Competition; Ross Gage at 204-895-4723 or rossgage@mts.net.

May 4 & 5: Sherwood Park, Edmonton; Wildlife Carving Competition – Bob Steele at 780-464-4622

May 10-12 and June 7 & 8: Calgary; Carving and painting a pine grosbeak with Bob Lavender; Contact Barb Janman at 403-286-6366 or bjanman@shaw.ca

May 16-21: Weldheim: Saskatchewan River Valley Art School; srvas@saskwildlifeart.com or 306-945-4929

June 28-30: North Dakota; Wahpeton Carving Weekend, Gary Paulsen 701- 232-2196

August 3 & 4 Minnesota: International Woodcarving and Arts Festival Lake Bronson State Park, Tammy.blawat@borderstatebank.com

September 22 to-28 Sorrento, BC. Shuswap School of Carving & Arts, www.bccarvingschool.com or Kathy at 250-573-2227

October 25-27: Saskatoon: Reflections of Nature Wildlife Art Competi-tion, info@saskwildlifeart.com

Future PCCA Competition Dates 2014 April 5 & 6; 2015 March 28 & 29

Robert LeClair leads a bark carving session at the show

Common Goldeneye by Ray Minaudier Morgan Whiteway Purchase Award Winner

Full show results are attached to this email as a PDF

Bird Carvers– Best of Show Open 1st - Lana Cowell, Saskatoon -female yellow-rumped warbler 2nd-Bill Palmer, Winnipeg– redhead hen 3rd –Harvey Welch, Saskatoon– American robin Intermediate 1st –Cheryl Laschuk, Seddons Corner, MB - barn owl 2nd –Cliff Zarecki, Lac du Bonnet, MB– green-winged teal hen 3rd –John Frye, Winnipeg– tundra swan Novice- 1st Cynthia Roth, Bottineau, ND- wood duck drake 2nd– Cynthia Roth, Bottineau, ND-black-capped chickadee 3rd- Russ Mann, Edmonton, AB– merlin

Traditional Carvers- Best of Show Open 1st - Bill Nitzsche ,Winnipeg- bald eagle 2nd– Jean Mousseau, Winnipeg –smallmouth bass 3rd– Rick Brereton, La du Bonnet, MB – maori koruru head Intermediate 1st– Helmut Kuklik, St. Laurent, MB– Pyrography –backwoods treasure 2nd– Iris Bidinosti, Lac du bonnet– bark carving-forest dwellers 3rd– Syl Didur, Winnipeg– moose antler- moon light encounter with wolves Novice 1st- Perry Kon, Pinawa, MB-– Intarsia– American elk 2nd–Perry Kon, Pinawa, MB– Intarsia -great blue heron 3d-Deb Spear, Thunder Bay, ON– soapstone snail Cocktail Best of Show- Carl Robblee, Swan River, MB– grayling 1st waterfowl– Tom Park, Winnipeg– northern pintail drake 1st upland game-Lee Garbel, Williston, ND– ring–necked pheasant

Purchase Awards Razertip Industries– Harvey Welch, Saskatoon– white-throated sparrow Morgan Whiteway BOSS– Ray Minaudier. St. Claude, MB– common goldeneye Richard Whittom Duck Head– Rusty Rutherford, Portage la Prairie, MB– red-breasted merganser Jim Richardson Antique Decoy– Doug Carson, Neepawa, MB– canvasback Ted Muir Shorebird– Doug Carson, Neepawa, MB– dunlin Cash Award Al Whitfield Junior Working Shorebird– Rachelle Mattson, Winnipeg, MB– ruddy turn-stone People’s Choice Award-sponsored by Les Gens de Bois Woodcarving Carving Club– Bill Nitzsche, Winnipeg– bald eagle Carver’s Choice Award– sponsored by Adanac Carvers Association- Cheryl Laschuk, Seddons Corner, MB– barn owl

2013 Winners Circle– Best of Show & Purchase Awards

Maori koruru head by Rick Brereton 3rd Best of Show Open

Yellow-rumped warbler by Lana Cowell-1st Best of Show Open

April 2013 Lynda Baxter Doug Danell John Frye Paul Giasson Helen Hafke Jean Mousseau Ted Muir Bill and Sandy Nitzsche Tom Park Bonnie Trodden Don Young

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Collector’s Pattern Book as Relevant as Ever

Auction Contributions Raise Much Needed Funds

The auctioning of carvings (cocktail and full-size) and one decoy book on the Sunday afternoon raised $2,030 for the competition. A heartfelt thanks goes out to contributors Lee Garbel, Ray Minaudier, Ted Muir, Danny Myhal, Bill Nitzsche, Tom Park, Carl Robblee, Einar Vigfusson, Randy Warren, and Jack Yellowlees. The cocktail competition tops up Association coffers and we encourage carvers to enter a piece in the future.

All of the cocktail and life-sized carving donations to the auction are greatly appreciated. But we would be remiss in not singling out Jack Yellowlees of Winnipeg for his remarkable contribution to the cocktail competition. Over the past 20 years Jack has entered 57 cocktail carvings, garnering $3,972 for the Asso-ciation. And that is not including the dozens of full-sized decoys he has donated to organizations like Ducks Unlimited Canada and Fort Whyte Alive. Well done Jack.

As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations Prairie Canada pro-duced a commemorative carving pattern book featuring the work of notable show participants. The 11 by 17 inch coil bound book features 34 traditional and bird carving pat-terns and instructions. The collectors pattern book is in its second printing and sells for $25 through Tom Park at tpark@mts.net or Artists Emporium, Canadian Woodworker (all stores ) Fort Whyte Alive, Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, Razertip Indus-tries, Windsor Plywood (all Wpg stores) and Island Woodcraft Supplies in Comox. The book features the work of Doug Carson, Byron Crabb, Bob Lavender, David Koss, Ted Muir, Shawn Nicol, Larry Vanderhyde, Ron Davidson, Harvey Welch, Bill Palmer, Jean Mousseau, Lee Garbel, Don Young, Jean Minaudier, Dr. Frank Bald-win, Tunney Hovorka, Al Whitfield and Tom Park.

Northern pintail by Tom Park– 1st Place Cocktail Duck

Grayling by Carl Robblee– Best of Show Cocktail

2013 PCCA Sponsors and Partners

A special note of gratitude is extended to our show sponsors and partners. We couldn't have a show without your generous contribu-tions and support.

Gold ( $1000 plus)

Manitoba Arts Council

Silver ($500 to $999) Morgan Whiteway BOSS Purchase Award Jim Richardson Purchase Antique Duck Decoy Award Razertip Industries Purchase Award

Bronze ($200 to $499) Adanac Carvers Association Carver’s Choice Award Al Whitfield Junior Carver Shorebird Cash Award Artists Emporium Cabela’s Canad Inns Polo Park Canadian Woodworker Dremel Tools Ducks Unlimited Canada Lee Valley Tools: Les Gens de Bois Woodcarving Club People’s Choice Award Manitoba Wildlife Federation Manitoba Tourism Secretariat Preferred Perch Professional Grinding Richard Whittom Duck Head Purchase Award Ted Muir Shorebird Purchase Award Truserv Wildfowl Carving Magazine Windsor Plywood

Supporters Chipping Away Copperfield Books Foredom Tools Manitoba Pork Manitoba Wildlife Haven Oak Hammock Marsh Carving Guild Robert Taylor and Jennifer Labella

Red-breasted Merganser by Rusty Rutherford Richard Whittom Purchase Award

Moose Antler by Syl Didur– 3rd Best of Show Intermediate

Soapstone Snail by Deb Spear 3rd Best of Show Novice

Ruddy Turnstone by Rachelle Mattson Al Whitfield Junior Cash Award