A new version of an old fisherman

 During the 1990s in the infancy of the use of the internet by the general public, an informal email list grew out of conversations on a USENET news woodworking channel.

At some point some conversation turned acrimonious and in an effort to bring the group back on topic I offered an original relief pattern of a fisherman to the group suggesting we all have a go at it.

The idea was more successful than I had hoped and the conversation turned away from the argument.

Ivan Whillock https://whillock.com/ was part of the email list and sent me a private email complimenting me on the idea and offering a great deal of constructive criticism on the original design and my execute of it. 

The email managed to both inflate and deflate my ego in just a few lines.  After a few days I returned to the email and read Ivan's guidance and found it was, like most of his writing, invaluable.  I adjusted my original design in my archives and re-carved my relief to incorporate Ivan's suggestions.

To my amazement, Ivan sent me his version of the fisherman carved in butternut shortly after the email.

\We are installing a museum grade artwork hanging system in our house and I had hopes to hang both our fishermen together, but was unable to locate mine so I retrieved the original drawings and created a new version.  It's still not up to the high standard set by Ivan's version, but I'm content with it.


2023 Recycled walnut, polyurethane finish, personal collection.

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