1. All engraving entries must be on a US penny or similar copper colored coin from your country that does not exceed 2cm. Only international entrants that can not get a US penny may enter an alternate coin.
2. All engravers may only enter 1 penny.
3. No Café baristas, bus people or wait staff may enter the contest.
4. Entries must be submitted by: 12pm (Noon) Eastern Standard Time (East Coast US) Friday, April 13, 2007.
5. Photography can make or break an engraving:
     a. It is the responsibility of the entrant to submit clear photographs of the penny to the Café.
     b. No photos will be re-touched or edited by the café with the exception of adding the engraver’s name to the photo. Please add your name to your photo if you’re able to.
     c. No photos can be accepted past the deadline entry date which will be posted in the Café – Noon on April 13, 2007.
6. The penny contest will have the following categories: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Professional. Each engraver should use his best judgment as to which category best suits him. All entrants may enter a maximum of 1 category.
     a. Beginner – this would be for people with beginning engraving skills who are just learning the basics.
     b. Intermediate – this category would be for non-professionals and hobbyists who have quite a bit of engraving experience, but do not earn a living engraving.
     c. Advanced – for people quite proficient in engraving technique, hobbyists, part-time engravers, coin cutters.
     d. Professional – for full-time professional engravers and advanced coin cutters.
7. Judging the contest:
     a. Penny entries will be posted at the café for a period of 7 days during which time the members may vote on the pennies. Votes will be conducted by a poll. Member’s votes will not be publicly viewable. Voting will start after the entry deadline on April 13th and will end at 12pm (Noon) Eastern Standard Time (East Coast US) on Friday, April 20, 2007.
     b. Each member will only be allowed to vote 1 time per category. This is controlled by the forum software.
     c. Winners will be notified when polls close by a posting on the café.
     d. All winners will receive a certificate for their category.
8. This contest is for the fun of engraving. It is the Café’s hope that it will foster good will and further the skills of the entire community by the high level of mentorship and discussion that has been exhibited.
9. Critique of entries is fine when done in a courteous, friendly way. Best of luck. ~ Tira Mitchell

{ Beginner Thread   • • •   Intermediate Thread   • • •   Advanced Thread   • • •   Professional Thread }

Volunteer Fire Dept. Raffle Small pine needle bear sitting raffle for a super good cause!

The Woman's Auxiliary is raising funds for our Volunteer Fire Department and our Quick Response Unit. I'm also a Volunteer fire fighter. Check out our Elk Bend Idaho Community website: www.elkbendidaho.com. Baby Bear Innocence's picture and story is in Teddy Bear Scene Magazine out of Great Britain. ~ Rich {my website} ~ {my e-mail}
The drawing is August 25th, 2007. Tickets are $1.00 for one; six for $5.00; and twelve for $10.00. Folks... it is not the price of the tickets, whether you win or not, but the volunteer firemen who we forget about until a big fire or something such as September 11, 2001 the attack on America by terriost at the World Trade Center. Firemen came from all over the United States to volunteer their service. This is only one small way we can say thank you is to support a volunteer fire department in Idaho who needs help.
Rich has donated this beautiful little bear valued at $2,000. He could use the money to support himself and April but it is important to him to support his volunteer fire department. You can EMail Richard Carpenter for information about buying raffle tickets. I plan to buy raffle tickets to support the volunteer firemen. Please join me and buy raffle tickets to say thank you to the volunteer firemen for a worthy job. ~ “MamaJo” LeCount

Hobo Stick Is Up For Sale

   Trying to think like a Hobo. I figure they carved more than Nickels. Since Hoboes did a lot of walking I believe a nice walking stick is in order.
   If I was a Hobo of the day I would make a stick something like this one. Through my travels I would see Hobo signs and I would carve them in my stick to remind me where I've been and to warn or help others I meet in my travels. This would help me in teaching others and telling stories while riding the rails. It would be kind of a hobo diary with a new story for every sign. Of course I don't have a story for each of the eighty some signs on here, but I would if I had made and carried this stick though my entire hobo life.
   This stick measures 45.5 inches high... or three inches under four feet. Carved from a Pine Branch from the mountains of Idaho. It's light and strong and has a very comfortable feel to it.
   I've posted three pictures in the HOBO SHOP ALBUM . Click to enlarge the picture and there will be a description and price under it. Don't be afraid to offer me less for it. All I can do is say no. Then again, making a living as a folk artist I might just say it's yours. If I should say no the first go around, then ask me again in a week or two. I might just need the money then. Then again the other alternative would be to offer me more for it. LOL. That would be GREAT!!
   My next item I was working on for this group is a wooden spoon. My first attempt just ended up with holes through it. Literally! Well.... keep watching the posts and checking the HOBO SHOP ALBUM. I will do what I can to offer a variety of artistic creations as time goes on. Best Wishes to All, Rich {my website} ~ {my e-mail}

The Pine Needle Bear Story

It's true....I'm not a hobo. At heart I am and being a Folk Artist I believe we have common ground. I believe in living a simple life, although simple does not always mean easy. If I can't find work I create it. I always respect Nature and clean camp sites. I have a two mile stretch of Highway I also pick up every year. I decide my own life and nobody rules me. These are a few things we have in common from the Hobos Code of Conduct.
Have any of you been wondering about my Pine Needle Bear? When I moved to Idaho I just couldn't take the city life anymore. I move here to take care of my Dad, who past away a year later. I didn't want to leave Idaho and the only jobs were in town twenty-two miles away. Nothing over $5 an hour. I met April and she asked me if I could do anything for a living what would I do? I said I wanted to be an Artist. She said, “Okay, you're an Artist... get to work.” So I did.
With a single Dremil and some old cracked deer antlers I began carving. We would buy used jewelry at yard sales and thrift stores and take them apart, using the parts for our own antler jewelry. When we had a small rack of earrings done we would hit the Jungle. Beating the streets selling what we could. Collecting materials here in the mountains we started other art projects. Walking sticks, canes, driftwood sculptures with carved antler. Everyday a new challenge of bartering and wondering what to make next and if we could sell it. Always wondering where our next nickel would come from.
One day April says to me to make a bear. She says, “Bears always sell good.” I, of course, did not want to make a bear. I told her everyone makes bears. I want to make something nobody has ever made before. She says, “...but I love bears” and gave me that LOOK. I took a deep breath and said “OOOkay, ...but if I make one it will be like no other bear you've ever seen.” Oh boy, now I had committed myself to something I wasn't even sure of.
Day after day I figured I needed a medium to work with that no one else has ever used for a bear. I'd pick up a rock and say a Rock Bear? NAW, Plaster? Naw, Bottle caps? Naw. On and on for weeks I kept picking things up. Some great ideas came but remember I had no budget to work with. ZERO, nada. Like the Hobo I only had what God would give me to work with. I was finally at my wits end trying to think of the perfect material to use. Something that wouldn't cost me more than a few dollars investment. Frustrated, I went out to work in the yard. Pine cones everywhere! I stared picking them up and said, you guess it, A PINE CONE BEAR! My mind raced to figure out the possibilities and I came up with the same old NAW. I then bent down and picked up a small handful of long pine needles and said, “BEAR HAIR!” About that time I look up and across the street to my neighbor’s yard and saw a roll of chicken wire.
The wheels started turning!!!! This might just work. I then asked for the wire and took it to my shop where I began cutting, bending, shaping, wiring the shape of a bear cub. With the look of a Teddy Bear. April didn't know what I was up to. I brought the bear frame into the house and showed her. Immediately she sighed, “Awwwwww, how precious.” I said, “Wait til you see what I'm going to do with it.” I went to the back room and grabbed a sheet, brought it out in the living room and spread it out across the floor. A puzzled look on April's face. I went outside where I had raked up a pile of pine needles, bagged them up, brought them in a dumped them on the sheet. I said, “Come on April, give me a hand sort these needles” and she said, “NO WAY, You're on your own with this one!” I insisted, and said it won't take very long. She still refused saying NO WAY!
So I proceeded to sort needles and weave them into my bear. Thinking to myself, this will be Great. It will only take me a week or so. My Giant pile of pine needles didn't amount to much. At least two thirds of the needles I had to throw away. Back for more. It wasn't going as fast as I thought it would. Maybe it will take me a few weeks. Three months later I finally finished him. “Buster Bear” named after our friends son who had just died from MS. A winter of trying to keep the needles out of the carpet. Don't walk around barefoot in your house when you work with pine needles. I had carved his nose from wood and his claws and eyes from antler. Before I tried the Big Bear, I did another small cub standing. It went a little quicker than my first bear… knowing what not to do now.
Then it was finally time for the Big Bear. I told myself if I'm working on this until the day I die, so be it. Eight months later I finished it in time for a show in Missoula, Montana. April found the show in the newspaper up there when she was going though her Chemo. The show was called “The Great Bear Honoring” perfect! We made the show and the bear was blessed by an Indian Chief. I titled my bear “Mountain Magic ~ A New Life.” The Indian Chief told me that many Indian tribes believed the bear to be a symbol of new life. Emerging in the Spring when everything comes back to life. Well... “That's All Folks!” Thanks for letting me tell my story. Rich ~ {my website} ~ {my e-mail}