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International effort yields WWII Plaque
By Margaret Cawood

It was late afternoon of May 24, 1944. World War II was raging. The crew of a badly damaged B-17 was attempting to get their craft back to base at Deenethorpe, England ( 401st Bomb Group, 615th Squadron). They'd been on a bombing raid to Berlin, Germany, and had been badly shot up by flak. The men knew their aircraft would never make it to England, so they veered to the north in an effort to reach neutral Sweden and avoid capture by the Germans.

As they crossed the Danish coast, they realized the plane would not take them the additional 20 miles to Sweden, so the pilot turned the craft and crash landed on the Sose Farm on the Danish Island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

All aboard survived the landing and several local people cared for the crew. When the men were all able to travel, the Danes helped them escape across the sea to Sweden. The crew was later flown back to England, and they all returned to the States in July 1944.

I met Danish author Erik Dyreborg via the Internet through a man in New Jersey who had been a German POW during WWII. Erik researches and writes about American airmen in the European Theater of Operations during WWII. I ended up helping Erik with the grammar in his book The Young Ones as well as writing the Foreword for that book. It's a book of Oral Histories mostly of men who were German POWs.

Erik asked me to make the plaque that would be placed on the farm where the plane crash landed. He wanted the Plaque by May 2004. It's a memorial to the crew and to the Danes who aided their escape from Bornholm.

It seemed like a worthy cause and I was willing to do the project. But I could not do it by myself.

So I asked a friend in our local carving club, The Rio Grande Valley Woodcarvers, to help me. Doug Johnston comes to Texas during the winter months from Manitoba, Canada. The park in which he spends these months is equipped with an excellent wood shop. So I asked Doug to do the machining on a piece of basswood for me. Which he did.

So I had a nicely machined piece of wood, but now I needed some way to get printing done on it. I'm not a chip carver, so that was out. But Richard Withers, an artist and pyrographer from Corris Uchaf, Wales, has spent time the last two winters in our home. He takes part in our January Show and teaches pyrography at Rally on the Rio in Mercedes. Yes! Here we go.

I asked Richard if he'd do the calligraphy/pyrography of the material Erik wanted on the Plaque and he agreed. It took him a day and a half-it wasn't a quick job. Another problem was that Richard was here for only three weeks at the time of year that I am the busiest with carving. So I'd have to trust in the Fates for my successful carving of a very shallow relief of a view of a B-17 at the top of the plaque.

I'd never done relief carving that shallow, so I asked Fred Stenman if he'd give me some direction on that. He did. Thank you Fred. Then a paint job and the sealing and the plaque was completed.

I delivered the Plaque to Erik in Copenhagen, Denmark, when my sister and I arrived there in mid May 2004. The Plaque was duly installed in a well protected location on the Sose Farm on Bornholm a few days later in a nice little ceremony attended by some of the people who had helped that plane crew so many years ago.

It is unusual that people from such separate places just happened to be together down here in South Texas at just the right time to make production of this little Plaque possible. Not one of us could have done it alone, but together, I think we came up with something we're all proud of.

Chain saw carving
By Toby Craft

It all started after I purchased a book by Robert L. Buyers of Humpback Whale Cow & Calf. And I just had to get started carving one out of butternut wood and it turned out beautiful.

Being a chain saw carver as soon as I got back to Alaska I had to try one out of Sitka Spruce, not that is the wood of choice but the wood available in our area.

The mother is eight feet long and is done in 3 pieces because of the size of the log, but is worked out quite well, the tubercles was accomplished by drilling holes and inserting rounded pieces of dowel rod into the holes I used the same procedure for the calf.

In order to remove some of the wood in certain areas I used a three tooth carving blade from arbortech it is mounted in an angle grinder, but the majority of the wood was done with a chain saw. It was sanded with 36 grit sanding disc mounted on and angle grinder, the base id a large section of spruce that I carved seaweed, starfish, and bulb kelp and a scallop. The finish is log oil. I chose not to paint it as I the natural wood color enhance the mammoth size carving

Before the finish was dry It was purchased to be displayed at a New Lodge being built in Seldovia Alaska.

Rally:

The new booklets will be mailed in August we have many fine artists coming to teach at the Rally Make your plans now and sign up for your class of choice soon.

Many of the instructors come a long way and must have a minimum of student in order to pay for the trip down, so if you are interested in a class Please sign up so we will be able to give the instructor a tally on the number of students. He will be having by Dec I 2004 so they have time to order supplies, and plan their trip.

Many of you waited until Jan to sign up and were disappointed to find out the instructor cancelled.

Have a Wonderful summer and we will All Meet again in October

Elaine Craft

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