This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.
My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.
To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/
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Today’s Blog Post
Living the Dream
The dream way back was to start a Carving Business. That was in my pre-retirement time. I had dreamed about it over and over again. “How could it ever happen?” – was a huge question that went round and round in my head.
Then 2008 came around and we did the layoff at the church to help save money… and POOF… retirement happened. My 36 years or so of working with people in the church was over in a heart beat… and I was out of it. Kaboom!
There were lots of feelings and emotions swirling around inside. I wanted retirement but had no idea how it would work out. Old Ministers are not really employable… they are kind of … well…. OLD!
In our area of Canada there are also many OLD MINISTERS… that all are in the same boat… not only are they OLD but they also still think they can preach… or do the Pastoral Thing around a church somewhere… but will only be given the opportunity if they are really OLD THINKING and will work with REALLY OLD THINKING PEOPLE. The friends of mine that are doing ministry to OLD PEOPLE attend a lot of funerals… and do even more.
So when the one dream and work place was flailing and failing… how could another one possibly start… or even exist?
In 2008 Misty Hollow Carving developed and became a reality. With the help of my Government, both the Ontario and Canadian Government, it came alive. (That I have written much about already.)
As Misty Hollow became a reality… at least the carving portion of it did… another thought was brewing. What would happen if I could take people to the place of Misty Hollow? What if I told the story that has been brewing inside of me and just waiting to get out? What if they could all see Misty Hollow?
There were many questions about how this could happen. Maybe I should write a book and introduce people to Misty Hollow by way of words and some illustrations. Hmmm? Maybe there is another way?
I began carving the Misty Hollow buildings. All the houses and the churches and the town hall and even the toilet. I also drew these on the sides of boxes and rolling pins as I developed the idea…. Then I carved some on the end of a Split Rail Fence…
Misty Hollow is real for me… in my mind that is…
One day my friends Ted and Helen came to my display table at the Mall – and for some reason stopped to look what I had out that day. I think it was some of the drawings that I had done of the Misty Hollow houses and the carvings of the buildings that brought about the next turn of events.
Ted asked many questions… and then started to suggest that I might do well drawing these as sketches… and he would show some people and maybe they would buy them as part of the Rubber Stamp industry. We talked about many things that made no sense to me at all.
I am a Wood Carver and an artist. I do portraits of people and animals. I do something like Fine Art – not Rubber Stamps. But I had no idea at all… absolutely no idea what was about to happen.
Ted gave me a drawing pad… and some fine tipped drawing tools… and asked if I could try to put some of what I see in my head down on paper.
I did and the rest is now a very long story… that is growing day by day with possibility and opportunity. On Wednesday we talked of how big this really could get. I heard one figure as an example… are you ready for this? It is possible to make a mere few thousand on the first run or so. Now that sounds crazy… but maybe just $5000 or maybe $10,000 or whatever.
Ted told me of another small business just like their business that was recently taken over and bought out by one of the humongous corporations for a mere Million and a Half – or it could be a double that. No one really knows. The small business still does the same things they were doing but have a whole lot more money… and so do the artists working with them… where the ideas all come from.
This past Wednesday I delivered 20 more drawings… and Ted asked if the rest of the book could be filled up by the end of the month… with a big grin on his face.
Oh boy Misty Hollow is now coming alive and many hundreds of people have already viewed the first draft.
Now we are talking about my other dream of writing the story about Misty Hollow.
Now we are talking about the next phase that may involve patterns for Pyrographers and Wood Carvers from around the world. At this point there are about 10,000 of these folk coming each month to the Web Site of Misty Hollow Carving ( www.murraylincoln.com the one that sponsors this Blog… and that would be the other part of me).
But then there is another part of me showing up as well. A young Catholic Priest came to see me in the Misty Hollow Carving shop yesterday. He is here from Argentina. He found my Web Site and then came looking for me. I now have a new task to carve an “Evangeliary” which will be used in the Mass at a beautiful church in our area.
I didn’t know what an Evangeliary was – but now I have started carving one.
Did you know that there is no one in my world that is carving Evangeliaryies? Did you know that there are no carvers of religious artefacts and relics… in this country or area? That is what my new friend told me.
I have no idea what is around the next corner. Neither did Moses.
But there is still more… sorry this Blog Post is already way too long. Gotta run and get some work done on my new Evangeliary…
(But because you have read this far and you may want to know just a little bit more… below you will see one of the first cards that has been produced using my Misty Hollow sketches…)
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Here is what another artist did with my drawing... it blew me away to say the least!!!
The completed card
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