Several years ago we made a trip to Germany. I had been there before in 2000, but the second time my wife and I, along with some friends, made it more of a road trip.
The biggest highlight for me was a meal in the small town of Kippenheimweiller with some ancestors on my mom's side. I am a bird nut, so I gave the family a watercolor of a European Jay as a gift. The people and town were amazing, charming all the way around. (Later I painted the home as a Christmas gift to my more immediate family.)
What I came home with, however, was an unabashed love for German Woodcarving. From the cuckoo clocks to the architecture and altarpieces, Germany is home to some of the finest and most picturesque woodworking.
One small shop carried hundreds of Christmas Nutcrackers, and collections of wooden incense burners in the forms of people, or "smokers".
These have a rich history, dating back to the 1800s where woodworkers lathed these statues in the winter months specifically in the Eastern mountains of the country...
So I spent my own winter months creating my own. These three characters are a birdwatcher (naturally), a chef, and a golfer. I still love my smokers, both the ones I made and the ones we brought back from Deutschland.
(And speaking of Wood Work, how'd you like to be the poor Friar who affixed the cross atop this Alpine cliff...)
Images © Tim McCabe
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