Duane MacEwen carved the Nativity set that is featured in the Prayer Bench Small Group Study and the Advent Email Retreat. Here is his biography.Â
I was born and raised on PEI and began carving around 1998. I have been competing in the ‘Open’ or Expert class in the Atlantic Canada area for about 10 years and fortunate enough to have won a number of ‘Best of Show’ and ‘Open’ class awards over the years.
There are many types of carving styles. Producing a carving can be very intricate or plain and take as little as a few hours or hundreds of hours. Competition pieces can easily consume 100 hours of carving time and an equal amount of time to paint the piece.
Competition bird carvings must be completely hand made including the feet, legs and mount.
I worked 30 years as a computer programmer analyst and found carving a great stress reliever. I can empty my mind and lose myself in a carving.
I always marvelled at the fact that I can reproduce an animal or bird to a great degree of minute and accurate detail but I cannot breathe life into them, only God can do that.
I love watching the reaction of people when they first see a good bird carving and state “it looks like it can fly away.”
God has blessed us with many talents.
