Thank you so much for your vote of confidence.
While I'm trying to convince most of the carvers not to vote for established names or myself in the carvers choice contest, I do hope for a good placing in the public vote.
Carvers choice carries a two week trip to china and to be trained by some established master carvers for that duration. I'm trying to get a consensus between us, that we should be voting for the artist that can benefit from that prize the most, instead just creating publicity for an established carver. Luckily, the organizers and nearly a third of the entrants have already publicly agreed. Heck, I could use the training, but I'm sure that I will remain a hobbyist, and strongly belief that any votes coming my way for that prize, would serve much better for someone who struggles to turn this into making a living.
its been an incredibly pleasant experience thus far and was able to talk to people that i always admired. Most of them turned out extremely friendly folks and very down to earth, and made new friends that are up and coming in a strong and fearless way.
Again thank you for the votes. As we cant see who is in the lead until publicly declared its still a long wait, but I'm reasonably confident in looking forward to reach my goal of top 5 in my category.
