A busy few weeks ....

Phew! It's been a busy few weeks what with one thing and another, busier than I've been for awhile.  A few concerts with my choir, the London Welsh Male Voice Choir in different parts of the country and working on a couple of wood carvings that others have asked me to do - take a look at my latest creations on my carving galleries!  I'm particularly pleased with my relief carving of a Welsh Dragon - Y Ddraig Goch (Red Dragon in Welsh) - mounted on an oak board.  It's one of the best things I've ever carved although I did frighten myself  quite badly by slicing through my thumb with a very sharp chisel whilst carving it.  Accidents do happen and there was rather a lot of blood, not enough to take me to hospital but it served as a good reminder for me to wear my carving gloves in future to protect my fingers and hands!  Other carvers beware!
The carving though reflects my increasing passion for Wales and all things Welsh and like the daffodils of a previous post, generates that ever present sense of hiraeth!  I'm not sure yet whether I want to sell it

I'm also pleased with a bowl and spoon hand carved from a single piece of oak.  I've called it "Who's been eating my porridge?" because it reminds me of the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.  Now all I need is 2 more bowls and 2 more spoons for Mummy Bear and Baby Bear.  Spike says "what about one for me?"

For those of you who know him, you will be pleased to know that he is never very far from my side.  He sends his love and best wishes to you all!  Time for a break, I think ...

Forever Spring ...

I love carving daffodils.  For me, they serve as a continual reminder of the beginning of Spring and a time to begin anew!  As the national flower of Wales, they also remind me of those dearest to me and generate that sense of hiraeth (longing) for Wales and home.

My daffodils are generally carved in Limewood and can stand alone or be set in small rosebud vases.  The nature of the carving makes them unique and no two are the same!

More carvings on my website if you're interested

Spoons ...

Spoons have a long history as basic eating utensils. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of creating spoons for others to use and appreciate.

My latest work!

Love Spoon for a fisherman in Lime. 

Zoom in for a view of the fly in the net and the line on the reel.  More examples of my work on my website

The webpage of woodcarver David Ware

My latest woodcarvings

New home for our caravan

Arrived today at the new home for our caravan at Llwyn yr Helm, Brith Dir, near Dolgellau in the North Wales mountains. Beautiful setting in the heart of Wales. Tiring journey and sorting out of various bits and pieces in and around van but well worth it. Photos to follow on my photo blog. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Manipulating Digital Images

It’s taken me awhile to post this item on my blog for reasons which I hope will become apparent to readers.

On Friday morning, 30 September 2011 on Daybreak, the early morning ITV news magazine, I listened to a news item about the influence of digital images on young people.  The news item reported the emphasis being placed by Government on the need to educate children in schools about the uses made of air brushing and other digital tools to enhance and manipulate images of celebrities.  The report showed a teacher discussing with a class of young children, “before and after” images of Brittany Spears in a bikini.   I was immediately struck by two thoughts:

Firstly - it’s about time!  Have those in power only just realised the impact of this kind of thing on the learning of children and, lets be honest, many adults too?  Its not new and, no doubt, has been going on since the advent of print media.  In and of itself, manipulating and changing images is not a problem.  There are, for example, lots of perfectly valid reasons for changing images; and we all want photographs to show us at our best don’t we?  Brittany Spears is no exception!  What matters though, is whether viewers are aware that images can be changed, and know of the use to which the changed images are being put.  This is particularly important when the purpose is to influence opinion, attitude or behaviour, hide the truth or misrepresent people or events.  Maybe its time for images such as those that appear in the glossy magazines to come with warning labels, just like we do with food!

Secondly - I felt justified in the programme of teaching I began more than 5 years ago with pupils in a special school to deal with issues of reliability and validity when using the Internet and other media.  I used before and after images of celebrities to develop pupils awareness and understanding of ways in which they can be manipulated or mislead and their skills in using computer software to change images in a variety of ways.  I felt this was especially important given the increasing importance of multimedia computers and other digital devices in pupils present and future lives.  The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the work and I was congratulated by a number of teachers within my own and other schools for the innovative work I was doing.  Brilliant? Well … not entirely!  As teachers, we can never assume that others will place the same value on our work as we do.  Despite my success with this work, I was threatened by my employers with disciplinary action for using inappropriate images with pupils.  The two images specified in the threat were those I reproduce here.  Both had appeared on the Internet and in well known magazines at the time and one was similar to those images of Brittany Spears used in the news item on Daybreak. 
 

The threat was eventually withdrawn but not before I experienced significant stress and anxiety about my future and status as a teacher.  It was this that was a significant factor in my decision in 2010 to resign from the job I loved doing and the kids I loved teaching. 

Readers will understand that the news item on Daybreak brought back many unhappy memories of that time.  I worry for the poor teacher in the news item on Daybreak and others developing similar kinds of programmes with pupils and hope they have better informed managers.