Happy Holidays 2011

It's been a roller coaster year! Christmas sales have been pretty good and we thank all of our wonderful customers for that. There some lucky carvers out there and Santa was thinking about you.

Stay tuned for the new year as we have some new products and accessories coming out.

We will be at the Coastal Carvers Show in Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast the second weekend in January.

And special thanks to Shawn Cipa for the nice article in the Winter 2011 Woodcarving Illustrated.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Solctice - however and whatever you and your family clebrate - we wish you all the best from GRIP-ALL JAWS!

An Astoria Suprise

My wife and I were wandering the wilds of downtown Astoria, Oregon on the 3rd of December. The old Lovell Auto Dealership has been turned into a local artist's market in the showroom and the shop area is now the Fort George Brewery... but I digress.

We went down a block and strolled Commercial Street which was alive with folks a-shopping and strolling. We chanced upon the RiverSea Gallery - it's right on the main drag. This shot was later in the evening with the lights on.

The RiverSea has always been a world-class gallery in a beautiful old building but what did we notice but a display of the exciting works of  carver and Grip-All Jaws user Rob Artman.

This is the piece by the door that caught my eye.



...And another fine mask. That machine on the floor is a programmable, self-propelled, ion powered, reticulating...oh, I have no idea what the heck it is. But it was really cool and I liked it!

The style is called "Steampunk" and it puts old things to new use.

You may have seen this Asian-looking mask before if you are regular visitor to the blog and it's still stunning in person.

It was wonderful to see Rob's pieces in that beautiful, up-scale setting. And if you are in Astoria, stop and see the RiverSea.