Sonny Carpenter Carvings

I don't know anything about nickle carving, but do spot a beret when there's one in sight! Below the text of Vern Walraven on Sonny Carpenter's carvings:

"Like virtually all new nickel carvers he either started out on "no date"/"no horn" buffalo nickels or he decided to blow the date away. He also did the same thing to the LIBERTY legend. I don't hold this against beginning nickel carvers because everybody has to start somewhere. Occasionally the subject being carved simply doesn't leave room for the LIBERTY but generally most of us collectors prefer the final carving to look as much like a "real nickel" as possible. 
   Sonny apparently did one good thing right from the "get-go"... probably from having observed Ron carving nickels. He signed (hallmarked), dated and numbered his carvings! He also signed the coin holder in most cases which is a great addition to the carving in my eyes. 

The small "Sun-E" hallmark was both a surprise and a pleasure to discover on these TTcarvings. You need to turn the hallmark on its side to see the "Sun-E". Additionally, I found this to be a really clever hallmark... "Sun-E"<>"Sonny"!"

Australian Milliner Wendy Mead

Wendy Mead learnt to make exquisite hats to the standards of a Paris long gone. But, racegoers (the Melbourne Cup) now seem less willing to pay for quality.

``I'm fastidious" she says of her work. ``This is the way I learnt: that an eighth of an inch to the right can make the difference." (And, when she tips a short-brimmed pot style over her own right eye, you know what she means.) ``It's the subtlety. It's an art. You've got it, or you don't . . ."

Her oversized parabuntal straw beret (2009) is not so subtle, but definitely very impressive. 

Juozapas Jakštas' Carved Crosses

Juozapas Jakštas (1940) is a Lithuanian folk sculptor and public figure. Jakštas was one of the first in Lithuania to pick up the old tradition of carving crucifixes, when still under the Soviet communist rule. 

He has created more than 200 wooden sculptures, tombstones, bas-reliefs for on altars and decorative carvings, full of Christian and traditional Lithuanian symbolism.

Winemaker Michael Glover

A couple of weeks ago I met Nelson winemaker Michael Glover in real life, after a few years of intensive correspondence about berets (among other things). 

Michael's career in wine started at age 15, with the planting of the first grapes of the family vinyard in the Moutere Hills of Nelson. 
Since then, Michael has experienced wine-making across Europe and Australia; the last 10 years as Australian icon Bannockburn's winemaker. 

Since early this year, Michael is back in Upper Moutere, winemaker at Mahana Vineyards, as well as making his own Mammoth pinot noirs. 

Michael is dedicated to organics and brings winemaking back to basics; experimenting with whole bunch winemaking and not adding enzymes, yeasts, colour, or tannin additives. Neither does he use fining agents like isinglass (fish guts), egg whites, skim milk or PVPP - all he adds is a friendly amount of sulfur, just as the monks of Burgundy, and the Romans before them, did.

A true boinero in every sense of the word, Michael doesn't go far without a beret; be it an Auloronesa, Super Lujo or one of the many models, colours and sizes from his collection. Discussing politics, he says "I do know that wearing a beret somehow helps. I regard it as a kind of reality shield" and it's a metaphor I not only really like, but recognize very much too: my own personal protection against the world. 

On the wall in the vineyards lab: Ché wearing a Mahanoir, next to an aerial photo of Upper Moutere. 

Refugees

Before becoming a bonetaire, I worked for years in medical emergency aid and for the Dutch Refugee Council. These days, with 100.000's on the run, I find it hard to believe the work I'm doing now is only slightly as useful as I did then; what's the point of selling berets (cars, clothes, books, wine, whatever) when others are only trying to remain alive (and keep their children alive)?

Colleague and friend Peter in Bosnia 1994

It is very easy to get depressed by what we witness these days. 

UN observers Syria

And while Germany takes refugees in by the 100.000's, countries in the region like Turkey and Lebanon are overwhelmed by mind boggling numbers, our (NZ) prime minister, son of a refugee himself, just announced the country will take in an extra 600 Syrian refugees over the next few years, on top of our yearly quota of 750... "We don't want to stretch the system any further". 

It is embarrassing... Good to know that part of SPB's proceeds goes to organisations like ChangeMakers and Refugee Trauma Recovery. 

Meanwhile, I can only hope that we don't dress up as Syrian refugees at parties in a few years time, like a girl's WWII refugee outfit with beret available on Amazon. 

Albert Fié - Résistance #4

20 The Resistance posts its allegiance to Liberté.

21 Decoration of resistants during the parade of July 14, 1944 in Die.

22 Popular Ball 14, 1944

23 Under German fire, the Resistance folds.

24 Two resistants are being arrested by the Germans.

25 On August 21, 1944, the Pons company attacks a convoy in the hamlet of Fiancey, in the commune of Livron-sur-Drôme.

26 After the liberation in Valence-sur-Drôme, the resistants celebrate their victory in a café.

Albert Fié - Résistance #3

13 The resistants recover potatoes and return them to their camp.

14 One resists as one can...

15 One of the most famous and spectacular episodes of the Resistance.

16 A radio emits a Resistance message towards London or Algiers.

17 Resistants setting explosives to destroy a railway and blow up trains.

18 The distribution of arms allows the Resistance army to appear in broad daylight.

19 June 6, 1944, the Germans attack Crest.

Albert Fié - Résistance #2

7 A group of young people embarks on a train bound for a German worksite in France.

8 A German soldier and a member of the Gestapo arrest Jews.

9 A man charging the fuel tank of a "gasifier".

10 Resisters are having lunch after a patrol.

11 A resistant surveying the national route 93, which constitutes the axis of penetration in Diois.

12 Installing the Pons company at col de Grand Chêne.

Albert Fié - Résistance #1

Gifted with talent as a draftsman, painter, and caricaturist, Albert Fié, a resistant in Drôme, painted, after the Liberation, a number of gouaches depicting the Resistance, especially of the Pons company. With the precision of line, grand realism of the scenes represented, the artist shares the strength of his Resistance and that of his comrades.
Beautiful paintings with lots of detail; the longer I look, the more I see. And among what I see: many berets!
Over the next few days, the whole series on The Beret Project.

1 The general mobilisation was declared in France on September 3, 1939

2 People waving in front of the poster of Philippe Pétain, "champion" of the National Revolution

3 French checkpoint to pass the demarcation line.

4 En route to passing the demarcation line.

5 Taking advantage of the night, a group of outlaws crossed the line.

6 Anxious passengers at the control check.

Avril Lavigne

Avril Ramona Lavigne (1984) is a Canadian-French singer and songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, and spent most of her youth in the town of Greater Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million. In 2002, when she was 17 years old, Lavigne entered the music industry with her debut album Let Go, becoming one of the most popular pop punk artists, a reason she earned her reputation of a "skater punk" persona and "pop punk princess". 

Since her professional debut she has sold more than 30 million albums and over 50 million singles worldwide.

The Phoney War

The Phoney War was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the United Kingdom and France (the Western Allies) against the German Reich on Germany's Western Front. 

Even though Poland was overrun in about five weeks in the German Invasion of Poland, which commenced on 1st September 1939, the Western Allies did nothing - this was the start of the Phoney War (at least as far as the United Kingdom and France were concerned). 

This non-active phase of the war covered the months following Britain's and France's declaration of war on Germany on 3rd Sept, 1939, (two days after the Invasion of Poland), and continued up until the German Blitzkrieg into the Low Countries and the Battle of France in May 1940. 

War had been declared by each side, but no Western power committed to launching a significant land offensive, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish and Franco-Polish military alliances which obliged the United Kingdom and France to assist Poland.

November 1939: Members of the British Expeditionary Force and the French Air Force in front of a shack called "Downing Street 10 "(the address of the Prime Minister).