Discovering ANTIQUES

Arms Show Continued from page 20.The first prize booth for 2008 was a display about theAlberta 19th Dragoons and even its operators were infull dress uniform. The table chronicled a century ofsaddles and tack with one hundred percent accuracyand it took months of work on the part of leatherworkerand contractor Scott Seymour. The 19th Dragoons hadover a century of history recorded and remembered here,assembled through the efforts of Mike King and ShawnMcFadden. The display even had the original tunic wornby Major General Griesbach in the Boer War, and he wenton to have a barracks in Edmonton named after him.King is a Corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces andhas done two tours in Afghanistan. He said that the 19thDragoons are important to him because the unit wasbased in Edmonton and he feels there is no one else torecord their history.The Alberta Hunter Educations Instructors Association(AHEIA) had a large setup at the far end of the hall. Theyerected a virtual hunting range using projections andlaser rifles. Children could line up to target animatedpheasants while their parents were able to take a breakin the small rest area. And they need it. The entireRoundup Centre was filled with row upon row of tablesand displays.Hendrick Vrey travelled all the way from Nambia to bein the Centre. He’d come to display and sell his art madethrough pyrography (the process of burning designs onwood, leather, etc. with a heated tool). Vrey sketches oncured leather with soldering irons, a modern incarnationof his childhood hobby. He grew up on the veld, thelarge rural expanse of South Africa, travelling with hisfamily of eight. In 1967, Vrey would heat bits of wire ina campfire and use them to score drawings into applebox planks.His original plan was to become an architect, but afterfour years of schooling the written examination waschanged to an oral one. This stopped Vrey in his tracksbecause of his speech impediment and he was advisednot to continue. “Embittered and heart-broken, Ireturned to the veld [and] studied” he said; “I became akeen observer of nature and everything around me.”That eye for accuracy was immediately apparent inhis sketches. Vrey can take any photograph he is givenand recreate it stroke for stroke on tanned leather. Herediscovered the art of pyrography and began sellinghis creations door to door. Since those desperate timeshis art has grown exponentially to earn him worldwiderecognition and he is credited as the founding father of...continued on page 2422 • Discovering ANTIQUES