The Santa Who Crafts Wooden Angels
Clarrie Glass belongs to a guild I discovered by accident
and joined, in which I, at 48, am a baby, youngster. Yes, there are a few much
younger than I, but mostly the most active members are the older ones. This
group has so many skilled, kindly, giving, sharing people that I have
benefitted from, I cannot be thankful enough. There are so many here to meet
and know. Let me introduce you to Santa and his helpers!
Max and Santa Clarrie
Many places in the world claim to have
Santa living amongst them. I once even lived north of a place called North Pole
in Alaska which has some claim to be the bearded Saint’s real home. But I can
tell you, we have one right here. He is an ex-navy man for whom Santa can play
the double after he goes through military training boot camp. No, he does not
have an outrageous paunch. This Santa is fit. He is of Scottish descent and a
fraction Aboriginal, so he can actually make boomerangs. He will tell you in a
soft booming voice that he was trained to kill, and you cannot believe he would
want to hurt a fly. There is a twinkle to his eyes and one can easily feel
there is something spiritual, not religious about him. He once showed me a poem
about his hero, a person who wanted to be on a list of persons who loved their
fellow men and ended up on the top of the list of men who loved God. This is Santa living under the name of
Clarrie Glass.
Mrs Santa (Dorothy) does wood work too - great
pyrography, miniatures, painting in wood and is kindness itself in human form.
Ever with a smile and ever ready to help, they work together as well.
He lives on one side of the Maroondah
Highway in Taggerty, with a great view of the Cathedral Mountain on one side
and the Black Range on the other. He lost some good friends in the big
bushfires of 2009 that are well known around the world. Clarrie’s son was fighting the fires and
Clarrie managed to escape with his life leaving his home behind. His property burned out partly, revealing
some miracles. A higher power made sure Clarrie’s huge workshop with wonders of
wood survived despite being surrounded by one of the hottest fires in history.
Many of the buildings that escaped burning seem miracles. To me it seems
obvious, God reckoned it would be too much trouble to get someone else make
another huge double nested ball bearing out of wood if the one Clarrie made
burned down. And he made sure Clarrie’s house survived so he could return soon.
Clarrie had some other miracles happen
around him - he fell back onto a trailer or something, knocked himself out and
hurt his shoulder bad and almost, no - actually died and came back to life. I believe he had a communication with God –
his time was not up yet and he was sent back to make two hundred of those
wonderful wooden angels Clarrie and his helpers donate as a gift to speakers at
a local forum. I have one of those precious angels he gave me, to give my own
precious little angel, my daughter for her birthday. He would not accept money
for it and asked me to just pass it forward, if I want to give something in
return.
I love to see Clarrie make his angels, but
I have to tell him this – “Clarrie, please take a long, long break after you
make the 199th angel! And work on the 200th one real, real slow…” He makes
beautiful pens and other articles and has some for sale, BUT, you better not
ask him for any angels, he will make them if you ask and I don’t want him to
make more than absolutely necessary as he sees them!!
I once mentioned to Clarrie, I had a piece
of snakewood, the hardest wood in the world, and immediately he says, you know
you’ve got to drill it in little steps and pull out the drill, not
continuously, to let the heat dissipate, else it will explode or ruin the
wood. He is a great teacher and has a
thousand tips ever ready.
His workshop is a treat to visit and is
home to many lucky pieces of wood.
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