Beautiful piece of wood!
You are lucky guys to have such neighbours...
With all of the beautiful wood work I have seen in European museums, I would have expected the traditional crafts to be well represented in both supplies and crafters. European countries seem to do a pretty good job of forest management, so I would once again have expected good availability of beautiful wood for crafting.
Eric,
You're touching on a matter who hurts...
Shortly for first I don't want to infest this thread with off topic matters and secondly I'm just coming back from the surgery (carpal tunnel release surgery).
Of course, even if a lot of crafts aren't what they used to be in the past, we still have a plethora of suppliers and crafters. Well, as far as the seconds are concerned, a lot of them aren't professionals anymore, but like a lot of us exerting their craft as a passion. As for the suppliers, they still exist but more and more reselling DIY stuff. In sum, IMHO what is generally missing is entrepreneurialism, serious professionalism and inventive spirit. All of the virtues I find in the US and also in such European countries like the UK. To say the least, when I want to buy some burls here, I have not a lot of choices. As for the prices...
If you or other colleagues are interested, I could initiate a thread in the "Casual conversation" entity in order to discuss the problems we encounter here with the European suppliers (wood, pen and woodturning project kits, etc.).